Through cross-continental dialogue, 2-3 Weeks brings together artists based in Malé and Chicago, USA, and is a collaboration of twelve artists, two curators, and two galleries. In this exhibition, local artists were partnered with Chicago artists, forming indirect collaboration guided by rhythm, and built on resonance and response across distance, time, and limited context. Using only an image and a short statement from their counterpart, each artist was invited to create new work as a response.
Spanning the intuitive and the structured, the solitary and the communal, artists in the exhibition move through forests and oceans, domestic rituals and collective disorder - drifting, swimming, charting. Some turn to improvisation to expand the possibilities of writing; others work through repetition, rhythm, and material. Across these varied approaches, each artist engages in an act of translation, where meaning is continously negotiated between material and image, sender and receiver, language and form.
2 - 3 Weeks is a two-part exhibition. Here at Gallery 350, Chicago's responses are displayed alongside the work of their Malé artists. Simultaneously, Maldivian responses are being displayed at The PLAN alongside their North American counterparts.
The title, 2- 3 Weeks, refers to the average time it takes to send a package between these two places. A subtle reminder that distance, delay, and disconnection are not barriers but part of the exchange itself.
Artists: Afzal Shafiu, Aishath Huda, Fathmath Azleina, Gretchen Jankowski, Ismail Ashwad, Judith Mullen, Katelyn Patton, Makayla Lindsay, Mohamed Ikram, Moosa Mamdhuh, Olivia Zubko, Philip Spangler, Samah Ahmed, Sheldon Till-Campbell
Curated by Aishath Huda and Philip Spangler
The PLAN, Chicago / Gallery 350, Malé