Through April 10 - Angela Hennessy: As I Live and Breathe at SOMArts
Angela Hennessy's solo exhibition at SOMArts is a full-body experience, the way that the warehouse gallery has been masterfully arranged to feature Hennessy's synthetic-hair sculptural pieces, the way that poetry fills your ears as you seem to float in darkness with her work. Ropes of braided and twisted hair twine into talismanic shapes that grow from the floor, while teased-out afro-puff planets dangle in space. I could see the evidence of Hennessy's hands throughout, where shimmers of regal gold contrast with darker strands in some pieces and in the large-scale blanket of black hair displayed on one wall that had me standing in awe of the time it must have taken to craft it. Through her work Hennessy wants us to ask, "How does our understanding of mortality, specifically as Black, Indigenous, people of color, shape the way we move through the world? What does it mean to practice both surrender and agency?"
Other things I liked this week:
- A Different Image by Alile Sharon Larkin. Made in 1982 during the LA Rebellion film movement and shot by Charles Burnett, Larkin's beautiful piece depicts art student Alana and her quest to connect with her heritage by embracing something other than patriarchal beauty and relationship standards.
- Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life by Sutton Foster. A very charming memoir told through the lens of the art and crafts Foster has made throughout her life.
- When I was at UCSC I always appreciated the amazing speakers they brought to campus for the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Convocation, and this year the whole thing was on Zoom so I could hear Ruja Benjamin speak about race and technology at home Wednesday night. Highly recommend checking out the recording here.
- Meanwhile on Thursday I teleported to Green Apple Books via Zoom to hear badass Silvia Vasquez-Lavado speak about her experiences as a climber and her new book In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage. I will never climb any epic mountains but love hearing from those do.
- Josh Faught's current show at the Wattis Look Across the Water Into the Darkness, Look for the Fog is a must-see before it closes next week too. Faught literally and figuratively weaves together kitsch and queer history into an extraordinary body of work.
- I'm also very glad I squeaked in the High Plains exhibition at Johansson Projects featuring art by Rachelle Bussières, Blaise Rosenthal, and Andy Vogt on its last day yesterday. By juxtaposing photogramic lumen prints by Bussières, sculptural pieces by Vogt, and works on shaped canvas by Rosenthal, the show created a harmony of color and dimension that felt downright magical.