Engineer's Daughter

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.

fall open house

 

Michael Dumanis

 

Faye Driscoll

Rikard Fåhraeus

Laurie Frick

Suzanne Husky

Lukasz Jastrubczak

 

Dan Joseph

Ho-Tzu (Son) Ni

Chris Ritson

Amanda Trager & Erik Moskowitz

Andy Vogt

This is just a taste of current and past work by the fall Artists in Residence at Headlands; for more detail please watch the videos above or click on the links.  On a side note: I'm totally still fantasizing about the shells with white cheddar I had for lunch out there Sunday afternoon.  Holy moly.

headlands @ lit crawl

Amy Franceschini

I love it when Headlands does an "off-site" event, and this was a good 'un.  As part of Lit Crawl three former artists-in-residence and one current staff member picked four different authors to read something of their writings, and then a whole horde of us clustered into Bruce Tomb's Mission studio to hear the results.  If you've been to Headlands you've probably encountered Tomb's work, as he helped to repurpose the former military latrine in Building 944 for use by the general public.  His studio is another act of extreme repurposing as it used to be the Mission's police station, and he is keen on making its troubled history transparent even as he shapes it into a home for his family.  His choice for author was Annice Jacoby, editor of Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo, who referenced the wall outside Tomb's studio he has given over to the community on which to post art, posters, etc and then read a snippet from her upcoming work of literary nonfiction Lips Serve Us.  Author and professor Jason Ferreira (Headlands programs director Brian Karl's choice) also explicitly dealt with the history of Tomb's studio in his piece about the Mission during the '70s taken from the anthology Ten Years that Shook the City.  My fave local Futurefarmer Amy Franceschini introduced her fellow Headlands alum Cooley Windsor, who presented a playful manifesto for instigating one's own 90-day residency, and at the end of the evening Minnie Singh (as picked by Vera Kachouh) blew us all away with her short story "The Zero Conditional."  Here's hoping Headlands does Lit Crawl again next year.

See also:

• Lit Crawl
• Headlands Center for the Arts
• Jason Ferreira
• Amy Franceschini
• Cooley Windsor
• Bruce Tomb
• Annice Jacoby
• Vera Kachouh
• Minnie Singh

scanners

Saturday night and the Mission was seriously hopping for Lit Crawl, with every available bar, coffee shop, and store front packed to the gills with the lit faithful listening to writers read their work.  I made my first stop 312 Valenica, a space you might normally know as Mina Dresden Gallery but for the month of October occupied instead by a pop-up used book store called Scanners.  The Cronenberg reference is intentional I'm sure, especially considering there are entire sections inside the shop devoted to science fiction and counterculture.  Curated by Matt Barruso and Nick Hoff, Scanners deals with everything from the decline of the book in the age of the iPad to the struggle of actual used book stores to stay afloat.  The shop is hosting a number of events, including a conversation with Tanya Hollis and Rick Prelinger tomorrow night about the future of the archive and a discussion about artist source material at the end of the month courtesy of D-L Alvarez and Colter Jacobsen.  It's also just a really fun space to browse, and everything on the shelves is indeed for sale.

See also:

• Scanners
• Mina Dresden Gallery
• Matt Borruso
• Nick Hoff

agenda 09.28.11

Thursday, September 29:

• Retromania: Simon Reynolds In Conversation With The Alps' Scott Hewicker at The Booksmith
• Unwoman: Uncovered Live Show and Release Party at the Uptown

Friday, September 30:

• Gutwrench, Fukm, Spracta Snut Skallar, Mental Disaster, Skin & Bonez at 924 Gilman
• Nun Un / Hole In My Head / T.I.T.S. / Swimsuit Issue at LoBot Gallery
• International Freakout A Gogo at First Church of the Buzzard

Saturday, October 1:

• Bar-B-Q, Beer, Birthdays, Bands & Bass at East Nile
• Bum City Saints, Chump Change, Decent Criminals, Otro Desperdicio, Corporate Cancer & Moderate Excess at 924 Gilman
• 10.01.11 at Terminal
• Saturday Night Soul Party at the Elbo Room

Sunday, October 2:

• Paul Baribeau, Acid Fast, Joyride at 924 Gilman

Monday, October 3:

• In Mind and Memory Symposium on Artistic Research at 102 Wurster Hall

Tuesday, October 4:

• Deep Teens// No Babies// Uzi Rash// Whitman (LA) at Jam City

lysley tenorio

From "L'amour, CA" by Lysley Tenorio:

"My sister, Isa, speaks English and Tagalog. But one word, she could say in many languages: koigokoro, beminnen, mahal, amor. 'It's the most important thing,' she used to say, 'the only thing. L-O-V-E. Love.' So when we learned that we would be moving to California, to a city called L'amour, she called it home, the place where we were always meant to be. I believed her."

