PANACEA PLUS LISA KOKIN
Panacea
Plus
new work by LISA KOKIN
LISA KOKIN PANACEA PLUS Exhibition organized by Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA NOVEMBER 23 – JANUARY 8 www.donnaseagergallery.com
Cover: Panacea Plus, 2010 Self-help book spines, thread, mull, 61 x 56 inches, 2010
Published by Lisa Kokin and Donna Seager Gallery Works of art © 2010 Lisa Kokin. All rights reserved.
No written portion of this publication may be reproduced, for any reason, by any means, including any method of photographic reproduction, without the written permission of the author. All inquiries regarding the text should be directed to the author. Essay © 2010 Alisa Golden.
No artwork may be reproduced in part or in whole without the written permission of the publisher.
Design by Lia Roozendaal/Jagwire Design, El Sobrante, CA Photography © 2010 Lia Roozendaal www.jagwiredesign.com
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ESSAY BY ALISA GOLDEN
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Lisa Kokin Alisa Golden Feeling a little rounded at the corners? So full of extra
into a long cylindrical form that hangs from the ceiling;
words you can’t express yourself properly? Then it’s
the leafy shapes suggest questioning eyes looking
time for you to experience the transformative powers
around the room for answers.
of Dr. Lisa F. Kokin. Never mind that she just plays one in the studio: she’s a miracle-worker, art-doctor, a master of fine and found arts with a specialty in breathing new life into old books. Currently, she’s been collecting books with a self-help bent, giving them makeovers their authors never dreamed of.
Exploding in a huge, bright spiral of flowers, Panacea Plus fills our vision with psychedelic color, promising to cure what ails us. Kokin points out that if a panacea is a remedy, a cure, an end in itself, what more can there be? When asked, she explains that the title is derived from a label she saw on a mattress in a skilled nursing
A quest is at the root of these books. Self-help
facility. The irony is in ascribing the word “panacea” to
suggests a desire for something that one doesn’t have.
a mattress, an elder care nursing home, and to self-
In this case we, the viewers, are drawn in to become
help books. Clearly, if a cure for old age existed, the
the seekers. Even without asking we get an infusion
companies behind these services and products would
of imagination, a shot of ingenuity, a surprise in every
be folding right and left. By using the spiral, Kokin taps
piece, not to mention beauty and humor for the taking.
into the meaning of an ancient symbol, which is often
Book pieces get shaped and tied together lyrically, like magical ferns, flowers, or insects such as in the all black and leafy My Answer and the colorful How to Be. A third piece, Fe, which is a fragment of a book title in English, means “faith” or “belief” in Spanish and is tied
connected to the galaxy, birth-death-rebirth, fertility, and the sun. A spinning spiral could also conjure up dizzying images of hypnosis, a powerful self-help practice. Art is good for my soul, art is good for my soul, art is good for my soul. 5
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, a hanging bouquet of bold red flowers, is a cheerful panacea in itself until we read: Diet, Medicine, Health Without, Pulling Your Own Strings, and begin worrying about what parts of ourselves we should be working on next.
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How To Be, with its limited palette of blues, greens, and yellows works like a painting as our eyes travel around the piece. On the other hand, there is much more than surface here; this is a self-help garden with an edge created by words: My Mother, Be Careful, Reach for, Helping You, Mad, and Diet. Once again, the form and content rub against each other, creating tension and multiple meanings. The gold and silver foil-stamped spines look both luminous and ludicrous in this juxtaposed light. We all like shiny, but hate to admit it. Kokin easily taps into this contradiction, as she does with all the content in her work. She can take the everyday—even the most ridiculous of the everyday—and make us see it differently. The discarded book insides and outsides become a monochromatic quilt in Fou, (another English word fragment which means “crazy” in French) with shiny as a terrific accent to the white and ivory components. With her choices, she shows and tells us that the backs of the shapes are as interesting to her as the fronts.
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Kokin says that the most popular colors for covers of self-help books are black, red, and blue, which explains why she was able to collect so much material to use for the miraculous Fret. This is a good example of how she playfully makes pieces that circle back on themselves. Book spines become an exquisite bright red and blue quilt in Fret, which plays on the description of “fret” as an ornamental pattern (such as a Greek key) as well as the verb to fret about something, which might lead you to a self-help book, which is what it’s made of anyway. As always, Kokin’s patience and care are obvious through her meticulous craft of assembling, sewing, stringing, wrapping, gluing, and tying. It is evident that she enjoys these tasks as well. She has to, or she would not be able to make them herself without help.
