EARTH BODY
October 27th - November 11th 2018
Rachael Cleveland, Mercedes Dorame, Emma Lanier, Cheryl Leonard, Ashley May, Sophia Shen, Jacqueline Sherlock Norheim, Hannah Perrine Mode, and Minoosh Zomorodinia
A landscape is a vastness bound only by a field of vision. By contrast, the word “earth” connotes containment, limits, materiality, thing-ness:
STONE PIECE
Find a stone that is your size or weight.
Crack it until it becomes fine powder.
Dispose of it in the river.
Send small amounts to your friends.
Do Not tell anybody what you did.
Do not explain about the powder to the friends to whom you send.
Yoko Ono
1963 winter
With these instructions Yoko Ono performs an act of transubstantiation. In an accelerated process of sedimentation, the stone stands for the human form as it passes through one state of being into another.
The exhibition Earth-Body explores the connections between the earth as material / site / subject and the body as material / site / subject. Working across the mediums of painting, sculpture, sound, music, movement, dance and photography, the artists included in this show lie along an unstable boundary. On one side are process-oriented practices of “making” and on the other, is the “doing” of performance. Both modes require the development of a subjective and fluid state of presence. These artists move beyond traditional depictions of nature. Their work is not about, but of.
In the last few months, powerful hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and monsoons have killed thousands and devastated communities internationally. The artworks in this exhibition engage with issues of climate change, of refugees and geopolitical borders, and of cultural histories in jeopardy.
Performances will be presented on two separate evenings during the run of the gallery show. 63 Bluxome Street is an historic art warehouse building in the South of Market district of San Francisco.
Curated by Sidney Russell