Installation
I have been so busy with the organization of this trip and residency, and the traveling, and now the actual project work that I have not had a chance to get to my blog...So my apologies to everyone out there in blog land....I will be returning in the morning with a more in depth post about the travels, visions, and work going on with "Bright on Time" at Spes-Lab!!! Good to be back in touch with you...
Man, life comes at you fast. I feel like yesterday I had just gotten back from Japan and I was trying to get back in the swing. In what feels like no time I have grown a lot as a person and an artist, I have walked through a lot of things with my head still attached and my feet still on the ground (loosely lol), and am still completely charged and stoked about the future and my present being on this planet with all of ya'll. I am getting really amped up about the SFMOMA project coming up, largely because I received a studio visit and real deal critique from Renee DeCosio (program director for the SFMOMA Artist Gallery) who came through with the awesome Alfonso Cosio recently. Man it was the best, most honest, intriguing, to the point, helpful, and explorative, no kid gloves critique I have had in a longgg time (since Pratt actually). It gave me some new juice to make an incredibly in depth new series for the first installment of the SFMOMA windows in June (also part of the Yerba Buena Alliance art walk) where I am really exploring some foundations, the origin and the architecture of the Astroknots, and by doing so really revisiting and dealing with a lot of things that were going on when I first moved to California in 2006. I have really dove deeply back into process and am exploring some of my core basics and letting things happen without a presumed outcome again. I am quite honestly the happiest I have been making art in a long time in creating these new pieces and the series that I see coming from it.
With amazing art work generally comes a lot more under the surface. Of course this comes at a time when things in my personal life are pretty intense, yet I do feel my feet are still planted firmly on the earth. It is amazing to feel such a sense of presence and compassion for things happening that I am involved with that the old me would have reacted to out of serious personal fears and insecurities, but rather now see how I can help and how I can maintain my balance in the face of some heavy stuff. To everyone in my life right now I say with huge words, I love you all and you are all very dear to me, thank you all for being you and exploring life here with me and not being afraid to get real with those you care about. And to finish this one off, I am going to Japan for my residency in less than two months. I will be doing a six day meditation pilgrimage before I get to work in Tokyo for three weeks! It's going to be, as Kenichi Minami from Ken South Rock says, a Huge Volcano!
I stand before you today to tell all of you how excited it makes me to say this. If you have been following my sparse internet presence as of late, you have heard hints here and there of the news that I am going to be featured in the SFMOMA in downtown San Francisco. The SFMOMA Artist Gallery (their more contemporary and larger artist representation wing located at Ft. Mason) is in charge of curating the windows that face Minna St. and Natoma St. on the sides of the Museum itself in Downtown San Francisco. After making a personal goal years ago to myself of getting my work featured in these windows someday, it is happening. I have them for a year, and the first installment in a four part saga that runs from June 2013-June 2014 begins this June 8th. Beyond my wildest dreams this has become a reality.
This above shot is from my Birthday Performance Art Show at LeQuivive Gallery in Oakland January 16, 2013.
I will be running my programming in the three window bay units on Minna St. and using the Natoma side here and there as a background for performance work and possibly for intimate special engagements and explorations in new installation environments from the world of Unstoppable Tomorrow. The three pieces for the first installment of the Minna St. windows are complete. I may add some smaller relics and mixed media pieces to the windows as the date moves closer, but for now, these are the pieces. Two are brand new, and both as of yet un-named fully, and the third is in fact from July 2011. It is called Event Elation and has only been shown once here in the Bay Area (it was out of my grasp for a year due to unforeseen issues with a curator but is now happily back in my hands). So without further adieux here are images of these 8'x4' Mixed Media on Wood Panel Pieces!!!!
So there are these things called "the promises" in this arena of study I am engaged in that are spoken of often and are a guideline that people work toward.
Some may call "the promises" simply a better life in whatever way and shape it comes to you. A better life that one can be thankful for, can appreciate every atom of, and one that is fulfilling and enthralling because the one experiencing it is willing to put forth the work it takes to change things, be willing to accept the world as it comes, and do what it takes to better themselves and seek a future of productivity and appreciation for all things. At the age of 32 I am beginning to understand, or comprehend some semblance of this search, this journey for these promises. 
2012 was the best year I have ever had, I mean that. I, for the first time in my life, felt what it meant to see years of hard work reach people, communicate on many platforms with people all over the world, create a better living situation for myself, and in turn afford me opportunities to continue to grow and learn and love the world I am a part of. Throughout 2012 I felt like a Phoenix finally exploding out of the grime and filth and sludge, the chaos and friction and anxiety and self hate, the self imposed fears and restrictions and bars that I had to evolve out of in order to get the perspective on my place in the world I have now. Suddenly things made sense, and the knowledge that so many things will never make sense became something I could swallow. I didn't have to wake up paralyzed by anxiety and fear of life everyday. The ability to be okay with the world no matter how one thinks it "should" be reconciled, to have ideas and opinions but be able to love life regardless of "if" those ideas and opinions matter or not and simply let life be what it is no matter the outcome is perhaps the biggest "promise" of all.
It is the difference between breathing or suffocating, loving or hating, being enveloped by fear of the unknown or embracing the unknown because it is what we are born from. And it took over a quarter of a century to have this way of seeing beaten, massaged, sliced, explained, recommended and finally born into my psyche. On the Wu-Tang albums I grew up listening to they call this "knowledge of self God". Thank you RZA and the rest for setting a young framework for generations to be influenced by.
So this all brings me here. It isn't even about me, but for intensive purposes I am the one writing this as I turn to a year further in the development of my spirit in the universe, as my body gets one year closer to its end. I really feel that the end of the physical will only be the beginning of a higher stage, but I will do the very best I can with this life as it is all I know and as I work toward a relationship with all things. I feel my physical being, every inch ounce hair fiber cell tingle. Getting older has been amazing thus far.
I have work up at the Shooting Gallery in SF right now as part of their Winter Group Show and I am honored to be a part of their movement in the art world as it helps to define, reinterpret, investigate, and communicate with the world we are a part of. I have work up at LOAKL Gallery in Oakland as well, and I am proud to be a part of the early stages of Ken Harman's new addition to the Bay Area art world as well as he will continue to thrive and spread amazing things to so many people. I will be in a group show at Ocean Avenue Tattoo in SF with my good friend SALEM on January 26th. In March I will be a part of a group show curated by Michael Cuffe who runs Warholian. Then it is off to Japan for a Month long residency at Spes-Lab in Tokyo.
And then in June the first installment of a year long program I have at the SFMOMA opens with three more series of work in the SFMOMA space going up each three months until June 2014. I will finally be having a huge solo show in the Fall of 2013 that will be my last big exhibition of the year and coincide with the second (fall) program I am installing at the SFMOMA. All of this is really happening now, and if not for every bit of life I have survived on this planet leading up to now, none of it would be happening. I am more grateful now for the life my parents created that I have become than I ever knew was possible. Many more updates to come very soon! -John Felix Arnold III, 01/15/2013 IPD FOR LIFE!
So first and foremost I would like to thank Kate Conger at SF Weekly for doing an awesome article and interview on yours truly and the world of "Unstoppable Tomorrow". It feels really good to open up about some of the finer and darker points of my life that has sculpted my art making to what it is today! She is a great writer, really made me dig deep and I do thank her for the opportunity to do this piece. It feels good to spill your guts sometimes in print. Here is a link, click on the image below...
Lastly, I have amazing news. I will be doing a residency at Spes-Lab in Tokyo in April of 2013, and then when I come back it is time to do my first installation of a year long program of the SFMOMA windows in downtown San Francisco. More on this to come!!! Things are looking good!
Christopher Burch and I descended on the new Book & Job Gallery on Wednesday, November 7th to begin our install of our Fall 2012 two man show "Found in Darkness". Exploring our own personal mythologies that comprise the focus of our work we embarked on this show in August of this year. Examining respective narrative architectures and linear framework, we began creating installations that reflect real environments within our imaginary worlds, both dealing with different reflections of contemporary issues of social problems, race, the environment, and a proposed future of humanity in our own tales.
