Superbowl, Gary Cannone

This is an image by the artist Gary Cannone, which he sent to me in preparation for the Chicago Bears losing bid for Superbowl XLI against the Indianapolis Colts. As a kid, the Bears, with their wacky antics on and off the field, made international headlines for their down-to-earth, nose to the grindstone, hard-working, hard-hitting way of life on the way to winning Superbowl XX. It was a good time to be in Chicago. Gary’s image gets to the core of that goodness.

Joe Sola, Artist

Yeondoo Jung, Tango Tango, 2000

I am intrigued by the dynamic interplay between the sassy couple in their sixties dancing across “Tango, Tango,” in Yeondoo Jung’s series of thirty heat transfer images on wallpaper. Jung straddles reality and fiction, referencing the sexual tensions built into countless Hollywood productions while sidestepping the practice common in our society of equating romance exclusively with those endowed with whiter teeth, thinner waistlines, thicker hair, and perkier body parts.

Jung chose the tango as a theme in part because “Dance is between two people, and through dance, people can communicate their mutual feelings without words.” I’d like to ask the Korean conceptual photographer how much he knows about the history of the Tango. Is Jung aware that the gauchos of Argentina purportedly practiced the tango with each other, taking turns to lead and follow, perfecting their moves before dancing with women? Since my husband has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, I often wonder how we will perfect our moves, taking turns leading and following while respecting each other’s needs and feelings.

Diane Calder, Artist who writes