In 1988 four classmates from the School of the Art Institute joined forces to buck the gallery system. Instead of waiting to be discovered, Richard House, Wendy Jacob, Laurie Palmer, and John Ploof decided to create their own noncommercial exhibit space. They used an empty apartment in Bucktown for their canvas, each taking a room or section to work on, and set about their individual business. One filled a bedroom with sand, another soaked a mattress in honey. When they started kibitzing, Haha, the art team, was born.
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“We started talking back and forth, borders started getting blurred, and that became something really exciting,” says Jacob. Before they knew it, they were hooked on the process. This egoless stew–four minds at play, communing and creating as one–was the antithesis of their training. “No ownership of ideas,” says Jacob. “No hierarchy,” says House. “No way to trace who came up with what,” says Palmer.
Haha’s piece Rumor is on view in “Art at the Armory: Occupied Territory” through January 23 at the Chicago Avenue Armory, 234 E. Chicago. Hours are noon to 5 Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday; noon to 8 Thursday and Friday. Suggested donation $6, $3 for students, seniors, and children. Tuesdays free. Call 280-5161 for more information. Anyone interested in working on a hydroponic garden (you do not need to be a gardener or have AIDS) should call Haha at 761-7144.
