Exhibitions at UIC Gallery 400 explore immigration, dispossession

Installation view at UIC Gallery 400 of 'Chronicle of a Fall,' by Nadav Assor and Tirtza Even, 2022. Image courtesy UIC Gallery 400. Two exhibitions examining issues of immigration, (dis)location and belonging are on view at Gallery 400 on the University of Illinois Chicago campus through Aug. The exhibits, Nadav Assor's and Tirtza Even's "Chronicle of a Fall” and the group video exhibition "A Species of Theft,” are free and open to the public. "Chronicle of a Fall” is an immersive, feature-length video installation depicting the fragmented, transient experience of a group of immigrants in the U.S. The work deals with a period in which interpersonal relationships, the experience of home, and one-s sense of presence and belonging have all been transformed and fractured by global capital, electronic media and government policy. The exhibit begins with a simple question asked of a group of six immigrant workers, primarily from the Global South and the Middle East: -What is home to you? - Many of the immigrants or immigrant-born subjects of "Chronicle of a Fall,” including the artists themselves, have left one country in which democracy is cast in shadow for the U.S., where democracy is under threat by U.S. citizens enabled by American politics. The work's multiple videos convey the disjointed nature of the immigrant subjects- experiences, providing an intimate and visceral insight into their daily lives and domestic environments.