Centerstage - Chicago's Original City Guide

Articles Sections >> Arts + Words Bars + Clubs Dating Festivals Fitness Food Lifestyle Music Theater Travel + Tourism Who's Who > View All Arts and Words Food and Drink Music

Elise Rasmussen

This Canadian-born artist has a thing for the French.

Monday Jun 09, 2008.     By Alicia Eler

Who's Who Feed

Canadian-born artist Elise Rasmussen has a thing for the French—the French Revolution and French New Wave films, that is. Rasmussen's poignant photography riffs on French-influenced idealizations of romance, and her detailed wallpaper discusses similarities between the current political situation now and the French Revolution. Though she graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007 with an MFA in photography and later moved to Brooklyn, her ties to Chicago are still strong: Currently, the artist is in "Three Hours Between Planes: Leipzig to Chicago," a show at the Chicago Cultural Center running through mid-July that highlights talented emerging photographers and video artists from both cities. We chatted the artist up from her Brooklyn apartment about art and why she loves Chicago.

Let's talk about your work. I liked your theme of talking about the French Revolution and French New Wave romantic idealizations in contemporary culture. How did those ideas manifest?
Before I was trying to create a story—some sort of fiction. For this project I decided to use an actual story in history [rather] than just creating my own. And I was interested in the romantic notion of rebellion—and when a rebellion is actually successful, and I gravitated toward the French Revolution.

So which French New Wave were you looking at?
I think I've always been interested in and drawn to particular films. Like Erik Roemer. I think the piece "Me on the Seine" (pictured), I don't think it was directly from any sort of French New Wave. It was more of an amalgamation of my feelings—sort of a tribute toward—and an affinity toward those filmmakers. And I think with the French Revolution, I started thinking about other French things that I liked, and that reflected in the French New Wave, and I was thinking about romance and French kissing, and I ended up thinking about the title first and then making the image. And just wanting to create my own France or Paris in the city of Chicago.

When you lived in Chicago, what was your 'hood and what was a place you went to?
I lived in Humboldt Park on California and West Cortez. It was so nice to have so much space for so cheap. I used to go to the Rainbo [Club] all the time, and I still do when I'm back. Kind of when in doubt, go to the Rainbo. I made the calendar two years in a row. They do a Rainbo calendar every year of snapshots from the photo booth of patrons that went there.

Any Chicago gems?
I just keeping thinking about barbecues; gosh, that's a really tough question. The best place to go for burgers is Kuma's Corner. They have burgers in the name of heavy metal bands, and I highly recommend the Led Zeppelin burger. I don't know if it's that hidden anymore, but it's just this biker bar and they have the best burgers. Chicago is a great city and I really liked living there.