See also:

• "L'amour, CA"
• Lysley Tenorio

agenda 06.29.2011

My picks for the week ahead, including some long-weekend fun:

Thursday, June 30:

• Calvin Johnson, Joey Casio, Bam!Bam! at Escapist Comics
• Japanther at the Old Compound
• REDSHIFT premieres Arctic Sounds + Jack O' The Clock at Brick and Mortar Music Hall

Friday, July 1:

• Local Label Faire with Moveable Feast at the San Mateo County Event Center
• Guilty By Association, Go Time!, Lazerwolf, Protest Authority at 924 Gilman
• Nucular Aminals/.Psychic Feline/.Dadfag/.Joey Casio at 1709 Goss

Saturday, July 2:

• Killing The Dream's last show w/The Carrier/All Teeth/Dcoi at 924 Gilman
• Cello/voice to shake/wake the soul at the Starry Plough
• Saturday Night Soul Party at the Elbo Room

Sunday, July 3:

• Second Sanctuary Poetry Reading - David Brazil and Sara Larsen at Martina }{ Johnston Gallery
• Harm's Way, Xibalba, Buried at Birth, Vital Nerve at 924 Gilman

Monday, July 4:

• Sissisters, Brandon Nickell, Wrong Hole, Holly Herndon, Concrete Shiva at The Lab

Wednesday, July 6:

• Jack Leamy Tournesol Award Exhibition at the Luggage Store Gallery

agenda 06.22.2011

My Bay Area (and beyond) picks for the next week

Thursday, June 23:

• Forever, Tacocat, Fat Transfer, Bitter Fruit at the Big Gay Warehouse

Friday, June 24:

• Through the Native Lands and Back at The Usuals
• A floorless room without walls, The Lab's annual juried exhibition
• Hooray For Everything/Angries record release show + Neon Piss and more at 924 Gilman
• Jozef Van Wissem, Derek Monypeny, Date Palms, Vestals & DJ Ben B at Life Changing Ministry
• International Freakout A Go-Go with Live Roots Of Manding at Lobot Gallery

Saturday, June 25:

• "Chase The Tear" Opening Reception at the National Institute of Art & Disabilities
• Those Unknown, Pressure Point, Harrington Saints, Old Firm Casuals, & more at 924 Gilman
• anti pride show in West Oakland

Sunday, June 26:

• Godwaffle Noise Pancakes at The Lab
• Nuclear Death Wish // High Castle // No Babies at ATA

Wednesday, June 29:

• An Evening with Literary Activist E. Ethelbert Miller at Museum of the African Diaspora

agenda 06.01.2011

Just pretend I posted this yesterday, mmmkay? 

Friday, June 3:

• Michael Wertz and Janet Fine present Dog Dreams at Artisans Gallery
• Homer Flynn: From the Archives of the Residents at Johansson Projects
• Silent Funeral Procession for the Library at Art Murmur
• Saint Vernon, Fog of War, Apothesary, Hysteria, Lyceum at 924 Gilman

Saturday, June 4:

• Living Room at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• The Petal Peddler, Cries of San Francisco at Southern Exposure
• Crescent Hotel Anniversary: Wrong Words, The Parties & Cindy G
• Algernon Cadwallader, Joyce Manor, 1994, Snowing, Yi at 924 Gilman
• Saturday Night Soul Party at the Elbo Room

Sunday, June 5:

• Your Metaforest Guidebook, Wild Assumptions, Cher Horowitz + more at 924 Gilman

this and that

What follows is a braindump of all the cool art and such I've seen in the last few weeks that I haven't had a chance to write about here, basically an attempt to clear my head before I go reset my internal equilibrium in NYC later this week.  Here goes:

• Breaking Ranks: Human/Nature readings and performances at Headlands Center for the Arts - I reviewed this more fully over on the SF Weekly Exhibitionist blog, but this was a really wonderful one-time-only afternoon of live art in conjunction with the gallery exhibition that was running at the same time.  The picture here gives you a hint of the fun.
• 2 x 2 Solos: Weston Teruya and Chris Fraser at Pro Arts - Teruya, curated by Michelle Mansour, built an entire landscape out of paper right in the gallery.  Fraser, curated by Xiaoyu Weng, played with optics via a pinhole camera, hypnotic videos, and an amazing installation that painted delicate rays of light right onto the floor of a dark room.  Don't miss the round currently in the gallery either, with Michelle Blade and Taro Hattori curated by Jackie Im and Post Brothers respectively.
• Control Group at Noma Gallery - This spectacular group exhibition challenged artists to work outside their customary disciplines and contained really strong work by some of my local faves: Colter Jacobsen, David Wilson, Leslie Shows, Lindsey White, Margaret Tedesco, Nate Boyce, Sean McFarland.
• The Marvelous Museum: A Project by Mark Dion at the Oakland Museum of California - My first visit to the OMCA since their remodel, and what was already a moving experience turned absolutely magical once I started finding the "orphaned" items Dion took from the museum's archives and installed in thoughtful juxtapositions to the permanent collection throughout the art galleries.  Hilarious at times and also quite moving.  The pieces have gone back to their storage rooms now, sadly, but go to see the new Splendors of Faith/Scars of Conquest show.  It rules.
• Creative Ecologies at Headlands Center for the Arts - A group of ecologically-minded creatives spent two weeks in residence at the Headlands, and then gathered the public for an afternoon of inspiration, tough questions, and even some singing.  Future Farmer Amy Franceschini is a particular hero of mine so it was fantastic to hear her ideas, but everyone had something concrete to share.
• México: Política y Poética at SFSU Fine Arts Gallery - Totally worth the trip out to SFSU, this group exhibition captures the vibrancy of the contemporary art scene in Mexico.  Pair this with second phase of the Disponible show currently on display at SFAI (both include work by the incredible Teresa Margolles among many others) and like me you'll want to start planning your trip south of the border immediate-like.