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We get vicarious and transgressive pleasure from books Kokin upholsters with mull (bookbinding mesh), glues shut, and gives new, anagram titles. I Feel Bad About My Neck becomes Baa Doubt Fickle Enemy. The Courage to Be Rich morphs into Huge Itch to Race or Be. We absorb more comfort from one quick glance than we ever could from bulldozing through the chapters ourselves. Who needs that fickle enemy, anyway? Get over it. Let it go.
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The Merchant of Venus (yes, you read correctly, that’s “Venus”) relies on the healing power of laughter by showcasing words detached from their source and rearranged to form new advice, original poems or fictional publications such as “The / 120-Year / You Want / Love / Plan” and “The Ultimate / Venus / Mars / Venus / Mars and Venus / How To Live / Story.” Having noticed more Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus in the free book bins than any other self-help title, Kokin puts them to better use by taking them out of circulation and out of circular files. She creates her own planet where images orbit around the words, and where relationships are much more complex than that which meets the eye.
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The heartfelt dedications in Drop have been both excised from the books and poignantly preserved. As we admire this tear-shaped wallhanging, we start questioning what it means to receive a self-help book from a well-meaning friend or relative. Do we look like we need help? Has someone sworn it worked for her or him and is sure it will work for us? Is a gift of a self-help book a hint? Is it read more than once? Perhaps the answer lies in that the books are in pristine condition when Kokin finds them: they appear to be read once, if at all. And here they are, preserved in more than pristine condition for us: their shapes and forms are evocative and inspiring. Instead of becoming landfill, they have the power to live forever as art. It is clear that Kokin relishes both the challenge and the joy of using all parts of the book: the paper can be pulped and shaped; the mull sewn into tapestries; the covers stuffed into football-petaled flowers or sewn into quilts, and the headbands turned into flowers. These are all talismans and tokens of hope and beauty and change and reminders that we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously. Come on in and take a look at the remedies of Lisa Kokin. You will positively feel much better!
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List of Works Front Cover Panacea Plus (detail) Self-help book spines, mull, thread 61 x 56 inches 2010 Page 1, 3 How to Be (detail) Self-help book spines, wire, thread, mull 54 x 72 x 2 inches 2010 Page 4 Panacea Plus (detail) Page 6 How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (detail) Page 7 How to Stop Worrying and Start Living Installation of self-help book spines, cotton batting, thread, waxed linen Dimensions variable 2010 Page 8 How to Be (detail) Page 9 How to Be Self-help book spines, wire, thread, mull 54 x 72 x 2 inches 2010
Page 10 Fret Self-help book spines, mull, thread 56 x 51.25 inches 2010
Page 18 My Answer Self-help book spines, wire, thread, mull 48 x 54 x 3 inches 2010
Page 11 Fret (detail)
Page 19 My Answer (detail)
Page 12 Baa Doubt Fickle Enemy (detail)
Page 20 Instant Improvement Inc. Self-help book spines, wire, thread, mull 72 x 41 x 3 inches 2010
Page 13 Baa Doubt Fickle Enemy (formerly I Feel Bad About My Neck) Mixed media upholstered book 8.5 x 5.75 x .5 inches 2010 Page 14 The Merchant of Venus (details) Page 15 The Merchant of Venus Wall installation (90 pieces) Self-help book spines, cotton batting, mull. thread Dimensions variable 2009 Page 16 Drop (detail) Page 17 Drop Self-help book dedication pages, mull, thread 58 x 26 inches 2010
Page 21 Instant Improvement Inc. (details) Page 22 Fou Self-help book parts, mull, thread 40 x 40 inches 2010 Page 23 Fou (detail) Page 24 Adapt or Perish Self-help book headbands, cotton batting, mull, thread 24 x 24 x .25 inches 2010
Page 26 Happiness is a Choice Self-help headbands, self-help spines, mull, thread 18.5 x 30 inches 2010 Page 27 Happiness is a Choice (detail) Page 28 Fe Self-help book spines, wire, thread, mull 68 x 7 x 6 inches 2010 Fe (detail) Page 32 Panacea Plus Self-help book spines, mull, thread 61 x 56 inches 2010 Back Cover Operation Betterment (detail) Self-help book parts Dimensions variable 2010
Page 25 Adapt or Perish (detail)
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Lisa Kokin
Biography
Selected Solo Exhibitions 2010
Panacea Plus, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA
1983
Fabric of the Peoples of the Americas, Casa Fernando Gordillo,
2009
Ex Libro, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA
Managua, Nicaragua
Joy of Booking, Mendocino College, Ukiah, CA
1982
Latin America in Batik, Museum voor Land-en Volkenkunde,
2007
Fruit of the Broom, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY
Rotterdam, Holland,
Attachments, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Sheffield Town Hall, Sheffield, England, and Transnational Institute,
Secondhand Memories: Sewn Found Photographs, Gallery Connexion,
Amsterdam, Holland
Fredericton, NB, Canada
1980
Lisa Kokin: Batiks, Laney College, Oakland, CA
Domestic Intelligence: Books by Lisa Kokin, San Francisco Public Library,
