Hi/Lo Catalogue

Hi/Lo 02.05.16 - 03.12.16

gallery

Cover image by Luis Pinto. I Don’t See Nothin, 2015. Graphite on paper.

Hi/Lo

EMBARK GALLERY FEBRUARY 5 - MARCH 12, 2016 Elizabeth Bennett | Mills Sarah Chan | UC Davis Alice Combs | SFAI Lynn Dau | SJSU Ashley Fischer | Stanford Garth Fry | CCA Luis Pinto | CCA

Inspired by current economic realities, especially recent changes in the Bay Area, Hi/Lo challenges extant systems of value, exposing the disparities and fallacies in that which we choose to give importance.

gal l e r y

Our esteemed jurors selected artworks that question divisions between public and private space, investigate privilege,

address housing politics, and rethink the various products and consequences of contemporary capitalism.

Rent increases and evictions have been on the mind of many locals recently. Alice Combs creates a poetic follow-up to a humorous effort by an artist’s collective to create an underground art space.

Quite literally, they proposed plans to dig themselves out a piece of the Mission District where they had been long-time residents, and where art spaces are rapidly disappearing in favor of high-priced

luxury condos. Ashley Fischer’s documentary photography explores the possibilities of communal living and contributes to the show a reminder that there are alternatives to the rat race of urban living. Luis Pinto, on the other hand, celebrates the underpinnings of that urban landscape, rendering often overlooked objects as larger-than-life symbols for vibrant street culture, while Garth Fry makes use of city detritus, transforming reclaimed plywood into elegantly fragile sculptures despite the industrial materials. Sarah Chan and Lynn Dau both present works that reference the domestic sphere as Elizabeth Bennett’s playful reimagining of parking signs reveals that even public municipal space may not be so unrestricted.

Overall, these artists have given a snapshot of contemporary city livinzg in a time where a capitalist and consumer-driven economy has failed many. I can only hope that their work not only points out the fallibility of current value systems, but also acts as a political and cultural catalyst for measurable change.

Angelica Jardini | CURATORIAL DIRECTOR

Elizabeth Bennett MILLS COLLEGE, 2016 “Reserved Parking seems like a luxury provided for those at the top. My project questions the human nature behind this elitism. This grouping of 7 signs is loosely based on the 7 deadly sins, updated to reflect current societal values.

If someone decides to park in front of a sign, aren’t they reflecting the character trait of the sign to a small degree by taking that space?

Or, by choosing not to park in the spot does that mean they disapprove of these traits, and if so, then what will they think of others who park there? Are the signs all equally ‘bad’ or are some less offensive than others?”

-Elizabeth Bennett There was an additional critical facet to Bennet’s parking sign installation at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

Mounting a hidden GoPro camera in the lot, Bennett secretly filmed the seven parking spots over the course of several days. The footage was sped up and presented as a video installation inside the gallery, commenting on the nature of judgment, and more drastically, surveillance in populated environments. This iteration of the work ultimately probes at the intersections of public space, privacy and privilege.

“Reserved For� No. 7, 2016. Aluminum signs, poles, concrete.

SARAH CHAN UC DAVIS, 2016 “The objects represented in this piece are things found from the streets, a palm frond, a yellow plastic bag, a milk crate, an image of a cat from a page found in an old encyclopedia. They occupy the corner of room---carefully arranged.

They are plainly stated as individual elements but together they invoke a memory of a space. A hodgepodge of a living space perhaps (?), the corner that is always forgotten. It is always shifting in the mind; it is always in a position to be stretched and distorted. It never settles as something finite for it forever walks the line between intentionality and chance. From the edge of one’s peripheral vision, there is a hint of what could be, of some purpose, some practicality.

Yet it is silly to think that this could ever be true; it is clearly an illusion.”

-Sarah Chan

Cat Corner, 2015. Digital video projection, 3 min.

ALICE COMBS SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE, 2015 “In June 2015, myself and a dozen other student-artists collaborated on a show entitled SUBTRACTION in a space called Undermission (formerly known as SUB/Mission 2183 Mission St. 94110). The occupants of the space were evicted in June 2015. It is a grungy, inclusive venue that perhaps inevitably will become a cleaned and exclusive space. This site for underground/punk cultures is being pushed further underground. For our project entitled The Letter, the Drill, the Backup Plan, we ask...

What would it take to literally go underground? What if we could somehow duplicate all the spaces that are being cleaned and put them below the sites where they currently exist? Would coexistence be possible then?

The installation is a proposal which intends to push to the surface the ridiculousness of the current wave of gentrification, and also to question where our priorities lie as a community of diverse talents and histories. Can we imagine a future of coexistence rather than displacement?”

