"War" is one of the enormous murals Chan and Schatz created after soliciting ideas from the public.
The arresting floor-to-ceiling murals spanning the upstairs gallery walls of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art are the works of artists Eric Chan and Heather Schatz, who create art under the collective name ChanSchatz.
Their exhibit, Eric and Heather ChanSchatz: 22nd Century, runs through May 17.
For the past 15 years, the New York-based artists have facilitated conversations in communities around the world, including with miners in Somerset, Pa., for the coal mining project and protesters in Cairo, Egypt, for "Revolution." They aim to create community dialogue, which then inspires their work.
The couple moved to Madison in July 2014 and have spent the last eight months gathering ideas from Madison residents to create art that ties our city to global concerns. The MMoCA residency is the artists' longest to date.
They distribute "selection sheets" at the museum and in mailed surveys, asking participants questions related to such issues as education, homelessness and the environment. Contributors are also asked to choose among geometric figures, color schemes and words they feel best represent the topic. The artists use the sheets to shape their paintings.
For the MMoCA exhibit, ChanSchatz also expanded seven smaller works into large-scale murals that represent past project themes: war, coal mining, education, millennials, revolution, human trafficking and language. And the result is astonishing. Bold, bright colors and expansive geometric patterns explode from the walls of the gallery, inviting viewers to stand before them with a mix of awe and reverence.
While working on their "Revolution" project in Cairo in 2011, the artists learned about the demonstrations against Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union bill in Madison. "The other projects led to Madison," Chan says, and MMoCA offered the couple an opportunity to deepen their work. The artists say they were "surprised and impressed by the reception of the community."
And the creative process continues. As visitors approach the gallery, rows and rows of white tables line the center of the gallery space, featuring more than 60 selection sheets created for the Madison installation. Visitors are invited to fill them out, and the artists say they expect to create another a painting using this synergistic process.
In addition, ChanSchatz plans to incorporate the selection sheets into a limited-edition Madison: A Cooperative Almanac. Using their unconventional process, the couple hope to capture what matters to people living in U.S. cities today.
