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Side Street Studio Arts welcomes visual art and performance collaboration with 'The Chromanauts'

Side Street Studio Arts, 15 Ziegler Court in downtown Elgin, welcomes the visual art of Maryland-based visual artist John Mosher in conjunction with the choreography of Chicago-based artist Christine Hands to create "The Chromanauts," a monthlong exhibition and explosive live-action science fiction adventure.

The exhibition runs May 6-28, with an artist reception Saturday, May 7, from 7 to 10 p.m., and live performances at 8 p.m. Saturdays, May 7 and 21.

The visual art exhibition is free and open to the public. The live performances are a $10 suggested donation.

The idea of "The Chromanauts" serves as an exploratory vector for the Mosher's canvas. For the first time, "The Chromanauts" will be realized not just on the page or screen, but in 3-D as Hands takes on the role of choreographing a planetary adventure.

"The Chromanauts - explorers of time and quantum-chroma space - have recently sent me cryptic messages and crude sketches of their encounters in the 'negative space'," said Mosher. "Out of sheer curiosity I attempt to decode these messages and create images out of them. Despite my best efforts, their messages are never clear. Once I stop moving they turn into visual static and fade away. I think they find this amusing."

Hands is a Chicago based educator, performer, and choreographer. She has taught and choreographed as far afield as England. Her choreography has most recently been performed in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Continuous Present Tense at Living Arts as well as at Dance Chicago, and with Creative Nests. Hands earned her BFA in dance with honors and her BA in English from the University of Iowa. While in Iowa, Hands had the privilege of dancing for notable choreographers such as David Dorfman, George de La Peña, Armando Duarte, Charlotte Adams, Paul Christiano, Vladimir Conde Reche, Rain Ross, Suzanne Ryan, and Amy Jacobus.

Hands has danced for Matter Dance Company, Renegade Dance Architects (of Chicago), and Corpo Dance Company in Chicago as well as Travelers Dance Company in Iowa City. She has appeared in Dance Chicago and as a guest artist with Alliance Dance Company and Mordine and Company.

Mosher's work focuses on weaving personal narratives together across different mediums. Though made in different ways, each piece is interconnected in both execution and content, and is a snippet of a larger on going narrative. Individually the works are fragmented and unintelligible, and viewers become participants creating stories by reconstructing the tangled information. When a viewer interacts with the work they make associations both extrinsically and intrinsically. These associations become the glue that binds the seemingly random bits of narrative together.

Side Street Studio Arts was founded in 2013 by Elgin residents Tanner Melvin and Erin Rehberg as an outlet for area artists. Currently under the direction of Amanda Harris, Melvin, and Rehberg, SSSA provides educational and creative resources and an accessible space, run by artists. Side Street's mission is to support the artist and artistic journey through collaboration. For more information on The Chromanauts or any of the programming, call (847) 429-2276 or visit www.SideStreetStudioArts.org.

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