Engineer's Daughter

ketchup

Through June 2 - The Office at the San Jose ICA

Through July 8 - Renegade Humor at the San Jose Museum of Art

Recently closed - Jonathan Runcio: Blue Turns to Grey at Ratio 3

Through tonight - C.R.E.A.M. at Art Micro Patronage

Jeremy Novak at Headlands Center for the Arts

Private Collections tour of the Niles/Pereira Collection

Bitter Seeds at the SF International Film Festival

Recently closed - Rapture Ready: Space Planning and Aesthetics at The Popular Workshop

The Secret Life of Mushrooms at Southern Exposure

Recently closed - Leigh Wells: Remains at Gregory Lind Gallery

Recently closed - Robert Arneson: Self-Portraits in Bronze at Brian Gross Fine Art

Through June 24 - Super 8 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Digital Inquiry: Forms of Knowledge in the Age of New Media presented by the Berkeley Center for New Media

I did just move to Oakland, but as you can see I've been up to a few other things besides.  I finally have internet in my new apartment and look forward to getting back to something resembling a reliable blogging pattern.  Here's to fresh starts and clean slates.

sound of noise

Those wacky Swedes.  Back in 2001 Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson concocted a short film called Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers in which the titual sextet of drummers use everything they can find in an apartment to make their anarchic brand of music.  Now Simonsson and Nilsson have kept the same percussionists and expanded their concept to an entire city in the full-length Sound of Noise, a heady mixture of inventive sound and dry Scandinavian humor.  There's actually a plot this time involving a music-averse policeman who is out to capture the band of guerrilla musicians, but pay that little mind.  Instead revel in the musical pieces like "Money 4 U, Honey" performed in a bank and "Electric Love" that takes place high on some power lines. 

See also:

• Sound of Noise trailer
• Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers

here is always somewhere else

Bas Jan Ader

Bas Jan Ader

Bas Jan Ader

"I do not make body sculpture, body art or body works.  When I fell off the roof of my house or into a canal, it was because gravity made itself master over me."  --Bas Jan Ader

I was first introduced to the work of Bas Jan Ader in June 2006 at the Camden Arts Centre in London, where they were mounting the first solo show of his work ever in the UK.  I was practically hard-wired to fall deeply in love with his work, steeped as it is in a very Dutch sense of humor and irony and melancholy, and this was even before I learned he had been lost at sea in 1975 in his ultimate artistic project, In Search of the Miraculous.  In his documentary Here Is Always Somewhere Else filmmaker (and Bas's friend) Rene Daalder sketches out Ader's career and thoughtfully explores the possible motivations for his attempt to cross the Atlantic in a too-tiny boat.  The boat was found off Ireland; Ader never was.  Along the way Daalder interviews the artist's widow, his best friend Ger van Elk, and contemporary artists who have been influenced by his work like the always-amazing Tacita Dean.  Daalder's film screened Friday night at the Berkeley Art Museum in conjunction with their awesome State of Mind exhibition (more on that in a future post), and it was incredibly moving to hear Ader's friends and family give their first-hand accounts of his artistic vision.  From Jonathan Monk's essay in the Camden Arts Centre's Bas Jan Ader "file note":

He made very few pieces in his short lifetime, all though, very beautiful and precious.  He was (and is) an important teacher and many of his students (us all) sometimes cannot deal with his/their loss, fantasizing all kinds of scenarios and even his eventual safe return.  I also hope he is still alive, living on an island in the South Seas, watching from a distance, his work magically continuing without him... the artist as consumer of extreme comfort.

See also:

• Here Is Always Somewhere Else
• Bas Jan Ader
• State of Mind

the best of annecy

 

Osman Cerfon

 

Juan Pablo Zaramella

 

Grant Orchard

I love me some cutting-edge animation, and thanks to the SF Film Society for providing with the program The Best of Annecy which screened last weekend at the SFFS Cinema in Japantown.  I liked each of the nine shorts, selected from the 2011 edition of the annual French animation festival, but the clips above represent my absolute favorites.  Please enjoy Osman Cerfon's Sticky Ends in all of its hilariously twisted glory, and take a peek at the Buenos Aires stop-motion fantasia Luminaris by Juan Pablo Zaramella and Grant Orchard's clever A Morning Stroll (based loosely on a Paul Auster story).  I searched long and hard for complete versions of those last two online, but the trailers will have to suffice.

See also:

• SF Film Society Cinema
• Annecy International Animated Film Festival
• Osman Cerfon
• Juan Pablo Zaramella
• Grant Orchard

podworka, no

Sharon Lockhart

Sharon Lockhart

Just two images from Sharon Lockhart's 2009 video Podworka, vignettes of children at play in the urban landscape of Lodz, Poland, and her 2003 film No, a single 34-minute shot of two farmers in rural Japan spreading hay over a field.  I watched both at SFMOMA last week while I was there saying goodbye to Lockhart's Lunch Break installation before it closed, and the moment No appeared on screen I suffered a severe shock of recognition: I had seen it at the Camden Arts Centre in London in 2005 as part of an amazing group show curated by Tacita Dean, An Aside.  Dean had described Lockhart's film as "an autumn elegy about time, perspective and labour in a landscape that is changing colour."  I was just as hypnotized seeing it now as I had been by it in London, and the work of the farmer couple was a beautiful contrast to the play of the children in Podworka too.

