In Stan Chisholm’s ThingsThatNeverReallyHappened,the artwork takes the form of a life-size diorama and operates under the artist’s principle that everything is up for grabs. Chisholm draws from a variety of sources to create a multi-perspective storyline swirling together American history, personal recollections and stories and images spewed from pop culture. Chisholm uses this unconventional narrative to address issues of falsehood, future, fiction, the beauty of ignorance and cold realizations.

ThingsThatNeverReallyHappened features a new series of invented land masses ranging in size from tiny floating islands to large, human-sized environments, all populated by cartoon mascots. Chisholm takes this “fake” imagery and provokes our curiosity by inserting them into the contexts of fine art and daily life. Each environment takes on the perspective of a different narrator to illustrate a memory, an inside joke, an imaginary history or an uncanny experience much like the sensation of déjà vu. The installation playfully encourages the viewer to question the accuracy of perception itself, and to recognize the artful fictions that make up every day experience. For the production of this exhibition Chisholm will be in residence at the Hyde Park Art Center during the month of January. Visitors are invited to drop in and see the project as it develops.

Stan Chisholm (a.k.a. 18andCounting) is an emerging interdisciplinary artist from St. Louis, Missouri who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His collages, drawings, and mixed media installations reveal a growing cast of over 700 characters or mascots that serve as a visual lexicon for the moods, personal attributes or feelings explored in his work. Chisholm’s work has been exhibited at The Hyde Park Art Center, Laumeier Sculpture Park, City Museum (St. Louis), the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, and most recently at Art on Track, a one day exhibition on Chicago’s Loop elevated train, organized by SOLVO.