- Labor Day, East Chicago
Starting tonight and running through July 21, the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport will host a multimedia retrospective devoted to local hero Tom Palazzolo. The exhibit will include paintings, photographs, sculptures, and video installations of three documentary shorts that he directed: Labor Day, East Chicago (1979); At Maxwell Street (1984); and I Married a Munchkin (1994). According to the exhibit notes, these films reflect Palazzolo’s interests in reportage and niche communities. (The latter interest carries over to his work in other media, which often displays the influence of surrealism and outsider art.)
Palazzolo will be present at tomorrow night’s kick-off event, which begins at 6 PM. At some point he’ll take part in a live conversation with Sun-Times columnist Dave Hoekstra about his artistic career of almost 50 years. Palazzolo’s sure to have plenty of great stories about his work and its reception—he could probably fill the time just with anecdotes about his filmmaking efforts. Here’s an example, from the exhibit notes:
