Domestic Life January 16–March 21, 2009 Sun Valley Center for the Arts
Visual Arts Julie Blackmon uses members of her extended family and their homes as fodder for her darkly funny photographs that depict what she describes as “the stress, the chaos, and the need to simultaneously escape and connect” that characterize everyday domestic life.
decorating Lisa Solomon uses watercolor, acrylics and embroidery to magazines. create delicate domestic scenes. Her images of furniture transcend the decoraVoid of people, these tive and escape the confines of the interior. Birds fly away carrying a chair; paintings are richly green grass sprouts at the foot of one bed while poppies grow across othtextured and patterned at ers. Her drawings probe traditional ideas of women’s work, the role of the same time that they are eerie nostalgia in our feelings about home and the relationship between the and cold. natural and the domestic worlds.
Sculptor María A. López creates tiny houses out of cardboard that she covers in vacuum cleaner lint. López paid her way through graduate school by cleaning houses, saving the conArtist Martha Rosler’s interest in Megan Wilson is creating an installation for the exhibition tents of vacuum cleaner bags as she worked. Her pieces capthe home dates to the 1960s when she began to that explores the many influences that have shaped her idea ture the disparity between our notion of the ideal home challenge the traditional notion of the home in phoof home, including her family’s history in the Ameriand the “dirty” realities of living in one, including the tomontages and the landmark video The Semiotics of the can West and her travels in Asia. The installation will use of domestic labor to maintain it. Kitchen. Work from her early career will give historical conincorporate textiles, indigenous materials and a sound Jim Richard, based in New Orleans, makes text to other work in the show and also prompt questions about element with recordings of relatives playing folk beautiful oil paintings of over-decorated dothe relationship between feminism and the recent domestic craze. instruments. mestic interiors found in the pages of home
Gallery
Lectures
It’s the First Place to Be!
Move Beyond “Green” in Your Home
Thu, Jan 22, 7pm The Center, Ketchum / Free The surge of the green building movement warrants taking a closer look at what green really means. Peggy and Dale Bates will show examples of eco-conscious architecture from around the world and outline the differences between green trends and deep changes.
Fri, Feb 13 and Fri, Mar 6, 5:30–6:30pm Join us for wine and hors d’oeuvres Open for Gallery Walk until 8pm
Lisa Solomon, Bed Drawing: A Bed In Green Grass, 2007, watercolor, acrylic and thread/embroidery on Duralar, courtesy of the artist and Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley
Exhibition Tours Every Tue at 2pm or by arrangement
Special Evening Exhibition Tour
Jim Richard, Modern Circles, 2007, oil on linen, courtesy of the artist and Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans
Exploring Contemporary Feminism with Amy Richards
Wed, Feb 18, 7pm The Center Gallery, Ketchum / Free Amy Richards is the author of Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself, co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation and the person behind “Ask Amy,” an online activist column located at www.feminist.com.
Getting Green Done with Auden Schendler Thu, Feb 19, 6pm Community Library, Ketchum / Free Presented in coordination with The Community Library.
Thu, Jan 29, 5:30pm
María A. López, Philadelphian House, 2004, cardboard and dirt, courtesy of the artist
At Home with Gloria Steinem
Wed, Jan 14, 7pm Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum $20 members / $25 non-members A devoted activist and writer, Gloria Steinem is undeniably one of the most important voices of the modern feminist movement. She will address how feminism has changed the role of women in the home.
Lecture Series Sponsors: Teresa Heinz, and Richard and Judith Smooke Steinem Lecture Sponsors: Jeri L. Waxenberg, and Jack and Gail Thornton
Classes Family Day
Sat, Jan 24, 3-5pm The Center Ketchum Free Explore how the home has changed throughout the past 50 years. Using boxes, paper, fabric and other items provided, children will be able to create their own dream living rooms.
One Night Workshops Julie Blackmon, Birds at Home, 2007, archival pigment print, ed. 25, courtesy of the artist and G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle
Teen Workshop Introduction to Interior Design with Abbey Christensen
Sat, Feb 14, 10–4pm / $10 fee, pre-registration required The Center, Hailey Become an interior designer for a day. You will learn the entire process of an interior design project, from space planning to final drawings and material selection. Learn how to think of a space in three dimensions and create rooms that meet a client’s specific needs. Redesign an interior space and create a design mock up.
Martha Rosler, Runway, 1967-1972, photomontage, courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York
(Be it) Ever Evolving, There is No Place Like Home
$30 members $35 non-members Subscriber package: $55 members $65 non-members
with Alex Taylor / Tue, Jan 27, 5:30–7:30pm / The Center, Hailey Do you ever wonder why certain rooms of your home provide comfort while others are left best with the door shut? Explore the relationship you have with your home and understand how decorating choices are reflected in your personal life and the lives of household members. Spend an evening with Alex Taylor, Feng Shui Practitioner and Life Style Coach, discussing our homes with one another while gaining wisdom into the ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui.
Creating a Home for Conscious Living
with Dale & Peggy Bates / Tue, Feb 10, 5:30–7:30pm Two longtime leaders in the field of healthy architecture will discuss how you can improve the health of your home, from your choice of finishes to energy efficiency.
María A. López, St. Cloud House, 2004, cardboard and dirt, courtesy of the artist
Cover Images Megan Wilson, Spring (detail of installation), 2006, courtesy of the artist and Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley
Sun Valley Center for the Arts P.O. Box 656, Sun Valley, ID 83353 208.726.9491 www.sunvalleycenter.org
Center Hours & Location in Hailey: W–F noon–5pm 314 Second Ave. S, Hailey, Idaho
Center Hours & Location in Ketchum: M–F 9am–5pm, Sats in Feb & Mar 11am–5pm Exhibit Tours: Tue at 2pm 191 Fifth Street East, Ketchum, Idaho
January 16 through March 21, 2009
Sun Valley Center for the Arts P O Box 656 Sun Valley, ID 83353
Domestic Life
BOISE ID PERMIT NO. 679
PAID
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U S POSTAGE
Domestic Life January 16–March 21, 2009 Sun Valley Center for the Arts
The 1990s and early years of the 21st century saw an explosion of interest in the American home. Innumerable magazines, television programs and an ever-growing specialty retail industry sprang up to feed our desire to “nest”—to surround ourselves with beauty and comfort within the intimate yet isolated environment of our homes. The home became not only a refuge, but also a showplace of carefully crafted spaces designed to impress. What is it about contemporary life that has driven this obsession with our domestic spaces? What is behind the desire to have kitchens equipped like restaurants and bathrooms outfitted like hotel suites? Is it an extension of rampant consumerism, fed by visions of the ideal portrayed in catalogs? Or an indicator of a deeper anxiety that leads us to seek comforts at home rather than venture out into a risky world? Perhaps this obsession stems from nostalgia for a time when life centered on the home instead of the pressing demands of jobs, school and extracurricular activities. How have the changing roles of women affected the home? As the financial boom of the 1990s gives way to today’s increasingly bleak economy, so-called shelter magazines and retailers are closing their doors in surprising numbers. Has the home décor era come to a close? Or will the idea of homemaking shift to one that emphasizes sustainability, handicraft and interiors that are homemade in the most literal sense?
images left: Megan Wilson, Home 1996-2008: Bedroom (2007, detail), courtesy of the artist and Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley Megan Wilson, Home 1996-2008: Hallway (2006, detail), courtesy of the artist and Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley Megan Wilson, Night Bloom (detail of installation), 2006, courtesy of the artist and Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley
Domestic Life is made possible, in part, through the generosity of jack and Gail Thornton