UC San Diego Visual Arts @ 50
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UC San Diego Visual Arts @ 50 Title Provoking Change: A Visual Arts Alumni Exhibition Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/22b020g5 Authors UC San Diego Department of Visual Arts Sizonenko, Tatiana Publication Date 2017-10-12 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 4.0 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Provoking Change Provoking A Visual Arts Alumni Exhibition October 12 – December 9, 2017 University Art Gallery Mandeville Art Center UC San Diego Provoking Change VA 50 Provoking Change David Avalos Doris Bittar Becky Cohen Joyce Cutler-Shaw Brian Dick Kip Fulbeck Heidi Hardin Robert Kushner Hung Liu Fred Lonidier Jean Lowe Kim MacConnel Susan Mogul Allan Sekula Elizabeth Sisco/Louis Hock/David Avalos Deborah Small/David Avalos Introduction Exploring a segment of the and Robert Kushner challenged the unique early history of the Visual conventional idea of painting as a Arts Department, Provoking Change two-dimensional work on canvas. celebrates an extraordinary roster Executed as a kind of cloth hanging, of artists who came to study in San both MacConnel’s Turkish Delight Diego in the early 1970s through the and Kushner’s Big Blue Chador 1990s. Diverse in their approaches, question the long-standing pejorative these artists shared a desire to foster dismissal of decoration. change by challenging the narrow- Hung Liu’s Five Star Red Flag ly defined avant-garde canon as and German Shepherd, on the other manifested in the formalism of the hand, are a significant contribu- 1960s. In contrast to the influential tion to the revival of traditions of American critic Clement Greenberg, avant-garde painting in China. After who considered political art rene- arriving to UCSD, Liu mastered gade and aesthetically inferior to the layered brushstrokes and drippy avant-garde, UC San Diego artists appearance of paint in her work that made art that introduced multi-cul- serve as a visual metaphor for the tural voices, pointed out women’s loss of historical memory. Alterna- underrepresentation in the arts, tively, Jean Lowe opened the door and revealed the pressing histories to a social critique aesthetic within of immigration, class, and racism. the realm of canvas, thus further By broadening art-making practices transforming the idea of modernist through daring experimentation and painting. Lowe’s Food For a Nation, engagement with the highly-contest- a monumental canvas reminiscent ed political and social subjects of the of a baroque painting, features not day, these artists helped transform a romanticized or heroic scene but and expand contemporary art. rather a grim contemporary land- Works on view in Provoking scape depicting the environmental Change include painting, sculpture, impact of industrial agro-business. photography, photomontage, film and This painting, put side by side with video, and text-and-image installa- other work produced by Visual Arts tions. Standing at the forefront of alumni in the 1990s, invites viewers the Pattern and Decoration Move- to rethink their place in our consum- ment, the work of Kim MacConnel er society. Lastly, Heidi Hardin’s portraits visualize the theme of iden- of immigrant labor, border politics, tity, a subject that runs across many and multiculturalism in California, works of Visual Arts alumni. In Har- while also transgressing estab- din’s paintings, colorfully transcribed lished conventions of public art. Art snapshots from family albums offer Rebate/Arte Reembolso by Sisco, an evocative meditation on the differ- Hock, and Avalos takes the form of ent ethnicities that comprise families a video and text documentation of in America. the project. The work was conceived The exhibition’s impressive array as a series of symbolic social and of paintings is complemented by economic transactions between three groundbreaking works in photogra- artists and hundreds of Mexican phy. Included are photo-text instal- and Central American unautho- lations by Allan Sekula and Fred rized immigrant-laborers here in Lonidier, who not only influenced a San Diego during three months of generation of new documentary pho- the collaborative enterprise. The tographers but also offered a model trio orchestrated an unprecedented for post-documentary, conceptual, media campaign to promote debate and leftist political photography. about the relationship between Sekula’s School Is A Factory serves citizens and undocumented workers as a critical exploration of the limited in San Diego County’s underground career paths opened up by so-called economy. In contrast, mis*ce*ge*NA- “higher education” in the community TION, an installation by Small and colleges of Orange County. In turn, Avalos, combines casta images with Lonidier’s The Wedding