March-April Highlights

Laura Letinsky, “Hardly More Than Ever, #80”

The Renaissance Society
Laura Letinsky: “Hardly More Than Ever”
Through Sunday, April 18
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; noon-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
Room 418, Cobb Hall, 5811 S. Ellis Ave. 702-8670. http://www.renaissancesociety.org. Free.
In a society obsessed with plentitude and perfection in the home, Laura Letinsky photographs abandoned tabletops in disarray. The large-scale photographs in her new series, “Hardly More Than Ever,” capture clusters of nibbled and rotting foods, tablecloth stains and wilting flowers, amid vast emptinesses. As a contemporary addition to the Western still life tradition, these photographs comment on the evanescence of material and sensual pleasure. Her “pastel-acidic” palette evokes the simultaneity of youth and decay. In conjunction with the exhibition, poet Sheila Murphy, 2001 recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award, will read her work at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 28, in Room 402, Cobb Hall.

Ensemble Orpheus

International House
39th Annual Eastern European Spring Festival of Folk Music and Dance
Friday, March 19 through Sunday, March 21
International House, 1414 E. 59th St. 753-2274 or 324-1247. http://ihouse.uchicago.edu.
This annual celebration of Eastern European culture will include Balkan music, dance, food and cultural programs throughout the weekend. The festival begins at 8 p.m. Friday, March 19, with a dance workshop and live music. Folk dance and music workshops will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 20, and Sunday, March 21. The festival’s main event will be the Saturday, March 20 dinner, concert and dance party. Starting at 7 p.m., this event includes performances by musicians Ljupco Milenkovski, Macedonian kaval and gajda; Georgi Petrov, Bulgarian kaval; and James Stoyanoff and Ensemble Orpheus, who perform Greek music. Reservations are required for the dinner, which begins at 6 p.m.

Human Rights Program
Panel Discussion: “Guantanamo Between the Lines: Humanitarian Issues“
6 p.m. Wednesday, March 31
Assembly Hall, International House, 1414 E. 59th St. 834-0957. http://humanrights.uchicago.edu/. Free.
This panel will explore the humanitarian issues raised by the detention of “illegal combatants” in Guantanamo Bay. Two panelists—Christophe Girod, International Committee of the Red Cross, and Daryl Matthews, professor at the University of Hawaii and former consultant to the U.S. Army at Guantanamo Bay—have visited the detention centers. Alison Parker, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, will discuss the impact these detentions have had on the human rights community in the United States. Andreas Feldmann, Instructor in the Human Rights Program and post-doctoral fellow, will moderate the discussion.

Robert Irwin, Untitled, 1969

The Smart Museum of Art
“Illuminations” Lecture and Panel
5 p.m. Thursday, April 1
Museum hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
5550 S. Greenwood Ave. 702-0200. http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu. Free.
James Meyer, associate professor of art history at Emory University and author of Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties, will lecture on scale in sculpture from the 1960s to the present, and Darby English, Assistant Professor in Art History, will respond. Following the lecture, arts scholars and professionals will evaluate the legacy of light-based art from the 1960s. Martha Ward, Associate Professor in Art History and the College, will moderate, and participants will include Bill Brown, the George M. Pullman Professor in English Language & Literature and the College, and Stephanie Smith, Smart Museum Curator. The panel will be held in conjunction with the Smart Museum’s exhibition “Illuminations: Sculpting with Light,” which is on display through Sunday, April 4.