BRAIN FRAME

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BF14, BF15, BF16, and BF19 posters are now available online for the first time ever! And ALL POSTERS ARE ON SALE! Yes indeed. Please check out our new store and hot deals, through the end of 2015.

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Lyra Hill debuted her second comic in a trilogy of stories about oral fixations and female sexuality, Cat Tounge, rear-projecting two 16mm film loops with a restless slide show animation of shifting, color-separated comic panels in between, fully exploring the sonic and sexual atmosphere of two lesbians fantasizing about jungle cats in a wood shop at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

This was the last performance at the last Brain Frame. Lyra's last speech, announcing the conclusion of the show, is included at the end of this video.

Video thanks to Jack Wensel [editing, camera], Cooper Collier [camera], and Cody Wallace [camera].

Jessica Campbell and Aaron Renier gathered a cast of eighteen fellow artists and dressed them in paper-mache dog heads, assigning them roles based off Jessica and Aaron’s classic-canine-whodunit-comic, Sylvia Leeds: The Colonel Throws a Ball, with live accompaniment by Tyson Torstensen and sound effects by Ben Babbitt at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Players: Nate Beaty; Ben Bertin; Kevin Budnik; Jessica Campbell; Gabriela Cracraft; Sara Drake; Henry Guerra; Abel Guzman; Brian Hall; Andrew Holmquist; Emily Kettner; Aaron Renier; Dave Roche; Emily Solichin; Jeremy Tinder; Danny Volk; Lillie West; Nicki Yowell.

Video thanks to Jack Wensel [editing, camera], Cooper Collier [camera], and Cody Wallace [camera].

Emily Hutchings and Ian McDuffie, dressed against their sexes, engaged in a thoughtful, illustrated conversation on body identity, non-corporeality, and what really matters at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Video thanks to Jack Wensel [editing, camera], Cooper Collier [camera], and Cody Wallace[camera].

Anya Davidson and Carrie Vinarsky pantomimed a dark journey through a stoner swamp and the discovery of a Golden Energy Being, played by Jail Flanagan, timing their live performance to a video mashup - filmed and edited by Jason Ogawa - comprised of comic panels, special effects animation, and dramatic closeups at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Video thanks to Jack Wensel [editing, camera], Cooper Collier [camera], and Cody Wallace[camera].

Gina Wynbrandt, to the goofy strains of a walking baseline played by Clayton Weimers, voiced a caricature of her self on a journey towards adulthood, spurred by her 24th birthday and a gang of hardscrabble alley cats, with supporting vocals from J Paulos and David Andersson at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Video thanks to Jack Wensel [editing, camera], Cooper Collier [camera], and Cody Wallace[camera].

Nick Jackson, accompanied by the voice of Ben Bertin as well as Motria Caudill and Lesya Klimchenko strumming the shimmering bandura, a traditional Ukrainian folk instrument, read with stoic emotion an autobiographical account of the fall of Lenin’s statue during the Euromaidan protests in Kiev at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Video thanks to Jack Wensel [editing, camera], Cooper Collier [camera], and Cody Wallace[camera].

Rough House, an interdisciplinary puppet-based theater company (comprised on this evening of Emma Alamo, Rachel Christianson, Matt Dealy, Sean Hughes, Mike Oleon, Jason Sperling, and Laura Tater) performed the haunting And Dream Of Teeth (directed by Mike Oleon with music by Sean Hughes) using flashlights, silhouettes, a free floating screen (or panel), and a glowing baby on a stick to explore one man’s nightmare bladder at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Video thanks to Jack Wensel [editing, camera], Cooper Collier [camera], and Cody Wallace[camera].

Brain Frame, Chicago's legendary underground comix-weirdo-performance happening, celebrated the end with a Grand Finale on its 3rd anniversary, August 9th, 2014. Seven performative comics readings by a bevy of local talents unfolded on the historic stage at Thalia Hall, surrounded by interactive installations in opera boxes; musical performances from Tyson Torstensen, Flux Bikes, and DJ Pluto; cheers and human pyramids by the Spirit Team (interns Emma Rand, Brad Rohloff, and Lillie West); and the release of the Brain Frame Yearbook.