See also:

• SFMOMA
• Sharon Lockhart
• An Aside

pine flat

Sharon Lockhart

Sharon Lockhart

Sharon Lockhart

Closing soon: Sharon Lockhart's Lunch Break installation at SFMOMA, photographs and a film that provide documentation of the year Lockhart spent with industrial workers at the Bath Iron Works in Maine.  The museum has been celebrating the last weeks of her exhibition with special events including a pop-up lunch room at SFMOMA on Friday (the vegan duck banh mi from Rice Paper Scissors was out of this world, as was Blue Bottle's homemade crackerjack) and a short series of Lockhart's films.  Thursday night I attended the first half of her 2005 film Pine Flat before running off to John Wiese's show at The Lab, but the part I saw was wonderfully meditative.  Really just a sequence of extended shots in which very little happens (people started sneaking out of the theater after about fifteen minutes), Pine Flat focuses on adolescents who are growing up in the foothills of the Sierras, catching them at that poignant moment in between youth and adulthood.  The settings are pastoral and recall classical figure painting as Lockhart's subjects find ways to pass the time, some with patience and others exhibiting a more restless spirit.  For more Lockhart this coming Thursday SFMOMA will be showing two more of her films, Podworka and No, or just head up to the museum's fourth floor to experience Lunch Break.

See also:

• SFMOMA
• Sharon Lockhart

miscellany 12.05.11

Leslie Shows, from her current show at Haines Gallery

I've been taking some time to recover after spending the week of Thanksgiving in Copenhagen, but soon I should have my pictures sorted out and then will do a proper post about the trip besides (sneak peek a video here).  In the meantime I wanted to post a few quick links from some of my recent art and culture intake.

• Leslie Shows: Split Array at Haines Gallery.  Shows is already one of my favorite local artists, and she pushes herself forward into another dimension in this exhibition of new work, creating paintings on reflective metal with complex geological layers.  Next Wednesday 12/14 she and BAM/PFA director Lawrence Rinder will be discussing her work at the gallery.
• Tania Bruguera's Immigrant Movement International.  Bruguera is in the midst of this ongoing project that explores the rights and identity of contemporary immigrants.  She spoke at the Kadist Foundation Wednesday night and encouraged everyone to participate in the actions that are being planned for International Migrants Day on Sunday 12/18.  She was joined by Adriana Camarena, who read from her essay "The Geography of the Unseen" (included in Rebecca Solnit's book Infinite City) as well as from newer stories she has been collecting on the streets of the Mission.
• Thea Farhadian.  I saw Farhadian perform at the Luggage Store New Music Series Thursday night, beautiful looped violin compositions that merged classical Arabic music with noise and electronica.  No upcoming shows are listed on her website, but you can check out some documentation of a collaborative project she did with artist Silvina Der-Meguerditchian here.
• Frances Stark: the whole of all the parts as well as the parts of all the parts at the Mills Art Museum.  Block out an hour and go spend it with Stark's confounding, moving, and very funny video piece, which as it progresses leads you from screen to screen through the length of the whole museum.  Major bonus points for including an homage to Lady Gaga's "Telephone" as well as use of online avatars and chat conversations.  Stark will be speaking at Mills this Wednesday 12/7, and I would wager she'll incorporate PowerPoint somehow.
• Like Crazy.  Drake Doremus gives us a film not so much about how inextinguishable love is but rather about how it would often be better if we just got over it when it ends.  Move the fuck on, embrace real life instead of fantasy.  That's what I took away from it anyway, in between enjoying the scenery shot in London and Santa Monica.

Want more?

• The Headlands First Look party Wednesday 12/7 is going to be killer, cocktails and yummy bites aplenty plus the chance to be the first to hear who next year's residents will be.
• Scout Niblett is in town this week, playing Vitus in Oakland Wednesday 12/7 and the Hemlock in SF Thursday 12/8.
• And if you don't feel like going out: Errol Morris's Tabloid is available to rent from iTunes and Netflix has about a hundred episodes of No Reservations.

connected

Stefan Nadelman

Stefan Nadelman

Stefan Nadelman

Tiffany Shlain's new film Connected is not without its issues, but I still liked it a lot.  In this time of the Great Facebook Winnowing, when people feel lost in the same social networks meant to connect us, she raises some important points about our interdependence both in individual human relationships and on a grander, more global scale, and the visuals remain lively throughout thanks to her extensive use of archival footage and Stefan Nadelman's eye-popping animations.  I do think she could have made two separate films instead of this one: a first in which she concentrated on her powerful experience as her father (the author and brain surgeon Leonard Shlain) battled cancer, and a second in which she took the time to more fully flesh out some of the science she just barely skims over in the present film, the better to present her theories about human development as it pertains to the Internet and to elucidate our contemporary love/hate relationship with technology.  As it is Shlain's declaration that the Web can solve all our problems seems more starry-eyed than practical.  Our need to connect is undeniable, as is the urgency with which we need to address the issues facing our planet, but there are as many ways to do it as there are people on earth.  I've always loved being online, probably more than the average citizen (find me on Google+ if you dare), but I also adore meeting in person to create, laugh, swap ideas, or just listen.  Whatever it takes to understand each other's perspectives and bridge differences that's what we need to do, whether online or off.

