Long Story Short: Bay Area Exposes Roots
By Petra Bibeau
NDFTBK, Robbing the MoMA (DETAIL), 2004, mixed media, photo: P. Dahl
When looking for a cross sampling of a region’s emerging contemporary artists and styles, a juried show does well as a rough guide. It goes without saying that as with any juried show, between the participating juror(s) and the topic, the end result is heavily subjective, (hence a juried show). But on the plus side, the results of such a show can hint at styles and movements to come. In this case, Northern California offers a provocative mix of a diverse personal politic and a feverish bent pursuant of cultural cause.
San Francisco-based Southern Exposure opened its 14th annual juried exhibition on November 12th, showcasing a selection of contemporary Northern Californian artists working in various media on the topic "Epic." In an ambitious feat, this year’s selected juror, independent curator and art critic based in Mexico City and Los Angeles, Magali Arriola, sorted through over 600 submissions to arrive at 27 selected pieces.
The works exhibited a steadfast individualism as well as a commitment to difficult subject matter, including Americanism and cultural migration processes. Artists Yin-Ju Chen and James T. Hong presented Immigration, a mixed media piece that utilized live red ants making their home in the dirt of a small-scale, ivory colored America encased in a glass tank. Sophisticated and removed to the point of parody, Chen and Hong captured scattered and loosely bound concepts of home, America, separation, significance of space and assimilation, while leaving no certain departure or arrival points.
"Epic" also played host to several regionalist art styles. Arriola’s selection was gracious to Bay Area artists, (26 of the 27 selected hailing from both sides of the Bay) and signaled a popularity of a neighborhood effect keeping company with Bay Area favorites Mark Lee Morris and Tim Sullivan. Naomi Miller presented Thursday Basketball at Potrero Hill Courts, a series of ten color prints complete with mismatching frames displayed in perfect family room style. Oakland based artist Tracey Snelling contributed West, a mixed media sculpture intricately crafted to resemble a movie still with regionalist consult, including a comfortable landmark feel of mid-west isolation and strip mall brand sluttery signage reading "Go West." Artist Liz Rossof’s 1,000 Words for Bush acted as a conduit for the Bay Area public to expose a single word descriptor in regards to their visual associations when shown a picture of President Bush. Aesthetically modeled after the mass marketing campaign of Apple’s iPod, the completed responses marry a silhouette of Bush along side such pleasantries as: iBastard, iMoron, iMonster and iCrook.
Found treasure: virtual giants using small packages. Four artists make up San Francisco based NDFTBK (Seth and Ryan Hoercher, Dustin Fosnot and Joseph Gregory), who submitted Robbing the MoMA: three brightly colored packets containing documents, writing and sketches that encompass their plan of action. NDFTBK highlight everything unique to Bay Area drawing, mixing folklore and fact in their execution?an escape route gives direction through Chinatown terminating at Golden Gate Bridge with a scaled down map of SF.
That said, "Epic" was a blessing without disguise: Northern California harbors an inclusive mix of artists that seem to skip the normative art world designer chatter for a philosophy that works well within a DIY model and a natural anti-cool that is very deserving of a Bay Area style.
"Epic" Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA. 11/12/04 – 12