This video captures the entire event and the buoyant spirit of the extended Brain Frame family. Thank you to all our supporters over the years, everyone who worked an event, collaborated on a poster, or just showed up to party. Never forget! Brain Frame Forever!

Video by Burton Bilharz with additional performance footage thanks to Cooper Collier, Cody Wallace, and Jack Wensel.

More photos from Brain Frame 19, our 3rd anniversary and Grand Finale: members of the Teen Creative Agency running the merch room; visitors enjoying and signing Yearbooks; Flux Bikes (Rob Frye) and his ambient bike-flute-saxophone set; Tyson Torstensen playing a Rhodes piano from his opera box; The Brain Frame Spirit Team, comprised of current and former interns Emma Rand, Brad Rohloff, and Lillie West, leading cheers; Brain Frame creator and emcee Lyra Hill hosting her show for the last time. BRAIN FRAME FOREVER!

Photos thanks to Gillian Fry.

Efrén Adkins and Colleen Allen, with performative assistance from José Hernandez, transformed two opera boxes into our grand finale's immersive and haunting Death Altar, filling the space with colored lights, comic panel prayer flags, flowers, feathers, bones, mirrors and paper, and wordlessly inviting the audience to draw on everything; these materials were later burned to complete the ritual of release and remembrance at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Photos thanks to Gillian Fry.

High above the ground and spanning the width of the stage, Grace Needlman and Will Bishop, with assistance from Margaret Hu and Brandon Hughton, conducted a series of experiments: an audience member steps into the uppermost left opera box and paints on a piece of paper, folding it to create a Rorschach blot, and gives it to Will, silent in a lab coat, who then sends the blot via pulley system across the theater to the uppermost right opera box where another scientist captures the evidence and feeds it into the giant, glowing, gently swaying Brain Oracle (puppetteered by Grace) who returns the blot, a poetic fortune inscribed on the blank side of the page, to the subject waiting at the other end of the pulley at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Photos thanks to Gillian Fry and John Fecile.

Lyra Hill debuted her second comic in a trilogy of stories about oral fixations and female sexuality, Cat Tounge, rear-projecting two 16mm film loops with a restless slide show animation of shifting, color-separated comic panels in between, fully exploring the sonic and sexual atmosphere of two lesbians fantasizing about jungle cats in a wood shop at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Photos thanks to Gillian Fry and John Fecile.

Jessica Campbell and Aaron Renier gathered a cast of eighteen fellow artists and dressed them in paper-mache dog heads, assigning them roles based off Jessica and Aaron's classic-canine-whodunit-comic, Sylvia Leeds: The Colonel Throws a Ball, with live accompaniment by Tyson Torstensen and sound effects by Ben Babbitt at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Players: Nate Beaty; Ben Bertin; Kevin Budnik; Jessica Campbell; Gabriela Cracraft; Sara Drake; Henry Guerra; Abel Guzman; Brian Hall; Andrew Holmquist; Emily Kettner; Aaron Renier; Dave Roche; Emily Solichin; Jeremy Tinder; Danny Volk; Lillie West; Nicki Yowell.

Photos thanks to Gillian Fry and John Fecile.

Emily Hutchings and Ian McDuffie, dressed against their sexes, engaged in a thoughtful, illustrated conversation on body identity, non-corporeality, and what really matters at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Photos thanks to Gillian Fry and John Fecile.

Anya Davidson and Carrie Vinarsky pantomimed a dark journey through a stoner swamp and the discovery of a Golden Energy Being, played by Jail Flanagan, timing their live performance to a video mashup - filmed and edited by Jason Ogawa - comprised of comic panels, special effects animation, and dramatic closeups at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Photos thanks to Gillian Fry.

Gina Wynbrandt, to the goofy strains of a walking baseline played by Clayton Weimers, voiced a caricature of her self on a journey towards adulthood, spurred by her 24th birthday and a gang of hardscrabble alley cats, with supporting vocals from J Paulos and David Andersson at Brain Frame 19 on August 9th, 2014.

Photos thanks to Gillian Fry and John Fecile.