December-January Highlights

	Malak throb (bridal gown) from Bethlehem, Palestine

Oriental Institute
Embroidering Identities: A Century of Palestinian Clothing
Through Sunday, March 25, 2007
1155 E. 58th St. (773) 702-9507
http://oi.uchicago.edu

A joint project of the Oriental Institute and the Palestine Heritage Center in Bethlehem, this presentation of beautifully detailed regional garments from Palestine explores how clothing helped forge identity in the era before globalization. It also shows the beauty, technical achievement, and tremendous diversity of the garments. In the days before globalization and the homogenization of culture though television and cinema, clothing was an important cultural marker that expressed not only geographic origin but also status. Until recent years, each region of Palestine had its own style of clothing for women characterized by distinctive patterns of embroidery, appliqués, sleeve design and accessories. Although men’s clothing did not express as strong a regional identity, it too showed considerable diversity. The exhibit includes clothing from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jericho, Hebron, Beir Saba’ and Gaza. The materials are drawn from the permanent collection of the Oriental Institute Museum and from the Palestinian Heritage Center in Bethlehem.

	POING

A Renaissance Society Concert
Maja Ratkje and POING
8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12
Bond Chapel, 1025 E. 58th St.

This Renaissance Society sponsored concert will feature Norwegian singer and composer, Maja Ratkje, backed by the Oslo based accordion-saxophone-string bass trio, POING. Maja Ratkje, half of the electronic noise duo Fe-Mail, will be armed with an array of vocal and electronic sounds. POING, featuring Frode Haltli on the accordion, Rolf-Erik Nystrøm on the saxophone and Hakon Thelinon on the double bass, has become well known for its collaborations and its success as an improviser. This event is free. For more information, call (773) 702-8670 or visit http://renaissancesociety.org.

	Robert Heinecken, “Frost & Tip,” 1971, Newsprint with rubbing.

Smart Museum of Art
Robert Heinecken: Magazines
Saturday, Dec.16 through Sunday, Mar. 11, 2007
5550 S. Greenwood Ave.
http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu

For over four decades, Robert Heinecken was an incisive observer of social and sexual politics. Although he rarely took pictures himself, Heinecken made use of photography by combining found photojournalistic and advertising images into new works. In the 1960s, he utilized this strategy in a provocative manner with a series of reconfigured magazines laden with highly-charged content. Heinecken would sometimes covertly put the changed magazines back into circulation. In his series Periodical #5, Heinecken took magazines such as Glamour and overprinted the images of fashion models with horrific images of young Vietnamese soldiers. Heinecken’s images shocked newsstand consumers with his disruptive juxtapositions of fashion and violence, pop culture and politics. This exhibition gathers a rich selection of these magazine-based works, including pieces from the Smart Museum’s collection and the artist’s archive. The museum admission is free. For more information call (773) 702-0200.

Court Theatre
Hotel Cassiopeia
Through Saturday, Dec. 10
5535 S. Ellis Ave. (773) 753-4472

Hotel Cassiopeia, a SITI Company production, follows the New York collage artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1973) into his irrational, miniature, and magical world. Written by Charles L. Mee, the play trails Cornell’s inspirations from conversations, movies and the city New York. Directed by Anne Bogart, Hotel Cassiopeia produces a theatrical kaleidoscope using the images and obsessions that filled Cornell’s trademark boxes: pocket watches, coiled springs, a forest of thimbles, parrots, seashells, broken glass, children’s alphabet books, brightly colored balls, soap bubbles, whales’ teeth, star maps, and movie stars. For tickets and more information, visit http://www.courttheatre.org