I'll Take You There explores the subject of landscape through the work of fifteen artists who employ aspects of Collage to construct landscapes using materials as diverse as crayons, postcards, puzzles, maps and all manner of printed ephemera. Whether imagining the world in its entirety, or focusing on the night sky, Biblical depictions of Heaven and Hell, pastoral landscapes, tropical paradises or dense forests, the artists invite us to take in the scenery and explore new frontiers.
Through February 3 - Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Frequency and Volume at SFMOMA. A lingering remnant of the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial, this installation by Mexican-born/Montreal-based artist Lozano-Hemmer very effectively melds technology and participation. As you move across a darkened room your projected shadow picks up a series of radio frequencies while the size of your silhouette determines the volume of the broadcast. Lozano-Hemmer, whose installation of motion-tracking fluorescent lights you might have recently experienced in the exhibition Field Conditions at the museum, has made his process visible by installing his radio equipment in the gallery just next door to the projection room with artfully-hung ceiling cables leading you out to the fourth floor terrace right to his radio tower itself. As I stood there in the exhibition picking up mysterious maritime communications and something labeled "Space to Earth" with my body I thought of the judge in Kieslowski's Red and his illicit (and seductive) habit of listening in on other people's phone conversations. I also really enjoyed watching other people play with their own shadows and in one case dance lithely across the length of the entire gallery.
Baby, I lost my handshoes... is an ongoing collaborative project by artists Donna Huanca, Vytautas Jurevicius, Lisa Meixner, and Aki Nagasaka, and the above poster is from their exhibition in Porto last year. I set Google Translate to work on the press release from that show and kind of love the results:
This exhibition, which in itself may be considered as a harmonious whole of a complex universe made of languages, architectures, and identifying elements of socialization, whose organization and its construction involves mandatory hands are sidewalks, is also a geography , to be covered by whoever wants full of holes opened for all universes built by the will, the desire felt by those who lurks each work with the firm intention to look beyond them. But always, always Handshoes.
A few notes on some recently encountered awesomeness:
Ian McDonald
Matt Connors
-Ian McDonald, Matt Connors, and Gregory Lind at [ 2nd floor projects ]. McDonald's muted ceramic sculptures were a perfect foil to Connors's stacks of vibrantly-painted canvases with a beautiful edition by Gregory Lind to accompany. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love this space and how thoughtfully Margaret Tedesco puts together each show.
-Carl Lipo and Terry Hunt seminar hosted by the Long Now Foundation. Lipo and Hunt shared their paradigm-shifting research about what they believe really happened on Easter Island. For example watch the video above to see how the statues were likely moved across the island, and read their book The Statues That Walked for the full scoop.
Will Tait
-Will Tait, Rebecca Fogg, and Sgraffito Studio in Emeryville. If it weren't for my best friend's cat Tagalong deciding he liked them I never would have met this very talented artist couple or gotten a peek inside their amazing studio and gallery on San Pablo. You might have seen the outside, with its twisting metal vines in place of bars. Inside is a metal- and wood-working shop with enough specialized machinery and engineering cleverness to make me grin with glee.
-Three Shows curated by Jackie Im and Aaron Harbour at Royal Nonesuch Gallery. Mounting three shows in three consecutive weeks might destroy the average curator, but Im and Harbour have a lot of fun with the task they've set for themselves. I enjoyed the work by "two Bensons" when I was in the gallery Saturday, and this coming weekend is the final show: Object Oriented: An exhibition of obscured, misdirected, and/or autonomous objects and sites.
Jon Gourley
-Translocura: Art on the Brink of Madness at Headlands Center for the Arts. Curated by John Jota Leaños, this group show offers work by local artists that is in turn funny, disturbing, and contemplative. Well worth the drive, especially if it's a sunny weekend.
We Care Solar
-MLK Day of Service with WE CARE Solar at the Tech Museum of Innovation. Bay Area students building "solar suitcases" to send to schools in Sierra Leone and an orphanage in Uganda? Dr. King would have been proud.
I won't be updating this mix for a little while because I have a temporary weekly slot on KALX starting next Sunday: noon - 3pm PST, Sunday, January 27 KALX Berkeley 90.7fm