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…

No place like home….

So many people travel all over the world and yet never visit places near their homes.  And I have to confess that I am guilty as well.  The San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park is awesome.   But its proximity to the ticky tackiness of Fisherman’s Wharf keeps most of us locals away.  Yesterday was a quiet and sunny day in San Francisco and a good day to sneak over there and play tourist-at-home.  This was my first time in the Aquatic Park Bathhouse – an art deco landmark that is now part of the museum.  It features interesting exhibits, Sargent Johnson sculpture and beautiful WPA era murals by Hilaire Hiler.  Hiler had a fascinating biography that begs to be a movie.  As well as an artist he was a color theorist.  The ceiling of one of the large rooms in the bathhouse has his Prismatarium mural – a giant color wheel on the ceiling!

So there you have it, waiting for me to discover after a MUNI ride across town, a really nice museum with one of the most unique murals I have ever seen.  And, it is even free admission.

Culture Moves the Message Forward

As a white kid growing up in America I “knew” the Black Panthers were scary, radical, militant and dangerous.  As an adult, I was more skeptical of what I knew about the Black Panthers, but it really was not until earlier this year, when PBS ran Stanley Nelson’s film The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution that I began to learn the real story.  (Everyone needs to see it).  It is a more nuanced and complex story of a militant activist group that created so much positive change.  It is a story of community empowerment and a story of people coming together to improve lives.

Today I got over to the Oakland Museum for their new exhibit All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50.  After a grim week, where the most hateful and racist elements of American society have remerged to remind us that they are still there – it was a wonderful thing to visit a museum for such a positive and uplifting message reminding us that when we come together we can accomplish so much good.

I come to expect the best from the Oakland Museum and was not disappointed.  It is an excellent exhibit that infuses art and artifacts placed within both a historical past and an active present.  The exhibit website provides more details, but I particularly like seeing both the art from the period, for example the art of Gayle Dickson that appeared in the Panther newspaper and new work that includes powerful, disturbing and yet aesthetically pleasing pieces.  For example We The People, a quilt made by Hank Willis Thomas from decommissioned prison uniforms and Ellen Bepp’s word piece made of the names in hand cut paper titled 100 Unarmed African Americans Killed by Police in 2014. 

Every year there is one or two “don’t miss” exhibits that come to the Bay Area.  This is the one.   You have until February 12, 2017.

Beyond Pink

Putting the overwhelming Pink Mail Art response behind me, it is time to take a look at some of the non-pink mail art that has been coming in recently including a number of pieces from the folks up in Portland at the PDX Correspondence Coop.  Some recent arrivals include:

1. A mail art map card arrived from lezbag.
2. Edith Gillette also sent a card from Portland.
3. Torma Cauli continues the green theme that perhaps intentionally complements some of my own recent work.
4. Marina Salmaso sent a new collage postcard.
5. The crocodiles are feasting on the jewels in Dean Marks latest piece.
6. Steve Howell’s postcard has a nice collection of never-used old postage stamps.
7. Jodi is requesting a reply.
8. Llana Swinks postcard features the groovy little mailster.
9. Ann Symons card included an artist stamp with a cat.  You can never go wrong with cats.
10. Miss Polly sent a handmade envelope with vintage postage and a postal note inside.
11. An altered postcard from Sagebrush Moderne.
12. Some mail art greenness from A.J. Dell’Aringa
13. A minimalist postcard from e. coles in England.
14. A new image with Sutro Tower from Joshua A. Dellinger

Thank you for the mail art, more keeps arriving and I’ll post it soon.

The Importance of Numbers

After receiving 400 responses for the Pink Mail Art show, it is incredible to see the way some elaborate pieces can make it through the mail unscathed from the other side of the world, yet other pieces arrive in tatters from just across the Bay in Oakland.  But, part of the risk artists assume when sending out mail art is they never know if what they send, will actually arrive.  Lena G. mailed her piece (shown above) with plenty of time to spare from Sacramento.  Alas, it just arrived after six weeks.  She had just one number off in my P.O. Box address.  I suspect it was waiting just a few boxes away for me the entire time – probably in a box that is rarely checked.  It is a nice one, so I wanted to be sure to share it online. 

Slipper Shells for Pink Week

Slipper Shells, acrylic on canvas, 10”x10”

This year, the main emphasis of Pink Week in Sacramento is the big Pink Mail Art show with 400 participating artists.  Along with the mail art show there is a companion show of Northern California artists who work in pink.  Pink is a seldom-used color in my palette, but above is painting you can see in the exhibit.  Slipper Shells (Crepidula fornicata) is inspired by the mass of seashells at low tide on Kalmus Beach in Hyannis, on Cape Cod.

Both shows can be viewed through November 30.

Warehouse Artists Lofts (WAL), 1104 R Street, Sacramento, California