{"id":"11","title":"Jessica Swank: Muscle Memory","starts_at":"2025-08-01 17:00:00","ends_at":"2025-08-29 17:00:00","body":"<p>ARC Gallery is an internationally recognized exhibition space that has been an integral part of the Chicago art scene since its inception in 1973. Founded during the women’s movement as an alternative to the mainstream gallery system, ARC is one of the longest running art spaces of its kind in the country. As a non-profit, woman artist-run cooperative, ARC continues its feminist tradition by providing exhibition opportunities for professional and emerging artists working in all media based on excellence of artwork, without discrimination toward ethnicity, race, gender, age, class, religious, sexual or political orientation.</p><p><br></p><p>Image: ARC Gallery, 2022.&nbsp;Image by Nathan Keay</p>","type":"EventCategory","state":"published","slug":"exhibitions","created_at":"2018-10-22 18:54:41.176231","updated_at":"2018-10-22 18:54:41.176231","excerpt":"","is_timeless":true,"organization_id":581,"highlighted":false,"opening_starts_at":"2025-08-01 17:00:00","opening_ends_at":"2025-08-01 20:00:00","searchable":"'-29':22B '-8':16B '..':74B '1':13B,21B '2025':14B,23B '5':15B 'act':92B 'action':79B 'age':73B 'approach':165B 'artifici':142B 'ask':130B 'athena':5B 'august':12B,20B 'autom':43B 'base':164B 'be':100B 'becom':66B 'biolog':47B 'bodi':36B,57B,64B,180B 'complex':195B 'conscious':69B 'consid':114B 'conveni':141B 'creat':86B 'date':19B 'detach':58B,67B 'digit':72B 'direct':111B 'disconnect':177B 'driven':147B 'effici':192B 'embed':117B 'exhibit':7B,18B 'explor':61B 'extens':53B 'friday':11B 'fund':6B 'grow':176B 'hand':160B 'hands-on':159B 'human':99B,136B,194B 'idea':97B 'ideal':48B 'increas':40B 'intellig':143B 'jessica':1A 'labor':33B,84B,116B 'live':154B 'lose':188B 'machin':105B 'make':120B 'materi':171B 'may':65B 'mean':133B 'medit':28B 'memori':4A,25B,129B 'mind':183B 'movement':169B 'muscl':3A,24B,128B 'open':9B 'perform':112B,127B 'pm':17B 'post':46B 'post-biolog':45B 'process':77B,163B 'process-bas':162B 'quiet':126B 'rapid':150B 'recept':10B 'reduc':103B 'reflect':173B 'repetit':76B,168B 'repres':51B 'reshap':151B 'resist':94B 'risk':187B 'root':166B 'seri':50B 'shape':41B 'signific':31B 'swank':2A 'system':148B 'tech':146B 'tech-driven':145B 'think':81B,156B 'time':39B,139B 'valu':191B 'winner':8B 'work':88B,108B,123B","thumbnail":"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1734539300/gbbl0yldwjznzngwiehm.png","calendar":null,"carousel":false,"event_body":"<p><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https://www.arcgallery.org/exhibitions-archive/jessica-swank\" target=\"_blank\"><em>ATHENA FUND EXHIBITION WINNER</em></a></p><p><br></p><p>Opening Reception: Friday, August 1, 2025, 5-8pm</p><p>Exhibition dates: August 1-29, 2025</p><p><br></p><p>Muscle Memory is a meditation on the significance of labor and the body in a time increasingly shaped by automation and post-biological ideals. This series represents an extension of my own body detached from myself, exploring how the body may become detached from consciousness in the digital age.. Through repetitive processes and actions, I think of my labor in creating this work as itself an act of resistance against the idea that human beings can be reduced to machines. While the work is not directly performative, I consider the labor embedded in the making of these works as a quiet performance.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>\"Muscle Memory\" asks what it means to be human in a time when convenience, artificial intelligence, and tech-driven systems are rapidly reshaping how we live and think. Through a hands-on, process-based approach rooted in repetition, movement, and materiality, I reflect on the growing disconnect between the body and the mind—and what we risk losing when we value efficiency over human complexity.</p><p><br></p>","name":"Exhibitions","organization_type_id":"1","district_id":"2","telephone":"+13128775760","website":"http://www.arcgallery.org","email":"info@arcgallery.org","hours":"Th & Fr 2–6pm; Sa & Su 12–4pm","location":"1463 W. Chicago Ave. \r\nChicago, IL 60642","display_location":"1463 W. Chicago Ave. \r\nChicago, IL 60642","latitude":"41.895947","longitude":"-87.664860","contact":"President: Stacey Lee Gee","sub_district_id":"2","promoted_at":"2018-10-26T21:03:46.948Z","optional_sort_name":"","paid":false,"position":2,"category_name":"Exhibitions","orgname":"ARC Gallery","orgslug":"arc-gallery","image":"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1753411648/b1mufi4xkppjmbsqr4ml.jpg"}