F. 06.17.17 - 07.22.17
F. Whitney Aguiniga | Mills Keith Daly | San Jose State Flavia D’Urso | CCA Mattson Fields | Mills Tamara Porras | CCA Meganne Rosen | CCA
Failure isn’t an option....it’s an inevitability.
Front Cover: Whitney Aguiñiga. Not for Nothing, 2016. Archival Pigment Print.
Curatorial Statement This Spring, as students earn their degrees from the 8 Bay Area institutions Embark Arts supports, Embark Gallery presents a show exploring failure. Inevitably an integral part of the creative process, failure is often touted as the symbol of valiant artists experimenting with new ideas, methods or media. This exhibition aims to instead showcase failure as a valid conceptual strategy on its own, and not just the byproduct of artistic risk-taking. Presenting alternatives to “success” as it is commonly understood, the artists in this exhibition use subversive modes of failure to both political and aesthetic ends.
Tamara Porras (CCA) presents a heartfelt research project she began upon discovering the man who raised her was not her biological father. This exploration of the failure of family, memory and heritage reveals how one’s search for selfhood can often be futile, or at least out of our immediate control. Meganne Rosen (CCA) addresses the failure of the nation in the 2016 election. Inspired by the “subversive pockets of women” in the Midwest who did not vote for Trump, and disgusted by the 53% who did, Rosen has created a visual representation of the violent ideological rupture in contemporary American politics.
Whitney Aguiniga (Mills) works in humorous photography that speaks to the humiliation of artistic trials and tribulations. Exploring different materials and challenging herself to take the meticulously rendered photographs with no outside help, Aguiniga toes the line between success and failure while commenting on the archetype of ‘The Artist’, similar to how Cindy Sherman before her addressed ‘The Woman’. For Keith Daly (SJSU), the presentation of a book of rejected applications to previous Embark shows is a droll exercise in self-deprecation and irony. It not only outlines a most common experience for emerging artists and graduate students, but is also a nod to past conceptual art that catalogs failure, like Michael Asher’s “The Museum As Muse,” in which Asher edited a catalog of all the works deaccessioned by the MoMA since 1929.
Angelica Jardini | Curatorial Director
Flavia D’Urso (CCA) is a ceramic sculptor whose work speaks to corporeal vulnerability- the failure of the body in the face of decay and when corrupted by the machine. Mattson Fields (Mills) explores the binary expectations of identity as both a man and a gay man, to embrace masculinity or to reject it. In his own words, “I oscillate between the two, never truly achieving either.”
Whitney Aguiniga | Mills “Working towards a professional art practice can be humiliating. From harsh critiques to material disasters and fall-flat performances (I quite literally investigate positions of defeat), the pursuit of an academic degree in a subjective field also provides its challenges. The following submission sheds light on some of the right turns and sharp angles that continue to shape my path as an artist. I hope it makes viewers laugh and in continuity with my larger practice, reminds us all that we are human, we are connected and while it is sometimes messy and humbling, we will persevere.�
Materials Get In Your Way, 2016. Archival Pigment Print.
An Architectural Myth, 2016. Archival pigment print. Exhibition view.
Not for Nothing, 2016. Archival pigment print. Exhibition view.
Keith Daly | San Jose State
Born1 in Manhattan, Keith Daly has lived in over forty different locations in the US, Europe, and Asia. He currently dwells in Satan Cruz2, CA. “But I’m moving to _________________3”, claims Daly. His work is context-specific and stems fromhas a critical often colorful examination display 1 Born in Manhattan, Keith Daly lived and in over forty different locations of in artistic the US,production, Europe, and Asia. and He 4 theHis traditional discourse. Within agreeable of _________ and _________5, he 3complicates 2 currently dwells Satan Cruzdoses , CA. “But I’m moving to _________________ ”, claims Daly. work is
boundaries of the field. from Some call it “meta”. Butcolorful his friend, the outsider artist production, Vishnu “JJ” display Lieberman, context-specific andartstems a critical and often examination of artistic and says it’s “mumbo jumbo”. Whether using sculpture, performance, video, sound, the paint, text, or 4 5 discourse. With agreeable doses of _________ and _________ , he photo, complicates traditional research, his favors specific it’s the a response situations. or boundaries of work the art field.no Some call discipline it “meta”. or Butmedium: his friend, outsidertoartist VishnuCoincidentally, “JJ” Lieberman, it in the third personvideo, to givephoto, the reader (you, in the not, this statementjumbo”. isn’t anWhether artwork. using Daly wrote says it’s “mumbo sculpture, performance, sound, paint, text,third or person) the about him. Daly’s middle name is to “Olivier” (“olive tree”in French), research, hisimpression work favorsthat no others specificwrite discipline or medium: it’s a response situations. Coincidentally, or so he goes by “k.o.d”, phonetic Among things, he istocurrently people whothird own artwork“coyote”. . Daly wrote it in other the third person give thetalking readerto(you, in the not, this statement isn’taan
, which pet birds, workingthat on a site-specific remount of Bruce Nauman’s an Jose(“olive State tree”in Corridor person) theand impression others write about him. Daly’s middle name isS“Olivier” French), at Daly’s alma mater during the first week of May when Daly was born67. who own Nauman created so he goes by “k.o.d”, a phonetic “coyote”. Among other things, he1970, is currently talking to people pet birds, and working on a site-specific remount of Bruce Nauman’s San Jose State Corridor, which keithodaly.weebly.com created at Daly’s alma mater during the first week of May 1970, when Daly was born67. Nauman ordinarymind@gmail.com
submissions, 2015-2017. Artist book (56 pages). Edition of 5. Exhibition view.
