Middle Ground at the Main Library

Yesterday's visit to the Steps Sale  at the main library was also my first chance to check out the Exploratorium's new installation/exhibit Middle Ground: Reconsidering ourselves and others.  
Art, community engagement and I found a tattered, but serviceable first edition of a work by Brendan Behan for the sum of $1.  

Not Your Grandma’s Chandeliers

July in San Francisco is typically a cold month, the fog and wind keeps us in the 60’s.  As pleasant as that might sound if you’re sweltering in the rest of the country, we start to miss the warm weather.  But just a quick trip down to Palo Alto and it was 84° and sunny yesterday.  The destination was the Cantor Arts Center down at Stanford.

When I previewed Josiah McElheny’s Island Universe  on the website, I was not particular excited. At quick glance I saw photos of what looked to me like bunch of retro chandeliers.  Maybe it is the damage of working in the world of interior design for 10+ years.  Well, McElheny is doing something far more amazing than pretty baubles to dangle over dining tables.  It is art, it is astronomy and photos can’t do it justice.  And once again I am reminded why, given the opportunity, you always need to see art in person.

I always enjoy the juxtaposition of old and new at the Cantor and after wandering past the Rodin horde, I encountered Do Ho Suh’s The Spaces in Between– this alone is worth a trip.   Now this is a chandelier!  When you enter the room, you don’t realize it is made up of plastic action figures.  The same for the colorful screen.  I didn’t immediately realize the wallpaper was part of the installation.  It appears to be some sort of 1970s grass cloth pattern until you step closer and realize it is a grid of teensy yearbook portraits (magnifying glasses provided).  Art that is not what it appears, color, grids and color.  I was in heaven and reminded once again that one day I must visit Korea, if just to see contemporary art.   

To finish off the visit one has to get lost in the Richard Serra and imagine they are in some canyon in the Desert Southwest. 

Mildred Howard

 
 

I have already seen Mildred Howard’s TAP: Investigation of Memory twice at the Oakland Museum.  Art that expresses time, memory and a big grid, so many of my favorite elements.  And then my recent trip to the di Rosa  up in Napa offered another look at her bottle house Memory Garden, Phase 1.  I am a big fan of bottle houses, both historic and contemporary.  

The SFMOMA has also posted a really good video and overview of her art.

I need to keep an eye out for every opportunity to see more of Mildred Howard’s work.  The installation in Oakland is on until September 1, 2019 — it is highly recommended.

Museum Weekend

It was an art museum filled weekend.  Saturday was an occasion to visit the Berkeley Art Museum and check out the new exhibit Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia.  The show is full of ephemera, prints, including some of the work of Corita Kent, macramé and photography form the era including a series Clay Geerdes photography of the Cockettes.  But the exhibit is not limited to what might be the expected memorabilia — the show also explores the world of high tech hippies – yes, high tech hippies, who were exploring and utilizing what was the latest technological innovations in their work.  Examples include the Community Memory Project – a very early “social media” device developed by Berkeley’s Village of Arts and Ideas Commune.  The exhibit runs through May 21^st and the website lists a number of related events, panel discussions, etc.  And finally Teri Friedman’s new installation (above right) is a perfect complement to the current exhibit.

Sunday was the annual Member for a Day event in the Bay Area offering reciprocal access to other museums.  The SFMOMA’s costly membership and entrance fee ($25) might seem like chump change to my young, techie neighbors, but for an artist like myself, I’ll take an opportunity to visit for free.  The expanded museum is overwhelming when crowded, and those outdoor “escape” terraces are much appreciated.  The highlight of the visit was Tomás Saraceno’s installation Stillness in Motion — Cloud Cities (see below).  It is clearly a crowd pleaser and slightly dangerous for us tall folk.  There was another, very inspirational discovery at the SFMOMA – but more about that soon….

Home Land Security

I never tire of exploring the California Coast including the repurposed military bases in or adjacent to San Francisco.   Most have been transformed into parks.  I have a longstanding fascination with the abandoned bunkers and gun batteries.  They are like concrete “ruins” from a time when they were needed to give us a sense of safety and security.  Our world is far from peaceful and feels less and less safe, but the gun batteries that once protected the Bay Area now are basically obsolete.

Today was one of those perfect sunny San Francisco days, the Golden Gate Bridge looked fantastic and tourists were snapping pictures of the view from atop Fort Winfield Scott.  But for us, it was time to see what was hidden beneath the concrete. 

The For-Site Foundation has brought together artists for a site-specific installation titled Home Land Security.  As they describe it:

“Home Land Security brings together works by contemporary artists and collectives from around the globe to reflect on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders we create, protect, and cross in its name.”

The work is installed in 5 buildings and we began with one of the most powerful and disturbing pieces – 2487 a sound piece by Luz María Sánchez.  Ducking my head to enter a dark passageway where a row of speakers randomly announce the names of 2487 people those who perished crossing the boarder between Mexico and the United States.  You can experience the piece on the website diaspora2487.org.

Mandana Moghaddam’s video piece Exodus was the next work to confront us. The heavy doors are open to reveal a screen where we see footage of the anonymous, lost luggage of refugees.

Tirtzah Bassel and Michelle Pred explore the theatre that is airport security.  Bassel offers an installation of a temporary mural using duct tape as the artistic medium while Pred’s installation is almost lovely until you think about it — the circle made up of hundreds of small objects confiscate in the name of security.

The project website covers all the installations in detail with many photos, etc.  Or ideally, you will be able to visit for yourself before December 18, 2016.

And you too can contemplate just how “safe” we all are…

How to Hang Mail Art

On Friday we will be installing 400 pieces of original, postcard-size pink mail art.  The art was made by artists of all ages from around the world including 21 states and 34 countries.  If it were possible, we would hang each postcard, mounted between glass, in a space where visitors could view the work from both sides.  Ideally many pieces should be displayed where both sides can be appreciated.  But, like with most mail art exhibits, the curators have to come figure out different ways to display the work.  I was recently in a mail art show in France where they opted to clip the art to dangling pieces of string.  At WAL we will securely mount the mail art with pushpins.

I still wanted to hang a handful of pieces so they could be seen from both sides.  This one from the artist Snappy up in British Columbia is a good example.  He sent his piece secure in a cellophane envelope and that is where it will stay for the show.  Those delicate, pinkified models boys will remain safe from the grabby hands of the hoi polloi.  My trusted grommet maker and some pink chains from Cliff’s Variety will secure a few pieces to the wall, yet visitors will be able to handle them and appreciate them front-and-back.

The opening reception for Pink Week is on Friday, November 4, from 6-9 p.m.  The show will remain on exhibit through November 30.Warehouse Artists Lofts (WAL), 1104 R Street, Sacramento, California

Collected Letters at the Asian Art Museum

San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum is celebrating its 50^th Anniversary with events and exhibits.  The highlight so far has to be the new piece they acquired by the Chinese artist Liu Jianhua. The work is titled Collected Letters and is an installation of porcelain letters from the Latin alphabet as well as Chinese characters.  The letters are suspended in an alcove on the second floor loggia.  They are adjacent to cases of Chinese porcelain from various periods.  The loggia is one of the areas in the museum that most retains the feel of the public library that was the original purpose of the building.  The upper walls have literary quotes carved into the stonework.  Above Collected Letters there is a proverb from the King James Bible: “A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger.”  On it’s own, Collected Letters is a great piece, but this particular placement in the museum might be the first time when the  Asian Art Museum has truly installed a work that bridges the gap between an early 20^th Century library and a museum dedicated to Asian art.