1979
Batiks of Lisa Kokin, Santa Fe Armory for the Arts, Santa Fe, NM
San Francisco, CA
1976
Batik Banners, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2001
Relative Obscurity, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000
Salvaged Histories, Nine Gallery, Portland, OR
Selected Group Exhibitions
Sew to Speak, Kennedy Art Center, Holy Names University, Oakland, CA
2010
Unbound: A National Exhibition of Book Art, Bedford Gallery,
1999
Lost and Found, Island Mountain Arts, Wells, BC, Canada
Walnut Creek, CA
Bookmaking Is Not a Crime, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
Boutons: Phenomene Artistique, Historique et Culturel, Mona Bismarck
Flea Market Economy, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Foundation, Paris, France
The Art of the Book, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA
Secret Drawings, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
By a Thread, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2004
2002
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1997
Art Book Art, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Circumstances Beyond Our Control, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996
Remembrance, Buchenwald Memorial, Weimar-Buchenwald, Germany
2009
The Altered Book, Reed Whipple Cultural Center, Las Vegas, NV
1995
Fond Objects, Morphos Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Afterlife, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
1994
Tome Is Where the Art Is, Gallery Connexion, Fredericton, NB, Canada
Prints on the Edge, Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1992
Tales of a Nice Jewish Girl and Unearthing, Definitely Superior, Thunder Bay,
Second Nature: Recycled Materials Inspired by Animals, Plants and Insects,
Ont., Canada and Artcite, Windsor, Ont., Canada
Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH
Remembrance, Judah Magnes Museum, Berkeley, CA
New Works/Old Story: 80 Artists at the Passover Table, Contemporary
1991
Persistent Memory, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
Jewish
1989
Award of Excellence Show, Surface Design National Conference, Gatlinburg, TN
The Dorothy Saxe Invitational, The Contemporary Jewish Museum,
1988
Vestiges: Work in Fiber by Lisa Kokin, Pitt International Galleries, Vancouver,
San Francisco, CA
BC, Canada
2008
Banned and Recovered, African American Museum and Library at Oakland,
1986
Batiks and Drawings of Lisa Kokin, The Women’s Building, San Francisco, CA
Oakland, CA
1985
The Batiks of Lisa Kokin, Centro Cultural Vergueiro, São Paulo, Brazil
The Art of the Book, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA
1984
Daybreak: Nicaragua/El Salvador, Galerie Franz Mehring, Berlin, Germany
(Un)common: Art of Altered Objects, Department of Art and Art History,
The Past Will Not Return, Exploratorium, California State University,
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Artists as Collectors, Oakland Museum Exhibits at the Oakland Airport,
Lisa Kokin’s Studio at Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA
Oakland, CA
Museum, San Francisco, CA
2007
Women’s Work, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA
2000
Piecing it Together: A Visual Journal, Museum of Art and History,
Gathering, Oakland Museum off-site exhibition at 500 12th Street, Oakland, CA
Santa Cruz, CA
Singularity in the Communal Tide: Culture and Identity in the Moment,
Snapshot, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD
Pierro Gallery of South Orange, South Orange, NJ
Eureka, Too! Fellowship Awards 1999-2001, San Jose Institute of
Menagerie: Artists Look at Animals, Museum of Craft and Folk Art,
Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA Eureka Fellowship Exhibition, San Jose
San Francisco, CA
Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Eighth Annual Realism Invitational, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY
1999
The 7th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition, University of Hawaii Art
The 9th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition, University of Hawaii Art
Gallery, Honolulu, HI
Gallery, Honolulu, HI
Making Change: 100 Artists Interpret the Tzedakah Box, The Jewish Museum,
The Art of the Book, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA
San Francisco, CA
2005
Inaugural Group Exhibition, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY
Piecing it Together: a Visual Journal, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Scents of Purpose: Artists Interpret the Spice Box, The Contemporary
1998
Alternativity: the Other Side of Christmas, The Jewish Museum,
Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA
Needle Art: a Postmodern Sewing Circle, Gallery 210, St. Louis, MO
Out West: the Artist’s Book in California, New York Center for Book Arts,
and Texarkana Regional Center For Visual Art, Texarkana, TX
New York, NY
2004
Needle Art: a Postmodern Sewing Circle, McColl Center for Visual Art,
On the Money, Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Charlotte, NC,
Hello Again! A New Wave of Recycled Art and Design, McAllen International
Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA, Brevard Museum of Art and
Museum, McAllen, TX and Vancouver Museum, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Science, Melbourne, FL, and Milton Hershey School Art Museum, Hershey, PA
1997
Talent 1997, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY
