Cheryl Pope

Performance artist and sculptor Cheryl Pope examines connections and distinctions among social groups and individuals. Appropriating objects and gestures, Pope transforms loaded signs into studies of class, race, gender, age, affiliation, and other markers of identity. In her 2011 performance piece Balancing Stacks, for instance, Pope stacked dishware—porcelain plates, saucers, cups, and bowls—until the elaborate tableau simply fell apart. This precarious, athletic, and quasi-domestic act of labor ultimately raised questions of how action is gendered and classified, either as work or as play.

Recent exhibitions of Pope’s work include shows at the Künstlerhaus Speckstrasse in Hamburg and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2013, Pope was a fellow at the Fountainhead Residency, and in 2010, she was the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s Artist in Residence.