keithodaly.weebly.com 1 Birth opens this statement. 2 ordinarymind@gmail.com Santa Cruz. 3 Detroit, Tuvalu, Dusseldorf, Bolinas. 4 irreverence & existential wit. 5 1 whimsical formalism & absurdia. Birth opens this statement. 6 2 Birth ends this statement. Santa Cruz. 7 3 Birth & re-Birth: a sort of textual life-loop. Detroit, Tuvalu, Dusseldorf, Bolinas. irreverence & existential wit. whimsical formalism & absurdia. 6 Birth ends this statement. 7 Birth & re-Birth: a sort of textual life-loop. 4 5
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Flavia D’Urso | CCA
Visualizing bodily vulnerability and feral psychological states of being is a driver in my artistic practice. I make corporeal forms and images in unexpected states of existence as a means of unpacking the liminal space between deterioration and accumulation, and between the vulnerability of the body and the persistence of the psyche. I am currently engaged in creating semi-recognizable corporeal forms as a way to express a transient body and uncontrolled self.
Mattson Fields | Mills Masculinity is a conscious effort. As a boy, I had hoped that moving away from home and coming out of the closet would permit me to relax the policing of my mannerisms, tastes, and body. The quotidian reality of adult male gayness proved, instead, to magnify attention to these efforts. My art exists in the gap between the desire to conform to masculine standards, and to reject them.
Never send faggots to install a real man’s art, 2016. Ladders, Twister® mat, faux fur, tin can, Inkjet print.
Maybe if you had let me take karate I wouldn’t be gay, 2016. Nunchucks, faux fur.
Tamara Porras | CCA Days before I turned 28, my mother revealed that the man who raised me is not my biological father. I left her telling of this story with evidence of another man: a second birth certificate, letters he wrote, and 4x6 prints in which I saw his face, and my own, for the first time. With this rewriting of my origin story, a rupture occurred: a break in understanding my heritage, my memory, and my family. Something as apparently certain as who my parents are was upended with the rearrangement of a story. Although my mother knew who he was, he disappeared from her life before I was born. She had no information that would immediately lead me to his whereabouts today. My practice wrestles with the search for clues that may lead to knowing this side of myself, or perhaps merely a futile search of wrong turns and unanswerable questions. It is the latter that intrigues me - rather than attempting to find my father in earnest, I have become interested in the detours and dead ends.
Clockwise from Left to Right: making a dad, 2017. Archival Inkjet prints from reclaimed 35mm slides. key, 2017. Cork, pins, reclaimed print ephemera. a desk for looking, 2017. Custom Elm & Acacia table, reclaimed objects.
50+ ways to try to find your father, 2017. Digital video.
Meganne Rosen | CCA "53%" is a mixed media fiber piece I created directly after the devastating results of the 2016 election. I am from the midwest. Let me clarify, not just "the midwest", I am from the buckle of the bible belt of the midwest: Springfield, Missouri. My home town has grown so much in terms of its art scene and the political and cultural tone of the city in recent years, but it is still plagued by bigotry and rampant conservatism. When I found these faux fur pieces, the subtle fold lines reminded me of the flyover states and the false hides made me think of Missouri's cows. I read so much nonsense after the election results and one phrase that stuck in my head was "subversive pockets of women". It was in an online article and I can't remember the exact context, but it was contrasting these "pockets" with the 53% of white women that voted for Trump. That number and that phrase wouldn't leave me alone. Fifty. Three. Percent. That is a failure. I was thinking about these subversive women. I'm one of them. Are we just the 47% that voted blue? Or are the subversive pockets a glimpse of something else. Something deeper and richer bubbling beneath the surface? Something complicated and diverse. With these thoughts and materials in mind, I started this piece. The blue is needle felted because I wanted something violent and cathartic. It was physically satisfying to stab the barbed needle through the layers over and over. It is also an homage to my mother who is another subversive, midwestern woman and is a fiber artist. 53%, 2016. Found material and needle-felt.
This piece is about our failure as a people and the potential that such a massive, historical fuckup could inspire to burst from beneath the surface of the grassing herd.
Acknowledgments
Lauren Dare
Tania Houtzager | Executive Director Nicole Aponte | Education Director Angelica Jardini | Curatorial Director Christopher Squier | Programs Director
Marcel Houtzager Aimee Le Duc Matt Lopez Donna Napper Sarah Thibault Brooke Valentine Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture Sartle.com Thor, Zeus & Jasper
Embark Gallery offers exhibition opportunities to graduate students of the Fine Arts in the San Francisco Bay Area. We provide a space for an engaged community of artists, curators and scholars, and we aim to expand the audience for up and coming contemporary art. A non-profit gallery, Embark’s programming represents the diversity ofthe talented artists studying at eight local artinstitutions: San Francisco Art Institute, UC Berkeley, California College of the Arts, Mills College, San Francisco State University, UC Davis, San Jose State University, and Stanford. The juried exhibitions are held at our gallery in San Francisco at the historic Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.