Folk Art Chronicles

Archive for the ‘Assemblage’ Category

In our ongoing mission to build bridges between different parts of our local community; between different cultures; and between traditional and contemporary arts, I will collaborate again this year with Artworks Downtown to present our biannual exhibition for Dia de los Muertos, “Rooted in Tradition, Relevant Today”. Because this lively, vibrant traditional celebration from Mexico has parallels in many other cultures, contemporary artists have found fertile territory to explore in their own lives and work.

We are looking for local artists who would like to create an altar installation for the show which will run from October 8 until November 20, 2009. Installations can be very personal or can explore more general themes. The opening reception and party will be on October 9th.

The deadline to apply is coming upon us very quickly, the first week in September. If you are interested, please call me at the FolkArt Gallery (415-925-9096) or Artworks Downtown (415-451-8119).

Altars in family homes in rural Mexico follow traditional constraints and are always for specific people. They use candles, flowers, special foods and drink, incense, photographs and evocative objects referring to a specific person. Urban and community altars are less constrained, usually exuberant, fantastical and refer to more general community themes. They are composed of a wider range of objects including paintings, drawing sculptural objects, poetry and drawings and other mixed media memorializations.

Our traditional annual altar at the FolkArt Gallery will be available for viewing on October 1st and will include some wonderful new one-of-a-kind catrinas that we are just now unpacking from Michoacan, Mexico. Read the rest of this entry »

The much anticipated opening party for the 11^th annual Box Show at Gallery Route One was great fun as usual but there was nothing usual about the selection of boxes in the show. It is amazing to me that when you give 150 artists exactly the same box to begin with, the end results are so completely different. Since the artists work in such a wide range of media in their regular artwork, creating a box is a step outside of the normal milieu for most of us and the challenge pushes our boundaries a bit. This is what makes the process so much fun for me personally. From the time we pick up the boxes to the deadline date, about 8 weeks elapse. Generally, I spend first 4 weeks thinking about the shape & dimension of the box as well as deciding on a theme. The second 4 weeks is spent on executing the actual work. This year, rather than doing a serious narrative piece or something in the line of Joseph Cornell, I decided to take a more playful, design-oriented path. During the planning stage, I had gone to see the Nick Cave exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in SF and immediately knew that I wanted to do something inspired by the colorful, playful craft of Nick Cave. All the components are recycled or repurposed materials, such as an old sweater, teeshirt and bottle caps. The piece is titled “The Center of the Earth, an homage to Nick Cave”.

Gallery Route One is an exciting community based arts organization based on the belief that art is an intellectual and spiritual necessity that belongs in every community. The mission is provide a professional exhibition space for artwork and a program that addresses the cultural, political, and environmental concerns of the rural community of West Marin and the greater Bay Area. The annual Box Show raises about $20,000 yearly to fund the various programs of the organization.

Some pieces had substantial bids by the close of the opening party and bidding will continue daily right up to the auction at the closing party on September 13.

Gallery Route One, 11101 Hwy 1, Point Reyes Station. Open 11am to 5 pm daily except Tuesday. 415-663-1347.

There has been a fair amount of discussion lately about viewing the world through the lens of our own individual life experiences and whether this is or is not preferable to being “objective”. Or even if there is such a state as “objectivity”. I worry more about the people who claim that they can be totally objective all the time than about those who acknowledge and own their particular “lens” which are built upon our backgrounds, our geography and our personal temperaments. It’s definitely something to be aware of and sometimes, something to celebrate—the uniqueness that each of us can bring to the table. And, as long as we extend the same respect for the experience of others, it’s part of what makes the world such a fascinating place. It’s also what makes the world such a contentious place and the cause of most of the problems between people.

In this light, there are a variety of blogs and news sources that are very helpful

Events are best viewed through the filters of many points of view and today’s technology makes it so much easier to learn about each other outside of the established information and media sources we have always relied upon. The truth is discerned less from the grand events and pronouncements of governments and institutions than from small ordinary experiences of citizens in their daily lives. In this light, there are a variety of blogs that I greatly enjoy for the personal insights they give into other cultures. Of particular interest are several from the traditional cultures of Muslim countries often in the news here in the States.

Saudi Jeans is written by Ahmed Al-Omran, a young university student in Riyad, Saudi Arabia. His blog aims to provide news, commentary, and personal views on political and social issues in Saudi Arabia, with a special focus on freedom of expression, human rights and women’s rights. His commentary provides a window into daily life and the concerns of Saudi youth not found in mainstream media.

