I went to Favianna's lecture too

I think Kathleen's review is right on, and I want to add a few thoughts on this lecture that interested me. Favianna Rodriguez's work is not limited to politics, she talks about social issues in a more personal way by telling the stories of her mother and grandmother's struggles as women of color and as immigrants.  In some of her work she expresses the joys and struggles in her daily life.  She is incredibly multi-dimensional in her work.  

I also really appreciated her approach to the femicides in Juarez. She said that the posters that depict women as victims weren't getting to the heart of the problem. Her poster highlights the role NAFTs plays in what's happening, rather than the mutilation and violence, and impoweers women to incite change. 

P.S. there was  a copy of the poster that says "we are not the enemy" in the Solidarity Lounge, but someone trashed it.

Brought to Light

Brought to Light: Photography and the Invisible, 1840-1900.

I saw this exhibit at SFMOMA and loved it. I don't know if it is for everyone but I found it absolutely fascinating. I love science and the natural world and this exhibition combines the two. It shows how scientific minds did numerous studies of the subjects that they were studying and through the then new use of photography could map out their theories and philosophies within their fields. There was the study that one man did of thousands of different shapes and delicacies of snowflakes. Another studied human and animal movement from different perspectives. Yet another was the group of dedicated astronomers who were able to "see" with a camera the millions if not billions of stars that the naked eye could and can hardly make out. These individuals literally mapped for us the constellations and galaxies that we now study and are familiar with that would have been impossible if not for the camera lens. One of the most shocking to see, not now but in the 1890s, was the x-ray image that showed the bones in the hand of the photographer/inventor's wife, along with her jewelry. It must have been bizarre for the viewer but also exciting once they recovered from the shock of seeing something that although commonplace for us would be mystifying to the uninitiated. It is up until January 4th, 2009. 

Bay Area Currents 2008

Oakland Art Gallery  is having their annual open call juried exhibition, Bay Area Currents 2008,  until November 21st. The juror for this show is the Curator of Exhibitions at the Rena Branstein Gallery, where we just saw Vik Muniz's work. There will be a talk there on Thursday November 20, from 6-8pm with most if not all of the artists in the show. One of the more interesting artists involved is the painter, Alanna Risse, www.alannarisse.com, who does these very colorful paintings of bees, beekeepers and flowers....Robb Putnam, www.robbputnam-art.com is another artist who is being shown there. He does these sculptures that look like cute mongrel dogs that are made of scraps of fake fur, garbage bags and other substances that make these strangely happy accidents that he calls art. He also does what looks like installations that consist of an animal (fake dog sculpture?) under a spotlight. Very fun and intriguing. To find out more about this show and the talk on the 20th, check out their website. www.oaklandartgallery.org

Favianna Rodriguez

Favianna Rodrigiuez is a local artist whose concentration is on printmaking and her posters address social issues she feels haven't received enough recognition. She has addressed issues concerning immigration, the importance of artists expressing their views and the apparent lack of female colored artists being recognized, and, of course, the effect of the war on people in the Middle East wherein her posters had a picture of a women with the text above her head reading genocide does not equal justice and the text below reading "We are not the enemy." Her posters always have very powerful images meant to support her opinion or cause and her posters have been used often in attempt to promote change especially in trying to change how people of color are treated within her own hometown. She created a poster that was put on the billboard outside of the West Oakland Bart in an attempt to stop gentrification in the area, and she was able to place it in a place where it would be seen by many people every day. I appreciated her belief that art doesn't have to be hung in a gallery in order to be considered art. She puts her artwork in public places so that every one can see what message she is trying to get known and I feel like her approach to getting her art seen is more accessible to younger people and people who don't really frequent museums and galleries. She said that her work is often criticized for being propaganda, but even if people look at it as propaganda, she is still able to get people thinking about pressing issues while getting to think creatively about issues that are important to her. One thing that made her talk and work so interesting is that she is from here and she is making art concerning issues that are prevalent to where we live, go to school, and work. She did the leave the lecture on a rather low note by reminding us that we do live in Oakland, the fourth most dangerous city in the world that has an ever-rising homicide rate, but at the same time it's art population is also rising, with which she was probably trying to get the artist's in the audience to remember the issues surrounding them when making their art.

Poladroid

Poladroid, mimicking the look of Polaroid.
Check this out, an interesting development, now that Polaroid is no longer manufactured.

dv

Isidro Blasco

Currently on view at Black & White Gallery in Chelsea, NYC is a new series of constructed photographs titled Shanghai At Last, by the artist Isidro Blasco. The exhibition is conceptually built around the physical space and architecture of Shanghai and and is presented in impressive sculpture / relief-like constructions where the collaged photographs sit directly on top of a wood armature. About the exhibition, the artist has stated, "Every city has a different impact on my work. I try to respond to the way the city is affecting me through the way I respond to the space that I inhabit. By doing so, I connect my experience as an outsider who walks the streets and interacts with the city with my more intimate feelings about closed and private spaces".
Isidro Blasco was born in 1962 and currently lives and works in New York City. The artist recently exhibited The Truth at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, in Sheboygan, WI, La Construccion del Paisaje Contemporaneo at the Centro de Arte y Naturaleza in Huesca, Spain, and Substance and Light: Ten Sculptors Use Cameras at the Museum of Art, Munson-Williams Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY.

Headlands Center for the Arts

Last weekend (no wait, it was the weekend before), I went to the Headlands with some classmates from senior seminar.  There was an open house going on. We weren't able to see all of the studios, but there were a few that were really interesting. Ellen Fullman created a huge stringed sculpture that she can play kind of like a harp and a little like a piano. It looks really interesting, and is only made better when she plays it. It seems that a project like this could be really fun and interactive, but she takes it very seriously and it is very hands off. That's alright though. Most of the other artist weren't really into the whole event. It seemed like they would rather not have a bunch of people gawking at their works in progress, go figure.

There were several exceptions though.

Liz Hickok, who is a Mills alumna, uses jello to recreate things. Her studio was a lot of fun, everyone was just in a really great mood. It's hard not to look at her work and smile though. She's currently working on a jello installation of Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit project. The jell-o that is a part of this installation  gets melted and moldy as time goes on. It's really cool. She also had some of her past photography projects on the wall. Those photographs are beautiful, jell-o looks amazing all lit up. 

I feel like we talked about her work in class, but I don't remember.