We were able to create a conversation through our mixed media forays that not only blended and melded together well in the space but also pushed one another's practice to a new level of intricacy. Chris dealing with his modern day reinterpretation of the Br'er Rabbit Folk Mythos and myself dealing with all the legends and myths of the world of "Unstoppable Tomorrow" that I have created, we embraced the Book & Job Gallery with energy, drive, thought, and a sense of community and challenge. Our drawings and paintings spoke well with one another as our installation works tied the environment together into a dialogue of two strong minded individuals exploring their own tangible realities in this world together through imagination and practice.
Guy Culver also helped organize a wonderful show of musical talent. Chris Danko of Religious Girls performed an awesome piano solo. Then Guy Culver and his drummer Ringo performed their punk influenced, electronic, synth heavy, hard hitting electro fuck fest of beats, noise, and beautiful screamo moments of chaos as Laughters.
Carson Lancaster, the man behind Book & Job Gallery, did a great job of orchestrating the evening and the install and was a pleasure to work with as well!!! I recommend working with him to any other artist that may be interested in contacting Book & Job. All in all it has been a great experience. Thanks again to Chris for inviting me to be a part of Book & Job and creating yet another killer show with me. -Felix
So here it is. My last show of the year. And what a year it has been. In brief, Christopher Burch and myself will be exploring our own narrative mythologies that run through out our respective bodies of work, coming together at the Book & Job Gallery in San Francisco to allow them to create a conversation within the space. Paintings, drawings, sculpture, mixed media, and collaborative installation work will bring the viewer on a journey through the space that illustrates how past and present allow us to construct our own mythological tales that will continue to evolve well into the future. I am very excited to work with Chris again, especially after he just did a major project in St Louis and is in zone, exploring his vision. Myself coming back from a bit of downtime after "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" and then Japan, am really looking forward to finishing off the year on a strong, a bit smaller, and more refined tip. This is great way for me to put a solid and concise close on 2012, which has been a monumental year, and give a little bit of forecast for things to come! The show opens Friday, November 9th from 7-11pm at the Book & Job Gallery which is located at 831 Geary St. in San Francisco. See you there. - John Felix Arnold III
So Saturday September 22nd, 2012 Terry Addison over at Old Crow opened the third installment of the "Stand Tall" series. This group show has quickly become a very important happening each year for the Bay Area, specifically the East Bay Art Scene. Last year it spanned two spaces and featured a live PA by Japanther. This year it was much cleaner, simpler, with great attention to how the artists interacted, the overall layout and movement through the space, and wreaked of amazing, truly realized, well executed, beautiful visions from all 38 participants. Barret Moore was there to document much of it, the Daily Californian ran a great little piece on it, and the turn out once again was phenomenal. Japanther, even in their absence, was able to include a video of their shadow puppet play on the front of Old Crow during the opening. David Polka, Ken Davis, Renos, Lauren Napalatino, Dana James, Christopher Burch, Kool Kid Kreyola, Spencer Keaton Cunningham, Dr. Sex, Apex, Chor Boogie, Tweens, and many many more made this an amazing happening!-John Felix Arnold III
Another truly epic show is about to commence at the legendary Old Crow Tattoo & Gallery in Oakland, CA. The Lineup is insane. This is the third installment of the now renowned Stand Tall series from Old Crow curator Terry Addison. Myself, Poesia, Renos, D Young V, Christopher Burch, Bunnie Reis, Chor Boogie, Apex, and many many more. Stand Tall has become an important showcase of established and emerging talent in the Bay Area, and this time Japanther will also be coming back to do a Shadow Puppet Performance!!! Be There, it is going to get crazy. Here is the flyer and a detail of the piece I have in the show. -JFA III
So the latter half of my trip was begun with a painting commission for a native New Yorker. My friend I-Am-Jesse, a killer DJ who has resided in Japan for many years now, hit me up around the same time I was contacted by Ken South Rock to make a painting for his amazing Shibuya apartment. I crashed at my good friends Frankie and Emi's house for a couple days near Shinjuku as I began to work on the piece, and then made it over to Jesse's in Shibuya to finish. Upon completion my last few days in Japan were numbered and the insanity ensued. The latter half of the trip was full of art making, book buying, amazing food, awesome city lurking, people watching, mad partying, building new relationships with some amazing artists, spending time with really good old friends, and all around general mayhem. I was even introduced to a group of artists who run an alternative space called Spes-Lab in Ebisu, Tokyo, and was coincidentally invited to come back in the Spring to rock a solo venture at the space. I was dumbfounded, honored, intimidated, and pretty much floored when I was asked to do this, as I have always wanted to have something like this come about and had never imagined it would be this soon. Big thank you to everyone and everything that made this experience possible. It was amazing.
