TAKEOVER

The TAKEOVER is an annual (end-of-the-academic-school-year) art event that is put on by my Art, Design, & Society course since 2019.

This massive class has had 180+ students enrolled in it every semester that I have taught it.

The TAKEOVER has two objectives.

  • First, the TAKEOVER aims to reinforce the idea to students that they are creative practitioners NOW, independent of their official schooling. So, even though the students in the course consist of emerging designers, studio practitioners, art educators, and art historians each student is asked to engage with the TAKEOVER simultaneously as a site and venue for their particular expertise, experiments, and curiosities. On the occasion that the TAKEOVER is manifested as an exhibition of student work, students are encouraged to not limit themselves to showing the work they’ve made in school. School work is not prohibited, but should be understood as part of a larger practice which includes any and all creative practices enacted within a particular student’s life. The parameters of the TAKEOVER are specific, but usually minimal, in order to encourage unpredictability and wildness.

  • The second objective of the TAKEOVER is to create a collaborative art event that draws its energy from the fact that there are so many students in the course. In TAKEOVER I the students occupied every imaginable corner of the School of Art + Design at the University of Illinois, as well as The Link Gallery. In TAKEOVER II, which was due to open the day we went on COVID quarantine in 2020, the students created two page PDFs each to compile an almost 400 page book of collages, images, drawings, and clippings. For TAKEOVER III—in the midst of the global pandemic that kept us from being able to be inside of any room en masse—the students each created three-minute art pieces using video. These 180+ videos were then collated and rear-projected on to the Link Gallery, a steel and glass art gallery that connects the Krannert Art Museum to the School. A 10pm screening event happened on Friday April 30, 2021 and attendees were able to sit on the lawn to watch the extravaganza of videos play for 90 minutes.

TAKEOVER I (2019)

TAKEOVER II (2020)

The 400 page PDF of TAKEOVER II is forthcoming.

TAKEOVER III (2021)

A hype video to promote the TAKEOVER III event.

Photos from the installation and event.

All the videos from the TAKEOVER III (555 minutes worth) in five minutes.

TAKEOVER IV (2022)

Photos on this page by Jorge Lucero, Kiley Reed Black, Stephen Signa-Aviles, and Victor Font.