Chicago Performs: September 7–10, 2023

Jonas N. T. Becker makes photographs, videos, and performances that explore how systems of power place value on the body and the resource-rich landscape. His practice is research based, excavating layers of mainstream and marginalized histories, particularly in rural America. Each of Becker’s projects focuses on a specific landscape, drawing attention to interrelated histories and human impact. Becker has exhibited internationally, including at MCA Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, ICA LA, and LAXART. Becker works between his home state of West Virginia and Chicago, Illinois, where he is a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Anjal Chande is an artist, performer, producer, writer, space-maker, and visionary who was recently featured on Vocalo Radio’s “This Is What Chicago Sounds Like” in September 2022. Described by The New York Times as a “gifted stylist” and by Time Out Chicago as “arrestingly poetic,” her work has been presented/supported by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum 2019 Lab Artist Award, Ragdale Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Illinois Arts Council, Sophiensaele in Berlin, the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Drive East in New York, World Music Festival in Chicago, and numerous stages in India. She received a Fulbright award to perform and study in Berlin, researching the dance community and factors that contribute to thriving urban arts ecosystems. Chande founded Soham Dance Space in 2007 as a home for creative practice, live performance, critical dialogue, and community gatherings. She is a mover and shaker in the Chicago dance field and a vocal advocate for artists of color. Trained in numerous music and dance forms since childhood, Chande draws from a wide creative range in making her art. She teaches performance art and bharatanatyam through radical pedagogies and has a desire to instill a sense of creative possibility and critical reflection within her students. Her essay on bharatanatyam dance in Chicago will be in the forthcoming Third Coast Dance anthology published by University of Illinois Press.

Irene Hsiao creates performances in conversation with visual art in museums, galleries, and public spaces, a practice that includes site-specific interaction with visual artworks and experimental engagement with artists, institutions, and the public. Her work includes durational improvisation, interactive installations, dances for stage, video, and virtual performance. She is a 2022-23 Fellow at High Concept Labs, the first Artist in Residence at 21c Museum Hotel in 2022-23, inaugural Artist in Residence at the Smart Museum of Art in 2020 and 2021, and a 2020 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist. She has received individual artist awards from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and City of Chicago Department of Culture & Special Events.