-Alice Combs

The installation at Embark Gallery was an echo of this former project. Blueprints for new artistic spaces float on the wall, littered with holes. The small round remnants of the plans act as a memory of the original installation-the mandala of industrial tools. It’s a large pile of white confetti on the floor. The tools meant to activate change are now absent, like the city that has had its soul punched right out.

Plan Backup The, Letter The, Drill The, 2016. Paper, glue.

LYNN DAU SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY, 2017 “I am a builder. I employ whatever materials best give visual expression to my thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

My work is personal in nature; it encompasses themes related to identity, conformity, connection, and isolation. My exploration of these themes is informed by a personal history that includes the transition from working professional to stay-at-home parent and homemaker. Money is power and Domestic Totem utilizes ‘low’ materials to explore income disparity and the devaluation of manual labor.”

-Lynn Dau

Domestic Totem is both a playful jab at the precarious infrastructure of gender roles and notions of domesticity, and a monument to the towering importance of mundane consumerism--seemingly necessary, inescapable, and the dubious privilege of contemporary homelife.

Domestic Totem, 2013. Found objects.

ASHLEY FISCHER STANFORD, 2016 “Ardheia is an intentional community in France, in many ways reminiscent of the older generation’s hippy movement.

The name Ardheia is an acronym for Association de Recherche et de Dymnamisation de la filiére pour un Habitat Ecologique, Innovant et Alternatif (Association for Research and Revitalization of the Industry for Ecological, Innovative, and Alternative Housing).

I met the founding members two years before the Association was formed. At that time, Julie, Simon, the two Guillaumes, and I were living as housemates and students in a study abroad program. I watched as they renovated an eroding building into a colorful and operative community center with amenities made from recycled materials. What I saw was the growing seed of a back-to-the-land movement, which later continued to develop in the French countryside.

This group of young engineers and artists have carved out a space for themselves in a rural farming community.

They make a modest living by building or reconstructing houses, and are subsistence farmers. They live together in group which fluctuates in number, from three to over ten people. Everyone eats and works together each day.

With very little money, they build what they can from donated materials and use ingenuity to make something out of nothing.”

-Ashley Fischer

a

Photographs from the series Ardheia, 2012-2014.

GARTH FRY CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, 2016 “Garth Fry is a mixed media artist who creates works through a series of repetitious handmade processes. His methods of creation exemplify labor-intensive practices and embody aspects of physical endurance. These efforts are paramount to his practice and are used to instill action within his pieces to preserve performance in time and space.

The materials used by Fry are often excavated or retrieved found objects. His most regularly used medium in his current work is reclaimed wood. This salvaged material creates an intriguing mystery because its exact history is unknown. The marred, discolored surfaces found throughout this repurposed material possess an alluring quality. They reflect a previous life and display a record of time.

Fry chooses to manipulate his materials with tools that demonstrate the hand and its seemly predictable nature.

Through process, the tools reflect force and display aggression while promoting the delicate nature of the hand. This is evident through the crafted edges of Fry’s work. The dovetails reveal a structured sensibility, a coming together, while the fractured edges evoke a brokenness or loss.”

-Artist Statement

Ornamental Struggle, 2015. Reclaimed wood, staples, screws.

LUIS PINTO CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, 2015 “I see myself as a shaman in the urban landscape. I render everyday items that are taken for granted to those existing outside of street culture. Hoodies, gloves, and masks form a narrative that weaves between the ordinary and the remarkable. My works on paper illustrate these forms larger than life and present them with an essence of their own.”

-Luis Pinto Luis Pinto has certainly given each subject of his drawings a powerful aura. At Embark Gallery they were installed alongside a sculpture resembling a torn chain link fence with a red cloth reading kawsay, the Quechua word for energy or life force, caught on the sharp edges. The effect was imposing; objects that go unnoticed in an urban environment were made large and undeniable. Pinto’s work manages to retain the dynamic essence of the city, even within the sterile environment of the so-called “white cube.”

I Don’t See Nothin, 2015. Graphite on paper.

Far Away From Blame, 2015. Graphite on paper.

Acknowledgements Sartle.com Fort Mason Center Amy Cancelmo - Root Division Kerri Hurtado - Artsource Consulting Megan McConnell - Anthony Meier Fine Arts Lauren Dare

Designed by Carolyn Nickell

2 Marina Blvd. Bldg. B Ste. 330, San Francisco CA 94123

Tania Houtzager EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Angelica Jardini CURATORIAL DIRECTOR

Embark Gallery.com

g a lglael rl ye r y