Through October 3 - Nam June Paik at SFMOMA
First, the bad news. As an institution SFMOMA has been making extremely poor decisions for many years now, pretty much since the new wing opened and they hiked the admission and started policing the member tickets and practicing other exclusionary tactics. I had already let my 20-year membership lapse even before the pandemic because (with a few notable exceptions) the exhibitions seemed like the same things over and over again or blatant Instagram-bait, and then just a few weeks ago I joined the Bay Area art community by reacting with horror when the museum announced it was planning to cut the only programs that still kept it relevant: the film program, the Artists' Gallery, and its exceptional blog Open Space. All of this to say it was with great reluctance that I ponied up my $25 to visit yesterday, but there was no way I was going to miss the Nam June Paik retrospective. And the good news is it is an absolutely incredible show. My mind was blown around every corner and I learned a ton besides, especially about his collaborations with cellist Charlotte Moorman (pictured above) and Joseph Beuys and John Cage and Merce Cunningham and Laurie Anderson and more. There are jaw-dropping installations aplenty, like Paik's TV Garden and the immersive Sistine Chapel room, but I was most moved by the candle pieces that begin and end the exhibition as they use the simple metaphor of a lit flame to speak poetically to the brevity of life. I also carefully calculated my visit to coincide with several other excellent shows at the museum: new art/music by Charles Gaines about the Dred and Harriet Scott decision, work made by Bay Area artists in response to the pandemic and Black Lives Matter in the Close To Home exhibit, unconventional takes on photography in Off the Wall, and an unspeakably affecting dual show with pieces by Leah Rosenberg and Susan O'Malley. And of course I had to go stand in front of Diego Rivera's Pan American Unity for a while too.
Other things I liked this week:
- Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding by Daniel Lieberman. Not a self-help book but nevertheless full of gentle nudges, Lieberman busts exercise myths from the perspective of an evolutionary biologist. I was both fascinated and found some determination to get to a gym once it is safe to do so.
- The Grand Bizarre by Jodie Mack. I first became acquainted with Mack's dizzying visual collages when she was a resident at Headlands, and what a delight to sink into this full-length film that took me on a journey through many countries and through a wealth of textiles and patterns. The soundtrack is totally awesome too.
- I don't even have a garden but still very much enjoyed the webinar from the San Mateo Arboretum Society about gardening for butterflies with Susan Karasoff from the California Native Plant Society. Fellow members of Team Caterpillar please click here for the talk.
- Thursday night I was back at the Bruns Amphitheater for the first time in many years for a wonderful production of Janáček's Katya Kabanova by West Edge Opera, live and in person and safely outdoors. And I would have returned last night for Elizabeth Cree but sadly it was canceled due to a breakthrough case.