Robert Blanchon didn’t want his picture taken. Not even from behind. He declined to pose with his back to the camera while facing 14 drawings of himself that he had hung in Randolph Street Gallery for a group exhibition called “Telling . . . Stories.”
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The project originated with an invitation to submit work to the Drawing Center, a gallery in New York City. “I don’t have any drawing skills myself,” says Blanchon, who got his bachelor’s degree in 1988–and his master’s in 1990–from the School of the Art Institute. So he hired the sidewalk artists. “I did it in a very controlled and scientific manner. I tried my hardest not to give any idea of my personality. It looks like they’re plugging me into ideas of what they thought I was.” Apparently none of them figured out their subject was a conceptual artist.
At the Anonymous Museum, a short-lived 1992 project held by a band of Chicago artists, he placed a dozen framed photos of himself on the floor, which he captioned with the names of the previously anonymous board of directors. For a series of mock Mapplethorpe images, Blanchon posed like one of Mapplethorpe’s favorite models. A few years ago he staged a hoax celebrating the anniversary of conceptualism: a phony symposium to which movers and shakers in the Chicago art scene were invited.
Blanchon and nine other artists bare their souls through photos, installations, and other work in “Telling . . . Stories,” on exhibit through April 23 at Randolph Street Gallery, 756 N. Milwaukee. It’s open Tuesday through Saturday noon to 6. Admission is free. Call 666-7737.