The video store near Frankie and Emi's crib was pretty cool. I was into the character design on this one and...
I found John Rambo in Japan. Japambo! Then I found the "adult section" holy shit, craziness. Also they have some truly bizarre and intense porn out there...
This temple is right down the street from Frankie and Emi's place. One of the most amazing things about cities like Tokyo is that you are bombarded with a truly modern even futuristic high tech setting all the time. Yet every few blocks you are reminded of the city's rich, thousands of years of history shown in structures and places like this amidst the Blade Runneresque developments.
Super sick monk statue at a temple in the middle of Tokyo.
Temple Graveyard near Frankie and Emi's.
So after the graveyard it was time to get to work and start painting my commission...
Commission Painting Stage one at Frankie and Emi's House.
And then...
So I got the back ground worked up to where I really liked it at Frankie and Emi's place. Honestly once I got it to this point, I seriously considered not taking it any further for I felt I had never gotten an abstract piece to this level before and really questioned letting it just be. It felt good to just sit there and stare at and it felt balanced, so I took a break and distracted myself with other things like...
Talking deliriously to Emi's stuffed animal friends, like this pig, and...
Watching Frankie and Emi come in from the hottest fucking day of all time and totally zone out on the couch as the air conditioner cooled them down to "human" levels.
Then it was time to get on the bus to go to DJ I-Am-Jesse's crib and finish working on this piece.
I had to get some sushi before I got back to work. This was a wopping $7. True Talk.
I-Am-Jesse's crib in Shibuya, sickkkk!
Sayin cheese for my own lens.
So after a lot of pondering, a lot of reference research, and a lot of plain old compositional thinking, I started putting down line work. It literally took about three hours of looking and adjusting the direction and order of the two panels to finally make my first marks.
Work table in full effect.
And boom, just about finished product.
Detail.
Right Panel Detail
Right Panel Detail
Finished Paintings.
What a view from I-Am-Jesse's Crib. Talk about an amazing place to make art!
Shake Weight is even weirder in Japan! Japanese TV time. The pieces are still "Untitled" but they as a Diptych should just be called "Dream Adventure" because that's what this trip was. Each Panel was about 2'x3' and the paintings were a mixture of spray paint, house paint, and plastic model kit enamel. Here are a couple more shots.
Left Side Panel "Things Do What They Will" I think I should call it.
And the right panel should be called "Learning How to Fill My Lungs".
So the night I finished the commission we went out on the town, and we ended up at the amazing Spes-Lab.
Next Post to Come. Japan part 3!!! The final installment, Spes-Lab, Yoyogi Park, and getting weird all the way to Haneda airport.
The past few months have been fucking crazy. We opened ArtNowNY, it was awesome, I just opened my solo show at Old Crow in Oakland, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" It was epic!!! Now I am in Japan, sitting in a rad little apartment in Tokyo about to go on tour with Ken South Rock! This train just doesn't seem to stop. I am too exhausted right now to really go into anything deep, or summarize anything as of late, or get into any long explanations of work process, art reviews, or even more personal shit. Let me just suffice to say that tonight I am on the other side of the world, I am going to eat really well, be surrounded by awesome people, and start a live performance tour tomorrow that is going to change my life!!!
Here are some images of my opening at Old Crow and more.... I'll be back soon this time to update you guys!
