LANDLINE
ADDRESS

4908 N Albany Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625USA
CONTACT

info.landline@gmail.com
+1 312-281-7366
LANDLINE is an LED sign presenting thought-provoking texts made by contemporary artists, writers, and thinkers. 
The project is curated by artist Robert Chase Heishman.
Each invited contributor provides an original text for the LED sign as well as a sound piece for the phone number +1 312-281-7366.
CURRENT

~ tribute to the life and work of Refaat Alareer (1979 - 2023) ~

Refaat Alareer
رفعت العرعير

If I Must Die
December 19 2023 - February 1 2024
If I Must Die

If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze –
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself –
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope

let it be a tale.
ARCHIVE
001
Zoe Leonard
I want a president
May 15 – June 1 2018
© Zoe Leonard
Courtesy of Zoe Leonard, Hauser & Wirth, New York and Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne
For more information about Zoe Leonard: 
https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/2847-zoe-leonard
I want a dyke for president. I want a person with aids for president and I want a fag for vice president and I want someone with no health insurance and I want someone who grew up in a place where the earth is so saturated with toxic waste that they didn't have a choice about getting leukemia. I want a president that had an abortion at sixteen and I want a candidate who isn't the lesser of two evils and I want a president who lost their last lover to aids, who still sees that in their eyes every time they lay down to rest, who held their lover in their arms and knew they were dying. I want a president with no air conditioning, a president who has stood in line at the clinic, at the dmv, at the welfare office and has been unemployed and layed off and sexually harrassed and gaybashed and deported. I want someone who has spent the night in the tombs and had a cross burned on their lawn and survived rape. I want someone who has been in love and been hurt, who respects sex, who has made mistakes and learned from them. I want a Black woman for president. I want someone with bad teeth, someone who has eaten hospital food, someone who crossdresses and has done drugs and been in therapy. I want someone who has committed civil disobedience. And I want to know why this isn't possible. I want to know why we started learning somewhere down the line that a president is always a clown: always a john and never a hooker. Always a boss and never a worker, always a liar, always a thief and never caught.
002
Jeff Eaton
Untitled (invitation poem for then & now, (Ansel Adams))
June 1 – June 15 2018
© Jeff Eaton
Courtesy of Jeff Eaton
For more information about Jeff Eaton: 
http://jeffeaton.org
To download still images (JPEG):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oq1wedUhoDDBmh9bWveGMbfFv7h3Bih6/view?usp=sharing
Untitled (invitation poem for then & now, (Ansel Adams)) Open snow and glacier scenes
Seascapes and Distant Views
Sporting scenes in snow
Landscape without foreground
Sports-grounds
Landscapes with light foreground
Wide streets and squares
Buildings, light
Landscapes with dark foreground
Figures in the open (edge of a wood)
Buildings and rocks, dark
Persons in shade of trees
Persons near window, in direct sunlight
Narrow streets, light woodlands
Persons in light room, near a window
Light sunny interiors
Persons in light room, far from a window
Light, but shaded interiors
Persons in dim room, near a window
Fairly light rooms
Dark interiors
Audio excerpt from the film Ansel Adams, Photographer (1957), written by Nancy Newhall, narrated by Beaumont Newhall, with piano accompaniment by Ansel Adams
003
Linh Dinh
BLESSINGS
July 1 – July 15 2018
© Linh Dinh
Courtesy of Linh Dinh
For more information about Linh Dinh: 
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/
To download still images (JPEG):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15NYZlkgyLk4Gn8MMK6iukiid8Hvr3s3g/view?usp=sharing
BLESSINGS
IN THE LAND OF THE FREE GENITALS AND HOME OF THE BRAVE ORIFICES, YOU’RE EVEN LONELIER THAN YOUR XXX.
YOU CAN’T BOMB OR BABY ME, BABY, BECAUSE I’M JUST A TWISTED WISH INSIDE YOUR LAPTOP, DEFORMING YOUR VIRTUAL SOUL.
GLAZED-EYED AND BRAIN DEAD, YOU DESTROY THE UNIVERSE YET AGAIN, THEN YOU APPEASE YOURSELF MOST EXPERTLY.
YOU CAN’T HELP BUT DIVE INTO ANOTHER DETONATED GASH, FOR IT’S YOUR BLOCKBUSTER, BAPTISM AND NATIONAL PASTTIME. 
HERD US TO THE GROUNDS ZERO. LET’S FOLLOW THE HOWLING. STAND ERECT AND SCREAM, SCREAM, SCREAM. WHO CARES IF NO ONE GETS THEIR NUTS BACK.
EVEN IF YOU SEE NOTHING, REPORT YOUR NEIGHBORS, FOR THEY ARE ALL GUILTY, BUT SO ARE YOU, FOR NOT SEEING WHO ARE KILLING YOU ALL.
YOUR HERO QUEST IS A CORKSCREWING ROLLER COASTER RIDE THROUGH AN OVERFLOWING MORGUE.
WADING THROUGH FOUL, SACRED ENTRAILS, YOU SMIRKINGLY SWALLOW CURSES YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND.
004
Matthew Edward Martin
The Monolith
July 15 – August 01 2018
© Matthew Edward Martin
Courtesy of Matthew Edward Martin
For more information about Matthew Edward Martin: 
www.acrylicsuperhero.com
In 1965, I traveled to the moon with Stanley Kubrick to begin filming 2001: A Space Odyssey. We had disagreed about how the monolith should be represented in the film, and that argument grew more and more heated after we arrived.
