Talking Heads

Nov 11–24, 2026

Join the conversation

One face, fourteen stories. Participants slip-cast the same life-sized head, then gave it their own voice. Together, the heads strike up a conversation – and you're invited to join in. Leave your own commentary to become a part of the dialogue.

Soda-fired porcelain bust of a stylized human head featuring hollow eye cutouts and deeply carved botanical leaf motifs. The back of the head is open, exposing the carved interior of the form with a jade green glaze.

A pale beige glazed head on a rough slab base. Its face and skull are broken open in jagged pieces, and coiled gray-brown snakes push out through the openings. One snake's head, with small black eyes, hangs down near the chin.

August R

Close-up of a slip-cast face with a crackled, metallic green-silver glaze, framed by tangled hair woven from raffia, twine, dark indigo-dyed wool, and sheer plastic and fabric scraps.

Nicole Griffith

A glossy orange head with wide blue eyes, two swooping yellow tufts of hair, and a blue-gray neck. A tangled stream of dark brown, glossy clay coils and loops pours from its open mouth and spreads into a heap on the ground in front of it.

An unglazed white porcelain head, seen at three-quarter view, broken into a pixelated, glitch-like pattern: square cutouts open through the face and scalp, and blocky fragments jut out from its surface. Tube-like cords loop from the right eye up and around the side of the head.

Spencer Papciak

A bust of a woman with short swept-back hair and a calm, direct gaze, finished in a speckled stone texture. She wears a Greek key pendant on a choker and a draped garment across one shoulder, edged with a Greek key border.

Front view of a ceramic head covered in drawn autumn leaves, acorns, and moss in greens, oranges, and yellows. Red and yellow mushrooms sprout from the crown, a cluster of yellow shelf fungus juts from the side, a red ladybug crawls near the top, and the neck rises from a base of green pebbles ringed with small orange mushrooms.

A matte, sandy taupe head, seen at three-quarter view, carved all over with a repeating geometric pattern of overlapping curves that form four-pointed stars, covering the face, scalp and neck.

Mari Osten

Shireen Baker

Front view of a ceramic head and neck in matte charcoal gray with closed eyes, inlaid all over with flowing white lines and pools like marbled stone. The pattern continues down the neck and spreads across a flat base that ripples out like spilled liquid.

Location

artspace144

Website Google Maps

Address

Room 144, Building A, Lower Level
McHenry County College
8900 US Hwy 14
Crystal Lake, IL 60012

Hours

Monday–Thursday6 AM – 10 PMFriday6 AM – 6 PMSaturday7 AM – 5 PMSunday7 AM – 5 PM

On Sundays, only the Building B entrance is open