We have been working our tails off on the new ArtNowNY gallery opening at 548 West 28th Street in New York City's Chelsea Arts District this coming Thursday June 7th. Working around the clock on a list of tasks and deadlines and things that would make any persons head spin. Being in this new role as Creative Director of the gallery and the Co-curatorial Chair of our programming has been an honor, a pleasure, and one of the most amazing learning experiences of my life. Not to mention I get to bring people I love and respect into the New York City art scene, in Chelsea no doubt, and work with people that I have admired and looked up to for a very long time. Shit , I reconnected with Swoon today at the Bushwick Open Studios in Brooklyn, and just that simple interaction alone really made me see that I truly am in the channel of a higher power and living a life that I never dreamed of. Anyway, all the spiritual mushiness aside, I have really been working just as hard as creative director as I do on my own work, and the balance is creating some amazing programming and collaborative presence in New York. It feels good to be home. I created a video series that we will continue throughout the life of ArtNowNY that captures sections of New York life, culture and people. I filmed Unstoppable Death Machines in Bushwick at a raging show where my homie Ben Robey wild out harder than I have seen in ages (dude fell through the drum set off the bar and kept singing and screaming on the mic!!!!).
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ix4wJwJAQk]
I filmed the amazing Alyssa Kazew in the Village dancing at New York's famous Grays Papaya. I captured Jose Santiago giving a cool patron a straight razor shave design in her hair at Well Connected in the Lower East Side, and I even was shot via Coby Kennedy at Fort Tilden doing what I do best, walking through the middle of nowhere collecting debris and wood to make art with. I am very, very happy with the videos, and I am truly blessed to be in a position to be able to create them right now and be paid for my work. Also I connected with old friend and amazing director Lenny Tso who edited the pieces, and I even got to put my own music as the soundtrack to three of the pieces under my music alias Tekkamaki. Boom, for real!!! Here they are, check them out, more to come, holla. ArtNowNY launches June 7th in Chelsea. The its back to Oakland to get ready for OLD CROW YOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_XJMpkXJt4]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vb7GM4rhy0]
New York has been good to me thus far. We have been really getting a lot of work done having a blast and making some serious moves for the future. I got to see my homies from Unstoppable Death Machines the other night, and it was a pretty unforgettable performance. It was at a small bar in Buswhick, Brooklyn, it was packed, and Ben Robey aka Jah Jah Brown made a very memorable performance. Jah was truly off his rocker and the Death Machines went super hard! It was fucking awesome. More updates coming.
I'm sitting in a cafe eating a bagel and cream cheese in the LES in New York City, and I'm ready to write a long So the past few months have been a serious chain of really rich, beautiful, inspiring developments artistically and just in general life and growth terms for the old John Felix Arnold III. Ever since the frustration felt with Queens Nail Projects and the tenacity and heart and love I put into "The Love of All the Above" I have found myself continually being in action rather than reaction. I have been making new work consistently, moving from old crutches in the visual plane into new ways of thinking, refining, expressing, and making connections on a larger scale of time for the next few years than I really ever imagined I would be able to. My concept of time and space has become malleable, not restrictive but more like a beautiful puzzle or equation that I am continually finding ways to reconfigure and allow myself the freedom of thought and growth on different dimensions of perspective while remaining right here present on the earth and move steadily forward in "reality". I am starting to see the world of Unstoppable Tomorrow in many inner connected phases with the shows I want to create all addressing different aspects of what it is to be human and how we in the here and now are developing as a species and culture by exploring simplicity and the ability to rethink and move on in my apocalyptic future setting. Needless to say that through the developments of my art my personal life has been experiencing some of the healthiest changes I have felt and vice versa I guess I can say as well. Understanding when the time is right to step back and be grateful, when it is right to show affection and love, how to experience from others, while retaining the relentless, animal nature for working and getting things I want to make happen accomplished, but with a higher sense collaboration and a more open ear. Anyway, the work I have been making really symbolizes this to me right now and the projects I have coming up , like Old Crow in July at Old Crow really seem to be addressing these huge shifts in a man who used to be in a sense blinded by the intensity of the world around him. My eyes are open and I can smell you all, in the best way possible.