In retrospect, I don’t believe our ideas were mutually exclusive, but at the time, we had each convinced ourselves of our own idea’s superiority. Our exchanges became vitriolic. Some blamed the exhaustive production schedule and the demands of Kubrick’s relationship with Arthur C. Clarke, but having spent years thinking it over in my head, there was something else at work…perhaps the earth hung low in the sky like a yellow skull.
Despite our growing resentment, I was appalled to find that Kubrick had begun construction on his idea in secret: an enormous, obsidian tetrahedron, similar to the monolith described in Clarke’s The Sentinel. It was clear that he had never had any intention on doing anything else. One course of action remained to me now: sabotage.
That night, I went to the warehouse where the tetrahedron was being built and damaged the pneumatic winch that held the rigging in place. With its weight now unsupported, the top-most point of the tetrahedron buckled and tore away from the rest of the structure, irreversibly crippling his monolith.
Kubrick’s revenge was swift and poetic—he would damage me just as I had damaged his monolith. While I slept, he snuck into my room and sliced off most of my nose, the most tetrahedron-shaped part of me. I was rushed back to Earth, where I was fitted with a metal prosthetic, leaving Kubrick, and my original nose, on the moon.
Audio excerpted from a recording by Dr. Bernie Krause https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5uzpLXrQx0
005
Sara Knox Hunter
A PAPER CRANE
August 15 – September 15 2018 ***
*** NOTE: This text will be on from 7PM to 1:40AM each day; repeating the text 1000 times. 
© Sara Knox Hunter
Courtesy of Sara Knox Hunter
For more information about Sara Knox Hunter: 
https://youtu.be/_chJB_j7wDU?t=403
A PAPER CRANE
1. Fold a piece of square paper on the diagonal, forming a triangle.2. Fold the triangle in half.3. Push the duplicate edge of the triangle towards the single edge and form a square.4. Repeat on the other side, forming another square.5. Rotate the paper to make a diamond, the closed edge at the top. Fold the two outer edges towards the center to form a kite.6. Repeat on the other side.7. Open up the kite by pulling open the two sides and lifting up the bottom to expose the inside.8. Form a new crease at the top so that the kite shape becomes two triangles.9. Reverse all the outer creases, and fold the paper inwards.10. Repeat steps 6-8 on the other side.11. Fold the outer edges of the kite to the middle crease.12. Fold the right flap over the left flap, like a paper airplane.13. Repeat steps 10-11 on the other side.14. Fold both bottom flaps in the middle so that they touch the top.15. Fold the right flap over the left on both sides.16. Fold the wings down.17. Flip the head down.18. Give everything a tug outward to breathe life into it.
006
Lauren Fulton Yvonne Rainer
Trio A
November 15 – December 15 2018
© 2011 Yvonne Rainer
Courtesy of Yvonne Rainer
Published by: Badlands Unlimited220 36th Street, Suite 607, Brooklyn, NY 11232www.badlandsunlimited.com
This LANDLINE presentation coincides with an exhibition curated by Lauren Fulton and Courtenay Finn for the Aspen Art Museum. On view from November 16, 2018–February 24, 2019, Lost Without Your Rhythm features work by Helena Almeida, Simone Forti, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, EJ Hill, B. Ingrid Olson, Bruce Nauman, Yvonne Rainer, and Oscar Tuazon.
For more information: 
https://www.aspenartmuseum.org/exhibitions/147-lost-without-your-rhythm
Yvonne RainerTrio A
When it’s rightnothing’s like itthe pieces f a l linto place not a flicker of doubt mars the flowof arminto hipinto kneeinto floorthen midsectionhollowed in triumphthe whole apparatusits discrete mindsnot impedingthe forward momentumof practiceof objectno ritual herethe weight of the bodyis material proofthat air is matterand mind’s married to muscle
Audio written by Lauren Fulton and recorded by Courtenay Finn in Aspen, Colorado, November 2018
007
Amiko Li
The Purpose of Disease
May 15 - July 15 2019
© Amiko Li
Courtesy of Amiko Li
For more information about Amiko Li: 
https://amikoli.com/
To download still images (JPEG):
drive.google.com/file/d/116N8ovuV8t4wiNbmYGdLB2qnI2YMNaIb/view?usp=sharing
The Purpose of Disease 
At the end of world, I unfortunately caught a cold. while everyone is swimming across the ocean of remains I realized I don’t know how to swim.
What’s the purpose of disease?Now please take a look at the lines on your palm,The first horizontal one is about your career,the one below that, if it’s long then, you will hit people very hard.The first vertical line on the left is love, the one next to it, is life.I used to extend my line to the belly button,so that I could be a pile of old mud that lives 10000000000000 years
happiness and depression are just blood circulation, if life is bitter just take a candyhere is the vein of sensitivity, some people cut it to have an easier lifecrying is sweating, bitterness is pure science, so no need to be too sensitiveif you feel stiff then just stretch your body
The sound was recorded with Lu Wang (dk): https://www.acomposer.me/