CHICAGO, IL.- Quietly mysterious figures perform a captivating slow dance inside a darkened bar in artist Carrie Schneider’s first major video project. Slow Dance presents an unexpected look at the intimate and often non-verbal form of communication between two people in a public setting and what each brings to the encounter. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, premieres Slow Dance on December 4 during First Fridays as part of the monthly UBS 12 x 12 New Artists/New Work series and runs through January 3.

'Slow Dance' imagines the psychological and physical representations of romantic relationships. Schneider cites influences such as David Lynch and Finnish filmmaker Eija-Liisa Ahtila along with Brassai’s 1930s photographs of Parisian nightlife.

Schneider received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2001 and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute in 2007. Upon graduation, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Kuvataideakatemia (Finnish Academy of Fin Arts) in Helsinki, on a Fulbright Fellowship.

December’s First Fridays theme is “Cliché.” DJ Kid Color spins a range of disco, house, electro, and hip hop throughout the evening and guests may take “old school” holidays pictures with Santa; embark on a Clichéthemed scavenger hunt in Italics; and sip specialty drinks like the “Trite-tini” and the “Common Cosmo.”