George Pfau
George Pfau
George Pfau
Through July 6 - George Pfau at Royal Nonesuch Gallery. RNG is owning their stretch of Telegraph Ave this summer. Not only are they scheduling the shorts for Temescal Street Cinema again this year, but they're also conducting a bad-ass summer residency program, 3 for 3, right in the gallery. I am beyond psyched about the July and August artists (Veronica De Jesus and Amanda Curreri respectively), but George Pfau has already kicked the series off to a way solid start here in June. The artist is making himself available during "office hours" so that anyone may drop in for impromptu discussion, and Friday night he also organized a gallery lecture by Dr. Bradley Voytek, a bona fide neuroscientist who also happens to be a self-styled expert on the zombie brain. Pfau's current practice focuses on zombies, delving into their cultural popularity as a means of revealing deeper truths about our humanity. Voytek similarly uses the zombie angle to show his audiences some real live brain science, and during his lecture he described what parts of the brain might cause zombie-like behaviors such as aggression and certain kinds of amnesia. Pfau and Voytek both believe zombies make good metaphor, encapsulating societal ills as well as our sensations of fascination and disgust when it comes to our physical bodies. The ways in which zombies procreate so bloodily and decay at such a heightened rate of speed certainly can trigger a squirm or two even amongst undead aficionados. As for my own boundary of squeamishness I did just fine during the lecture through clips of fake zombie gore and genuine brain surgery alike but then almost passed out during the Q&A thanks to a passing reference to torture porn. So ask me over to see Shaun of the Dead but never Saw is what I'm saying.
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