STATEMENT
Currently I am exploring the idea of place through the use of architectural references. Fragments of walls and foundations act as boundaries that alternately divide or bind together. Shifts in scale and the use of a controlled viewing field simultaneously amplify and collapse the distance between private and public, interior and exterior, and physical versus psychological space.
This particular body of work began with a series of crates which, while referencing minimal form, allude to transience and all that it implies. The crate typically dislocates its interior (assumed to be an object) from its external presence, as it is not visually accessible. In this series the crate’s interior is visually accessible yet, the “assumed object” essentially remains in transit as it is permanently entombed within. It also remains preserved and protected denying the very ideas of impermanence or fragility that are implied by the crate in the first place. Further challenging the viewer’s expectations, these crates are almost empty. They are more akin to architectural skins or interiors, devoid of all but a few, seemingly abandoned objects. In effect, the interior walls and the emptiness they create become the object. Despite their emptiness, the crate continues to function as a signifier of commodification.
The Foundations Series consists of 35 cement tiles cast from molds made of the remaining foundations of partially razed structures on the now defunct Naval Air Station in Alameda, California. The tiles are positioned to suggest a quilt pattern. They are framed by a steel perimeter which is suspended by aircraft cable from the ceiling creating an empty volume. The steel perimeter is detailed with fleur de lis corner brackets, a nod to New Orleans and the gulf coast where many foundations remain while the structures they supported have been ripped away. Below, echoing the larger rectangular form, is a “carpet” made from sand and canvass, referencing the unstable land we have chosen to build upon.
The area that this piece represents was once a privileged space, requiring a military identification card be presented to an armed guard for entry. The station, which was originally operated by the army in 1930, was acquired by the navy in 1936 during the buildup to WWII. The Navy maintained operations there until the Naval Air Station’s closure in 1997. At that point the waterfront property, with its sweeping views of San Francisco Bay, was turned back over to the city of Alameda. The city has struggled to find a developer willing to deal with the complicated and costly clean up of the toxic mess left behind by the Navy despite the inherent value of waterfront property in California.
While there are a myriad of issues to be explored here, the one that I am most interested in is the transition from a privileged place (guarded, fenced, and walled) into an open, public space. This is an idea I also found to be echoed in the devastation on the gulf coast. With walls sheared away, only foundations remain to make claim on the land. These relics of our presence fight to survive with the decay that surrounds them; both natural and manmade, tangible and intangible.
FUTURE EXHIBTIONS
SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA,Opening November 7th, 2007 Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA, opening March 26th,2008 Geisai at Pulse Miami, FL December 5th-9th, 2007
SOLO EXHIBITONS
2007 Land(Mine)d, Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Waiting For A Sign, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998 Solo Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997 Defining Her Animal Instinct, Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco, CA
1996 Introductions 96, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1994 Ab Ovo Usque Ad Mala, Solo Exhibition, Mace Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1992 Figuring, Refiguring, and Disfiguring, Solo Exhibition, KBBK Studios, San Francisco, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 San Jose Museum of Art, We Are Family, San Jose, CA
Arts On Fire X, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA (juried by Larry Rinder)
Empirical Nostalgia, Million Fishes Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Furniture As Art, SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Stanford University Art Gallery, Stanford, CA
1999 Contemporary American Artists’ Books from the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, California Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
Spinal Epidural, Please!, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
EDUCATION AND RELATED EXPERIENCE
D-Fab, sole proprietor of custom metalwork studio
Stanford University, M.F.A
Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH, B.A. Visual Arts
Regents College, London, England
Studio Assistant to Carl Dern, Fairfax, CA
AWARDS
2001 ASAP at Public Glass
SECA Award Nomination
1999-2000 James Williams Borrelli Fellowship in Art
1999 Murphy-Cadogan Grant
1999 Anita Squires Fowler Memorial Fund in Photography
1998-1999 Members Fellowship of the Iris and B.Gerald Cantor Ctr. 1996 First Place at Mostra 96, Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco, CA
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2004 Slatin, Joyce, Uneasy Chairs, SF Weekly, November 3
2000 Roche, Harry, “Rockin’ Dixie”, SF Weekly, December
1998 Coleman, Sarah, “Giudici/Mintz/Sowell”, The Guardian, February
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Achenbach Collection at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
Marcia Tanner, Berkeley, CA
