Jungle Room Dance Booth:
Dance of Death 
2016
Three-panel folding screen, mirror, LED light, headphones

In the Rifts of Winter
Curated by Katya Balueva
January 29 - February 19, 2016
The LeRoy Neiman Center, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

The Jungle Room is a private dance booth constructed as a three-panel folding screen. It creates a private dance environment in a public space. The installation is inspired by dance in the context of nightclubs, a part of urban culture that is met by a polarized opinion. But while some attach stigmas to club culture and to people of the night who enjoy it, others find dance in this context as a release that is healthy for mind, body, and soul.

For many, including Jefts, loosing oneself in dance is a way to occupy another physical and mental space: it serves a meditative function. The Jungle Room, which is both private and portable, imitates an idealized dance environment in public as a way to allow an escape from the stress of the day-to-day.


Artist Panel
Wednesday, February 17, 2016, 4:15-5:30
LeRoy Neiman Center, 37 S. Wabash Ave.

Artists in the exhibition In the Rifts of Winter including Ali Aschman, Caroline Bellios, Kate Hampel, Kara Jefts, Angela Lopez, and Jaclyn Mednicov will be in conversation with art history students from Mechtild Widrich's "Beauty and Ugliness" class.