Inner Workings, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA
Fahrenheit 451, San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003
Needle Art: a Postmodern Sewing Circle, Ellen Noel Art Museum, Odessa, TX
Commemorative Textiles, Textile Arts Centre, Chicago, IL
and J. Wayne Stark University Center Galleries, College Station, TX
Hello Again! A New Wave of Recycled Art and Design, Oakland Museum of
Show Me the Money: the Dollar as Art, Fresno Metropolitan Museum,
California, Oakland, CA and Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Fresno, CA and Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA
Codified Desires, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Is Money Money?, Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, CA
1996
Science Imagined, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2002
Ex Libris, Frumkin/Duval Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Text/Context, Arts Benicia Center, Benicia, CA
Show Me the Money: the Dollar as Art, Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL and
CCAC: Past, Present, and Future, Oliver Art Center, Oakland, CA
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA
Codified Desires, In Khan Gallery, New York, NY
Refuse/Reuse/Redux, The Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, CA
1995
Representations of Auschwitz, Gauforum Weimar, Weimar, Germany
2001
Books as Art, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA
The Medicine Show, Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, Chicago, IL
1010, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
A Foot in the Door, The Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
Eureka Fellowship Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
2006
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Awards 1994
Redefining the Book, Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008
Rooms for the Dead, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Project, Richmond, CA
Book as Art VII, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
2007
Commission, Castro Valley Library Small Scale Works Commission Program,
Making Sense: Story in Contemporary Bay Area Art,
Alameda County Arts Commission, Oakland, CA
San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
2006
Purchase Award, Alameda County Arts Commission, Oakland, CA
Books and Bookishness, DePaul University Art Gallery, Chicago, IL
2005
Alameda County Arts Commission Juvenile Justice Center Rotational Works
1993
Hybridization: Contemporary Northern California Craft, 1975-Present,
Award, Oakland, CA
Oliver Art Center, Oakland, CA
1998
Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Beyond the Written Word, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
California Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowship, Sacramento, CA
California College of Arts and Crafts Recent Graduate of Distinction Award,
Oakland, CA
1996
Puffin Foundation Grant for Remembrance, Buchenwald Memorial,
Weimar-Buchenwald, Germany
1995
WESTAF/NEA Regional Fellowship, Denver, CO
1992
History: Truth or Consequences, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
Domestic Ontogeny, Oliver Art Center, Oakland, CA
Form and Object, juried by John Perreault, University of Wyoming Art Museum,
Laramie, WY
1991
Site: Western Union, Haines Annex, San Francisco, CA
1991
Jeanne Brenholts Award, Most Innovative Use of Materials, Fiberarts ’91,
Fiberarts International ’91, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
New Ends, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, NY
1989
Surface Design Award of Excellence, Surface Design Association,
1990
Fiber Progressions, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, NY
Marina del Rey, CA
On Fiber: Human Conditions, UNL Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
1987
Women’s Hearts and Hands Award, The Women’s Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Batik: The Dyeing Art Today, Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center,
Portsmouth, OH
1989
Works on Paper, Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA
Paper/Fiber XII, Johnson City Arts Council, Iowa City, IA
Pro Arts Juried Annual, juried by Mary Jane Jacob, Pro Arts, Oakland, CA
1988
Art of the Refugee Experience, Euphrat Gallery, Cupertino, CA
Personal Mythologies, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
1987
Punto Común/On Common Ground, Pro Arts, Oakland, CA
Women’s Foundation Awards Exhibition, San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum,
San Francisco, CA
Viva La Vida: An Homage to Frida Kahlo, The Women’s Building,
Los Angeles, CA
1986
South Africa: State of Emergency, Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA
1985
Art Against Apartheid, Heller Gallery, Berkeley, CA
1983-5 The Other America, traveling exhibition, Stockholm, Sweden;
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Purchase Award, Richmond Civic Center Public Art Interior Acquisitions
Hamburg, Germany; Rome, Italy
1982
In Progress, Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA
1978
Homage to Frida Kahlo, Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA
Education 1991
Master of Fine Arts with High Distinction, California College of the Arts,
Oakland, CA
1989
Bachelor of Fine Arts with High Distinction, California College of the Arts,
Oakland, CA
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