See also:

• Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology
• Tiffany Shlain

agenda 09.21.2011

Thursday, September 22:

• 2011 Art Practice Faculty Show Artists Panel at Worth Ryder Art Gallery

Friday, September 23:

• React Records Showcase at 924 Gilman
• Dangerzone vs. Echo A Go-Go at the Knockout

Saturday, September 24:

• Alex Nowik: Perception and Economy of Form Opening Reception at Martina }{ Johnston Gallery
• Gallery I: Matthew Draving / Gallery II: Jessica Williams at Important Projects
• Tetris Tournament at The Lab
• Expanding Cinema – Mountains, Simon Scott, Darwinsbitch, Perpeteia at Liminal Space
• Dark Room presents Bound & Gagged, a Love story (Folsom Street Weekend) at the Hot Spot

Sunday, September 25:

• Desire Trails: One-Of-A-Kind Hikes in the Marin Headlands + Brunch at Headlands Center for the Arts

Tuesday, September 27:

• Infrasound, Jason Kahn, Francisco Meirino at The Lab

Wednesday, September 28:

• In Mind and Memory reception at Worth Ryder Gallery
• Muni Diaries Reunion/Open Mic Show at the Elbo Room

agenda 09.07.11

Two full weeks of events tonight, since I'll be out of town next week.  I'll try to update if anything crops up on my radar before I go too.  Because I love you guys.

Thursday, September 8:

• "Everybody's happy nowadays." opening reception at Mina Dresden Gallery
• Peter Daltrey (UK Kaleidoscope) + Kelley Stoltz + Bart Davenport + Asteroid #4 at Cafe Du Nord
• The Twelfth Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival at Brava Theater Center

Friday, September 9:

• Rex Ray at Gallery 16
• Terry Riley at the Berkeley Art Museum
• Experimental Notations at Royal NoneSuch Gallery and MacArthur b arthur
• Sabertooth Zombie record release show + Creatures, Prizehog, more at 924 Gilman

Saturday, September 10:

• Mission Creek: Free Concert in McLaren Park
• Keeping an Eye on Surveillance Opening Reception at the Performance Art Institute
• Young and Free: Contemporary Australian Street Artists at 941 Geary
• Battalion Of Saints, Attitude Adjustment, Visual Discrimination, Oppressed Logic at 924 Gilman
• Ikue Mori - final concert of David Tudor Residency at Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College
• Ninjasonik at Bhopal
• Chick Habit at the Ruby Room

Sunday, September 11:

• Soul Food Farm Work Days in 3 parts- Week 1
• Enough War, We Declare Peace at the Golden Gate Bridge
• The Vibrators, BOATS!, Emily's Army, Bobby Joe Ebola, Ol' Cheeky Bastards at 924 Gilman
• Marco Eneidi Quartet/Thomas Dimuzio/With Strings at Amnesia

Monday, September 12:

• RTX + Ty Segall + Heavy Cream at the New Parish

Tuesday, September 13:

• Medusa's Mirror: Fears, Spells & Other Transfixed Positions at Pro Arts

Friday, September 16:

• Create: The Artists Are Present at the Berkeley Art Museum
• Opening Reception for Todd Bura and Madiha Siraj at Triple Base
• Connected - Theatrical Opening Weekend in the S.F. Bay Area
• Rorschach (NJ), Brainoil, No Statik, Needles at 924 Gilman
• The People: San Francisco at Z Space
• Official SJMADE Pre-Party at South First Street Billiards
• Victory and Associates - Record Release with Repeat After Me, Sister Grizzly at Brick and Mortar Music Hall
• The Album Leaf at the New Parish
• SHAKE! Presents Magic Christian Live In Concert at Milk Bar

Saturday, September 17:

• SJMADE with SJEATS, Fall 2011 at San Pedro Square Market
• Rock Make Street Festival 2011 at Treat Ave @ 18th Street
• BBQ w/Kitchen's Floor (AUS), Fat History Month (BOS), Waste Rig, GAZE at 3137 Telegraph
• Coarse Drawn Heart and other stories: new work by Tim Svenonius at Truesilver Gallery
• Zounds (UK), Swann Danger, Fucktard, Bite, Falcon A at 924 Gilman

Sunday, September 18:

• Godwaffle Noise Pancakes does Electronic Puppenhorten at The Lab

Monday, September 19:

• Theater Pub 2.9: Home-Fair Lanford Wilson's Roommate Plays at Cafe Royale

Tuesday, September 20:

• Bob Mould in conversation with Shepard Fairey at Herbst Theatre

Wednesday, September 21:

• Organ Spectacular at The Lab