Susie’s Big Adventure is another of my favorites. Susie is an American woman, married to a Saudi man who wanted to move back to his country after spending 30 years with her in the states. She comments on the realities of living in a strict Muslim country and an even stricter male-dominated society through the eyes of an American.

Afaque and Tazeen are young people writing about their lives and thoughts from different cities in Pakistan. Afaque calls his blog Muddleheaded and Tazeen has named hers A Reluctant Mind.

These are young people who will influence the futures of their countries and the greater world. You will also find other interesting young people in their countries by checking out whose blogs they personally follow. It’s a great way to develop a network of information and contacts around the world.

I absolutely love the motto of the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles: “Because a shrinking world requires an expanded mind!”

I‘ve followed this Museum, founded in 1973, since before it even existed—it evolved from an amazing shop on Wilshire boulevard called The Egg and I—created by Edith Wyle an intrepid cultural explorer.

We share a similar vision that diverse and myriad cultures can be understood through art which reflects universal themes common to us all.

It is amazing what can be accomplished in a modest space with a well curated exhibition. Such is the case with the two current shows at the Museum.

Celestial Ash: Assemblages from Los Angeles introduced me to four artists from southern California that I didn’t previously know: Matjames, Exene Cervenka, Gail Greenfield and Michael McMillen.

Curated by Kristine McKenna, the show’s common thread is the influence of Joseph Cornell and an emotional, introspective treatment of their materials. According to McKenna, (it’s) what they bring to these materials that transforms them. They revere what these objects represent: the past, and a kind of America that’s rapidly disappearing. They treat the objects as holy relics, so that’s how we read them.”

Matjames was living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home, studio and much of his work. His artwork elevates objects that have been disregarded and discarded and gives them new value and meaning.

“People have their grandparents’ tea sets in their cabinets and hold them in high regard. But why can’t other objects be held in that same regard? I find a pencil on the ground and I bring it home. What could have been written by that pencil? It might have been a school kid’s pencil, or it could have been Einstein’s. There’s an energy to each thing. It carries a history, a haunting.”

For Exene Cervenka, “it’s all about the past, re-creating the past, reinterpreting the past.”

During the 30 years that she toured with the band X, she kept journals that evolved into picture books with fragments of poetry and keepsakes and eventually became collages.

Cervenka’s assemblages in the exhibition incorporate newspapers, dictionary pages, jigsaw puzzles, greeting cards, butterfly charts, Christian imagery, empty photo corners, blank labels and assorted small objects.

Gail Greenfield Randall fills the shelves of her shadowboxes with found objects and personal keepsakes: sea urchin spines, a miniature Bible, old medicine bottles, polished stones, small rusty bells. She remembers her grandmother “had a drawer that had dividers and each of the compartments held something delicious: like seashells, a pocket watch, a sewing kit, a cameo, a pair of old passports, a lock of hair. “I just loved it. When she passed away, I started making assemblages, using some of the materials I’ve collected over the years and objects that had belonged to her. I found the form not just therapeutic but incredibly satisfying.”

Randall’s pieces embody a coherent narrative in which the box provides a stage where a drama unfolds.

The final component in the exhibition is an installation “Asylum of Lost Thoughts” by Michael McMillen, entered through two creaky doors that lead you into a “theatre” composed of discarded items like an abandoned hospital ward. From here, you view a film that in itself is like an assemblage in motion. Each frame of the film, composed of all manner of strange images, some from old educational films, is like an assemblage or collage in itself. Your thoughts and feelings are directed by the music and its mood. Is this the inside of his brain?

“I’ve always been a collector of things, trying to recombine them into new things. It started when I was a little kid. I would patrol the alleys of Santa Monica, looking for stuff. A lifelong habit, I’m afraid. I’ve been fascinated by the way things go from A to Z, the history of their existence, how objects change. Maybe, without being too morbid, it’s a meditation on mortality, a contemplation of that.”

After spending an enchanting hour in the exhibition, Phillip Hunt, the sales person in the Museum shop directed me to the internet to view more of Michael McMillen’s work on line.

The exhibition Celestial Ash will be at CAFAM until September 13. For more information see the review by Leah Ollman in the Los Angeles Times. All the above photos are drawn from the LA Times and the CAFAM website.