New York was amazing, life is crazy. I have a solo show coming up in July at Old Crow in Oakland. I am the co-founder of a new gallery that is opening in New York in the Chelsea Arts District called ArtNowNY! Things are getting serious! I will be back this weekend to fill in the blanks, Hope everyone out there is doing well. -John Felix Arnold III
Thursday, March 1st, 2012
New Works by John Felix Arnold III & Christopher Burch : Live Performances by Ninjasonik & Ken South Rock
Art Opening Reception 6-9 with Food and DJs Reverend McFly and Chaz-O : Free
Performances from Ninjasonik and Ken South Rock : 9-12 : $10 Pre-sale/$12 at the Door : 21+
Art Show runs from March1st-31st
Littlefield is located @ 622 Degraw St. btw 3rd & 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY : 11217 : ph (718) 855-3388
For more info and for tickets please visit http://littlefieldnyc.com
Thursday, March 1st, 2012 Littlefield is proud to present “Eat Peter to Feed Paul”, a two man show by Bay Area based artists John Felix Arnold III & Christopher Burch that will feature musical performances and collaborations from New York based bands Ninjasonik and Ken South Rock. It is the two visual artist’s first show in New York together and promises not to be forgotten. For Arnold this is a bit of a homecoming, marking his second time showing in New York since he moved to the Bay from Brooklyn in 2006, and for Burch, being from St. Louis originally, this a new opportunity to branch out closer to his roots. The two will be exhibiting new drawings and mixed media works in their respective styles. The works deal with the changing role of human beings within a high paced technology saturated society where we are rapidly losing our grasp of anything reflecting a spiritual way of being and many are quickly becoming “self sacrificing parasites” within their own circles of living without even realizing it. They will also be composing an installation within the art space to guide the viewers through the show reflecting the push and pull and intensity of the present world we live in, using found objects to cut the space up into different frequencies of comfort and un-comfortability while viewing the 2-D work. After the show reception musical cohorts and collaborators Ken South Rock and Ninjasonik will be performing live in Littlefield’s amazing theatre/music hall space with a live painting collaboration from the two Bay Area artists as a full on art and music explosion. These two amazing forces of musical energy will bring the audience to climactic celebration of being alive through their powerful styles and relentless sound. The subject matter of their audio tour de force is extremely relevant to our present day existence and inspires a lust for life that that really brings a conscious ear to an energy that society needs to be impregnated by.
http://littlefieldnyc.com http://felixthethirdrock.com http://giantkillerz.tumblr.com http://ninjasonikmusic.com http://kensouthrock.com http://www.facebook.com/events/153773094740166/
For Press Inquiries regarding artwork please contact felixthethird@gmail.com &giantkillerz@gmail.com For Press Inquiries regarding music please contact radsalem@gmail.com & amramadam@gmail.com
Sometimes I haveta use this blog to just speak my damn mind, cause its like a bubblin pot of gumbo ready get eating and savored and shit, and analyzed and rethought. This has been a pretty amazing ride in a short amount of time entering 2012. I haveta say life has thrown more at me, good and bad, than almost any other time in my life, but the amazing part seems to be this new found ability to cope, handle, stay on task, and move forward positively instead of falling back into old habits.
Sometimes I agree with the phrase youth is wasted on the young, but right now I don't because I am not that old and because I am glad I did all (almost all lol still have those selective "what ifs" for sure that I know I will hold onto for a long time) the things I have done and walked through all of the fire as well as ice cream cake I have in my life. This show coming up in New York (Eat Peter to Feed Paul @ Littlefield) and the show I just had in SF (The Love of All Above @ Queens Nails) are really a grounds for me to give appreciation to both places for really nurturing me through some of the best and hardest times I have ever known. SF was a good foundation for me to lose it, in everyway (shit got dark yo lol) then rebuild, and New York was a beautiful pot luck of inspiration, temptation, and trial and error that I get to thankfully go give back to now with a good head, and right fit mind on my shoulders. In other words I am ready to fucking rock this show in New York, not in a overblown big headed way, in a thoughtful, right step, calm and collected, do it well and go hard sort of way. I asked God (my god at least) to please help me get back there someday when I first moved to the Bay, and now after years of becoming a much more "fit to live" person, it is all happening.
