feather2pixels

Character Profile, the July 2013 text and language based group show I curated at Root Division in San Francisco, is over.

Just a rapidly fading collection of electrochemical brain markers and digital residue on the internet, the exhibition now exists only to the extent that we accept the highly contested notion of the past as a tangible component of reality. Character Profile does not think, therefore it may not be and may never have been.

To combat existential dread, I recorded this ten minute walkthrough of the show in 1080p.  We did it off the cuff in one long continuous take, so sorry if I misrepresented anything you might find important.   Thanks to EB , Trevor, and Lonwell for help with this.  And thanks to everyone who participated in the viewing and creation of this show.

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“Character Profile: New Works in Language, Text, and Wordplay”
Curated by Jon Fischer
Opening Reception Saturday July 13 7-10PM (one block from tacos!)
Exhibition Dates: July 10-27
Root Division
3175 17th Street at South Van Ness, San Francisco
free

About eighteen months ago in Golden Gate Park, I had a sudden flash of inspiration in the form of a succession of twenty-eight free associative phrases that I quite immediately knew I wanted to develop into a substantial art piece.

I was associated with Root Division through some teaching work, and decided to go even further and pitch them an entire language based show through their curatorial submission program. Over the course of four of five months of back and forth I refined the concept, got three or four trusted collaborators involved, and the proposal was accepted as the July 2013 show at Root Division! This group show is going to feature the language-based visual artwork of 27 artists including my beloved Ben Hill, Nowell Valeri, and Erin Bregman. I think it’s going to be a really fun, multifaceted show featuring but not limited to:

• A wall of Toasted Puns.
• An interactive sound installation in which visitors can manipulate Presidential speeches with obscene gangta rap with old TV commercials, to create their own postmodern soundtrack the way God intended.
• Flip Books.
• A New York Times vs USA Today death match.
• eBooks (a humongous “e” made out of books).
• And lots of other engaging, interactive work dedicated to a spirit of play.

Bring your kids!

My project, “American Fistfight” evokes the early era of cinema with rudimentary moving image sequences produced entirely with screen printed 35mm slides. Several vintage projectors connected with a fabricated control panel will allow visitors to maneuver image sequences for themselves while the results are displayed on the gallery wall.

From the curatorial desk:
Character Profile is a visual arts exhibition featuring projects that explore intersections between the forms, mechanisms and meanings of language. Drawing from a cross disciplinary group of twenty-six collaborators from across the country including writers, visual artists, and craftspeople, Character Profile investigates novel functions of language through a broad range of materials, media and approaches. Many of these works are dedicated to a spirit of engagement and play. The exhibition highlights art designed for direct interaction with visitors and work that provokes expanded meanings and alternative associations. These artists present language as both a medium and a subject, and deftly maneuver words to both convey and critique meaning.

Last year I decided that I wanted to focus on art that features wordplay.

To facilitate this, I arranged to curate a show on art that features wordplay at the always-canny Root Division.   The key word here is “play.”  The word “word” is also key.   I suppose the word “features” provides some key context as well.

You know what? All the words are important.  That’s the point of the show.

Please forward this to anyone who might be interested–not just visual artists.  The show is in July 2013 in SF and proposals are due by the end of April.

OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS:

Character Profile

Last weekend I took my live screenprinting act on the road.

By on the road, I mean four blocks from my studio to Root Division for the second annual  Misfit Toy Factory.

It’s a live artmaking event featuring over 35 artists making sculptures, toys, and gifts onsite in the gallery space at Root Division.  All works made in this one night only event are cash and carry for $40 each and benefit RD.  It’s like a holiday-themed sweatshop for artists, except without the paycheck.   I made nine pieces inspired from a visit to California’s other Ocean Beach, in San Diego.

Here is a Picassa album with most of the work.  Here some of my pictures:

Allow me to share this triumphant piece of paper.  This is my signed, unsealed, and delivered contract to curate the July 2013 exhibition at Root Division.   Over the course of this year, I developed this proposal with the help of some collaborators and it was accepted! It’s an art show based on wordplay.  My goal is to make it so engaging that even the illiterate to have fun.

The twelve week screenprint workshop I have been teaching with the glamorous Angie Crabtree is complete.  We asked our nine high schoolers to print on nice paper for this show at Root Division, but some of the more exciting projects were their clothes and bags.  I wasn’t able to photograph everything, but I did want to record here the little I did get for the ages.  Nice work brahs.  And Angie thanks for everything. Especially the black eye.

Check out how good this tee-shirt came out.

It was done by Martin (with a little creative input from Banksy, who fully supports the appropriation), one of nine SF high schoolers in a screen print class I’ve been teaching at the nonprofit arts center Root Division this spring.

It can be hard at first to convince high schoolers that screenprinting in the age of mechanical reproduction is almost by definition not about technical perfection.  But then we get to magic moments like this that make more sense than me talking.  The shirt not only looks great but it maintains the trace of its maker: way cooler than a shirt bought at a store.  Creative high schoolers understand that.