bridge the void: June 2010

"There's No Place Like No Place"

well, here it is. There's No Place Like No Place... my "dark/sublime" MFA exhibition. i've only posted 15 images. if you want to see more, let me know.

The title of the show is a pun on the word "utopia", which translates to "no place" or "not-place" but is also a way of defining an "ideal place." The word "utopia" has long been defined by its ironic double meaning- a utopia is called such because it was (and is) considered impossible to realize. Ideal places are impossible to realize, just as “not-places” are impossible to realize. There's No Place Like No Place capitalizes (quasi-utopian/socialist pun-intended) on the positive/negative duality of "utopia" and uses it to chisel into the diseased foundations of the present. It’s kind of like saying “there’s no utopia like utopia,” and it’s kind of like saying “there’s no place like utopia;” it’s kind of like saying “there’s no place like home,” and it's kind of like saying "there is no home."

the show was, literally, incredibly dark. it was lit by four clip lamps bearing 60 watt, energy-saving, daylight bulbs. upon entry, it would take the average viewer's eyes around five minutes to adjust completely. so the show became, in-part (and inadvertently), an optical experience. the space would be completely pitch-black for a full minute, but by the time one had stumbled all the way through to the Voidscape on the back wall, the space seemed nearly too bright. it was crazy. so were the shadows on the ceiling. i wish you all could have seen it in person, because it was really something else.

viewers were also invited to take a copy of zine made specifically to complement the show. you can check it out below this post.

(all photos were taken by my colleague Shane Anderson. many thanks are owed to him!)

"Hold This, It's Nothing"

here's a few images from a new zine. i made it all special-like, to give away at my MFA show. it's called Hold This, It's Nothing. it's twenty pages long, and oversized by zine standards. i took the photos, too. it's (essentially) a slightly shuffled, digital sequence of a bird flying... it was designed specifically to accompany the dark/sublime concept of the show. i can tell you more about it- just ask me... definately an homage to Felix Gonzales-Torres. i've got a bunch left. if you want one, send me your mailing address!

Everyone You Know is Currently Dead

Here's some photos of the mural I did a couple weeks ago for the MFA 2010 exhibition at the University Art Gallery. (forgive the photos, please- I'll have some better ones, soon enough...) the outside portion of the mural was recently vandalized, actually. I'll have to fix it before the final documentation can happen. whatever.

the photos move from right to left, from inside to outside.

starting on the right hand side, the interior portion of the mural:

here's the best view, straddling the threshold of the back door. i designed the mural around this idea of the people streaming out of this threshold between the interior/exterior worlds.

here's what i wrote for a little talk i had to give:

Use of the exterior wall is crucial for the success of the piece, as the physical doorway that divides the image plane conjures a large degree of agency- acting as symbolic threshold between interior and exterior realities, helping to expose a sort-of tragicomic “the joke’s on us,” wherein the truths revealed by complete physical and spiritual transparency are the punchline. In a way, the doorway is the real arbiter of mural…. Inside or out, the doorway the stopping point for the inquisitive viewer. As one flows against the crowd in order to inspect the pyramid, the doorway is the point at which one must turn back and thus, move with the crowd away from the pyramid, away from the mural. It is this turning away that impregnates the mural with its meaning and power… this is the point of agreement, where the viewer must position him/herself within these scapes and within this crowd, in order to really consider just exactly what the hell it is that’s going on with all of us.

not to shabby, huh?

so, here we're exiting the back door. we'll start with some details of this wall:

here's the whole wall, finally:

these two photos were actually taken before i took the blue painter's tape off of the mural... i had to use these, as some hotshot hit three spots on the mural with red spray paint. can you guess where they might have hit?

Installing my MFA Exhibition "There's No Place Like No Place"

i was very fortunate to have three great folks from the UCSD grad program helping me install my show. many, many thanks go out to Mike Calway-Fagen, Vince Manganello & Matt Coors!

Mike and Matt....