Keith Bringe Lovers Discourse Project Rare Nest Gallery Chicago

Keith Bringe Lovers Discourse Installed at Rare Nest Gallery

Keith Bringe Lovers Discourse Project Remembrance

Artist Keith Bringe's project interprets Roland Barthes's A Lover’s Discourse through 80 constructions contained within vintage French wine crates.

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, May 31, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- The Lover’s Discourse Project by Chicago Artist Keith Bringe Interprets Roland Barthes's Linguistic Masterpiece

Roland Barthes’s “Fragments d’un discours amoureux” was published in Paris in 1977 by Editions du Seuil and was translated in an English edition in 1978. The book comprises 80 chapters or “fragments” which explore common concepts in the language of love. In this important semiotic, linguistic analysis, Barthes draws upon references from the worlds of literature, music, painting and philosophy. The author cites Plato, Balzac, Goethe, Racine, Nietzsche, Brecht and many more forming a tapestry of utterances – sublime and brutal – illuminating the human language of love.

Chicago-based artist Keith Bringe conceived of a project that would interpret “A Lover’s Discourse” through 80 constructions – one for each chapter. Each “fragment” is contained within a vintage French wine crate that forms an environment for an assemblage of drawings, paintings, evocative found objects, photographs and more.

Labeled with chapter headings in French and English, the individual fragments form a text of their own through configurations ranging from towers to traditional wall-hung series. The collection is meant to be tailored to the environment in which it is shown. Press can access a selection of images (Google Drive).

Complementary elements include a multi-channel sound piece of readings by community members and a "dark" version which utilizes low-level LED lighting.

Artist’s Statement
“The ‘Lover’s Discourse’ made a lasting impression on me that endured for more than twenty years. Barthes abandoned clichés and clearly integrated his own experience with historical references. These ‘fragments’ contain a seed of the unreal joys and excruciating pain of love. I thought about the ‘Discourse’ for many years. Barthes’ personal history seems parallel with a tradition of the French poets and artists Gide, Cocteau, Rimbaud and Genet. Also, the “green” component of this project is appealing in that the great majority of materials are recycled or reclaimed.”

About the Artist
Keith Bringe
Chicago, 1963. A Chicagoan since birth, Keith Bringe studied art history and museum administration and has worked as an artist and in non-profit administration for over 40 years in the fields of historic preservation, family violence, the arts and HIV/AIDS. From 2008 to 2015, Keith served as Director of the Chicago Art Deco Survey Project which documented, researched and cataloged over 900 area buildings, sites and monuments, 200 artists and 150 manufacturers from the modern period 1915 - 1945. The Art Deco Survey formed the basis of the book “Art Deco Chicago” (2018, City Files / Yale). Previously, from 2002 to 2006, Keith served as Executive Director of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple Restoration Foundation. Bringe is a past board member of the Society of Architectural Historians Chicago Chapter and served as co-president of the Chapter from 2006–2010. Keith consulted on documentary films such as “Louis Sullivan: The Struggle for American Architecture” and “Robert A. M. Stern: Presence of the Past” for WTTW and others. He served as Executive Producer of the feature length documentary “Out of the Box: Ending the Cycle of Incarceration” directed by Zarko Mladenovic (2018, Enlightenment Films). Bringe has lectured for Alliance Francaise, the Coalition of Art Deco Societies at Havana Cuba, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Chicago Art Deco Society, Landmarks Illinois, among others. His architectural photography has been published internationally. In 2002, together with artist Gregory Scott, Keith created Available Space Gallery, an ad hoc (pop-up) exhibition program that worked with the Chicago Association of Realtors to host shows in vacant downtown Chicago locations. In 2017 Bringe founded Rare Nest, a community-based Gallery which represents 10 artists and 3 estates.

Contact keith@rarenestgallery.com or 708-616-8671

Keith Bringe
Rare Nest Gallery Chicago
+1 708-616-8671
email us here
Visit us on social media:
Instagram