Artblog’s Andrea Kirsch describes the resonance of Chicago in The Freedom Principle:
“The contemporary work in The Freedom Principle adds considerable heft to the exhibition, partially because much of it is large scale and lives up to those ambitions. The entrance is filled with the music that undergirds the exhibition, in the form of Stan Douglas’ ‘Hors-champs’ (1992), a double-sided video projection edited from a recording made in Paris of a musical foursome with two original AACM members, Douglas R. Ewart and George Lewis. At the rear of the first floor and in contrast to the cozy, carpeted space of Douglas’ video, a considerably larger, high-ceilinged gallery holds an installation by Lewis and Ewart working with Douglas Repetto. ‘Rio Negro II’ (2007/15) is a garden-like environment of rain sticks, chimes, and various low-tech instruments and structures made of bamboo which make sounds in response to mechanically driven movements. The rain sticks come from indigenous Brazilian rituals, reflecting a range of antecedents broader than the Afrocentrism of the 60s-70s.”