“Everything is collected but nothing is saved,” writes conceptual artist Allen Ruppersberg in the catalog that accompanies “No Time Left to Start Again/The B and D of R ‘n’ R,” his history of postwar pop music. The adjective, his, is vital: Ruppersberg stresses that this cacophonous installation is “one possible history of Rock and Roll”—his history, which leaves all questions open, answering none. “No Time” is composed of five parts: an introduction, set up to face the atrium of the Art Institute’s Modern Wing, and then, inside the exhibit proper, “lyrics,” “home,” “church,” and “fun.” Those distinctions seem arbitrary, though. If they relate to discernible organizing principles, then how, for instance, did a 2010 remembrance of rock musician Alex Chilton end up in the “church” section?
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Through 1/6: Mon-Wed and Fri-Sun 10:30 AM-5 PM, Thu 10:30 AM-8 PM, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan, 312-443-3600, artic.edu, $12-$18, free to Illinois residents on the first and second Wednesdays of each month.