of Lin Baron a humorous experimental video-es- and Pauline Oliveros experiments say. The results critically reconsider with serial images and text, a kind of California as a long-time home to “silent film” approach, to document Native Americans, Spaniards, Chi- its socially-critical content, an early nese, African-Americans, and Anglos, gay marriage ceremony. while also challenging conventional Multimedia work by two col- wisdom about the mixing of the lectives - David Avalos, Louis races. Hock, and Elizabeth Sisco, as well The pioneering interdisciplinary as David Avalos with Deborah work of Visual Arts alumni, fre- Small - addresses complex issues quently combining collage, photog- raphy, video, writing, installation, The work of many Visual Arts performance, and activism, is repre- alumni aligns well with the spirit of sented by pieces from Susan Mogul Allan Kaprow’s investigation of art and Doris Bittar. An active member disappearing into life. The artworks of the Feminist Studio Workshop, a on display can delight the senses, radical feminist art program led by evoke emotions, arouse curiosity, and Judy Chicago in Los Angeles, Mogul provoke debate about the nature and explores topics of female identity and boundaries of art and art media. For sexuality. Waiting at the Soda Foun- example, Brian Dick’s canvas-cov- tain, combining performance video ered foam tires, from his larger with her photocollages, is a feminist installation No Rules Except...Yard, parody about getting discovered in not only pay homage to the legacy Hollywood and was originally part of of Kaprow but also significantly an installation and performance at contribute to the making of a new the Columbia Coffee Shop in Hol- kind of improvisational sculpture, lywood. Doris Bittar, on the other often presented as a performative hand, uses the media of collage and strategy that activates the work. In mapping to respond to the world’s all, the exhibition spotlights those anxieties and obsession with terror- artists who have succeeded mem- ism since 9-11. Her Secured States orably in giving substance to their maps, created by cutting and pasting creative visions and whose work security envelope patterns collected often transgressed the conventional from paychecks, bills and official doc- media boundaries to connect object uments, humorously reconcile border making with play, performance, discrepancies arising from political and activism. The exhibition will be or geographic issues and apply the accompanied by film screenings and correct security envelope patterns lecture-conversations with visiting to make states and countries “safe” alumni and will highlight the depth once again. Bittar’s work frequent- and breadth of the socially engaged ly examines decorative motifs and and politically conscious art of the how they intersect with historical Visual Arts alumni at UC San Diego. and geopolitical legacies, while also addressing themes of place, identity, and spirituality. —Tatiana Sizonenko, Ph.D., Art History, Theory and Criticism, 2013 David Avalos David Avalos on the 2015 canoniza- tion of Junípero Serra: In September 2015, Pope Francis made a saint of Franciscan Friar Junípero Serra, who founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769, thus initiating a brutal Mission system on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. According to Francis (pos- sibly channeling Mel Brooks), Serra “ushered in a new springtime of evangelization” by his work for the Church. “Such zeal excites us,” the Pope raved. In the late 1980s, when the Church first ‘Beatified’ Serra in preparation for making him a saint, California Indian protests success- fully stopped the effort. In support of their outrage, historian William E. Weeks wrote: To proclaim “St. Serra” is to proclaim forever the “savage” nature of the native peoples of California.… [Only then] will Western civilization confront the reality of genocide.… To candidly confront the reality of European subjugation of Native Americans is a necessary condition for the alleviation of present-day injus- tices and the shared creation of a common future. Hubcap Milagro—Junípero Serra’s Next Mixed Media: chrome hubcap, Thunder- Miracle: Turning Blood into Thunderbird bird wine bottle, sheet lead, escutcheon Wine, 1989 pins, acrylic paint, circular saw blade and fragment, tin funnel, carved wood, wire, hardware 32 x 15 x 6 inches Collection of Doug Simay The Church often demands a mi- David Avalos’ voice was first raculous intervention from a person heard on September 12, 1947. His being considered for sainthood. This Mexican immigrant parents, Santos might occur, for example, when a and María Avalos, raised him and devout Catholic with an incurable five siblings in the Mexican-American disease prays to the ‘Beatified’ and neighborhood of National