I know a lot of people who are very close to me right now that are going through some tough times, very tough times, myself included to a certain degree, and I want to make this trip and this show an experience that demonstrates how appreciative I am for my life and those around me that make it amazing. We are all in this together, and we have to do all of this together, there is no other way to truly make things amazing. Self will only gets one so far. Building with others and living in love, or at least appreciating the little things and the big ones and always trying to make others know they are appreciated is what makes movements and creates change on a massive scale. I am coming home New York, get ready because it is a whole different approach to getting on that tar mac this time. Much Love to Everyone, they know who they are! NGO! John Felix Arnold III
Opening Reception Friday February 24th 7-10 pm and Saturday February 25th 4-6PM The Luggage Store Annex/ Tenderloin National Forest : 509 Ellis St. SF : CA
Tonight is going to be pretty epic as I gather my spirits and do one last thing before leaving the Bay Area for two weeks. A show that I have been waiting to see for years is happening here in San Francisco tonight. Christopher Burch, long time friend, peer, and straight up amazing artist and personality, whom is coming to NYC to show with myself in a week, has a groundbreaking opening tonight here in San Francisco. The culmination of two months in the Tenderloin National Forest Artist in Residence Program will be presented at the Luggage Store Annex with dance performances, and other festivities tonight and tomorrow night. I am very fortunate to be heading back to the east coast later tonight and not have to miss this amazing happening. Burch's art is a testament to the intellect, skill, creativity, craft, compassion, and inspiring nature of a historically explosive line of artists here in the Bay Area and I recommend to anyone that has not been following his work to begin doing so now.
Tenderloin National Forest Luggage Store Annex
| Christopher Burch’s visual works combine drawing, painting, flocked damask wallpaper, hand painted silver serving trays, and sculpture to create a haughntinlgy surreal full scale site specific installations. The results are conflating landscapes in which historical, socio-economic and political forces that have shaped and continue to shape American racial geographies, teeter on the edge of madness.Something in the Way of Things, written by Amiri Baraka in 2008, is a disturbingly subtle and dark social commentary probing an existential crisis within the African American experience due to the inability to fully synthesize historical and contemporary racial tensions and realties . Memory and testimony (ultimately language itself) become metaphors for seeing or the inability to see. Baraka exposes, that the borders between visibility (to see, to articulate ones experiences) and invisibility (to not see, to not be able to articulate ones experiences) are at times schizophrenic.
Burch’s project for the TNF A.I.R residency is entitled “Somethings ..are (In) the Way of Things”. During the months of January 2012 and February 2012 Burch will build a full scale, on site, installatioon/environment re-interpreting Amiris Baraka’s poem “Something in the Way of Things.” Accompanying the installation of work within the Luggage Store Annex, the residency will also incorporate literary performances and dance pieces held in the Tenderloin National Forest itself. These performances and recitals will address various personal interpretations of the poem “Something In the Way of Things.” (Hours: Daily 12-5, closed Mondays)
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"The Love of All Above" @ Queens Nails Projects in San Francisco's Mission District on February 4th was awesome!!! Everyone had a great time, we generated some amazing press, even Alfonso & Monique from Cosio-Delaunay and Ali Lain from the San Francisco Bay Area Guardian came through to check it out! Kimberly Chun from the Chronicle even gave us a shout out two days before the show in print. It was amazing. the performances were unforgettable and people kept popping up all night long to say hello and participate in the show. So with that in mind here are the awesome photos of the night, with performers Kool Kid Kreyola, Him Downstairs, Daylight Curfew, and all of our friends and peers in the scene. Can't wait to do it again with Christopher Burch, Ninjasonik, and Ken South Rock in New York in two weeks at Littlefield!!! Check out the slide show below.
[slideshow]
