I’m obsessed with optimism and pessimism, so imagine my toes twinkling when I heard about an exhibition on optimism curated by Gareth Spor.
Author Archives: cwongyap
Inspiration: Philip Zimbardo & The Heroic Imagination
In contrast with the “hostile imagination,” in which warring countries dehumanize their enemies, Philip Zimbardo promotes the “heroic imagination”–and I love this idea.
Have you wondered if your fellow citizens would come to a stranger’s aid if needed? Have you ever witnessed a chance to do the right thing, and seen people’s reluctance to get involved? I’m tired of seeing bystanders simply stand by — from kids on a bus mutely hoping someone else will tell the bus driver he took a wrong turn, to people gawking at others obviously in need of assistance.
How can we foster the heroic imagination? In “The Banality of Heroism,” from the Fall 2006/Winter 2007 issue of Greater Good, Philip Zimbardo and Zeno Franco suggest:
1. Develop our “discontinuity detector.”
2. Don’t let a fear of interpersonal conflicts get in the way of standing up for your principles.
3. Think beyond the present.
4. Resist inaction.
5. Don’t be afraid to go left when everyone else goes right.
Zimbardo’s ideas are from his new book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. Zimbardo is the man behind the Stanford Prison Experiment, which demonstrated how quickly people abused their power over others. The subjects tortured and humiliated ‘prisoners,’ in shockingly similar ways to the events at Abu Gharib. What Zimbardo emphasizes, however, is that “there are no bad apples, just bad barrels.” That is, context is key–Zimbardo takes a “public health” approach (concerned with conditions), rather than a medical one (concerned with pathology). What were the conditions that made it possible for Abu Gharib to happen, for abuse in prisons and covert detention facilities around the world to continue?
I think the steps towards developing the heroic imagination sounds like cultivating critical thinking, courage and integrity. These are key ingredients, of course, towards becoming better citizens and resisting all forms of injustice. (How is it that “patriots,” in the U.S., often refers to people who support their government without question? Can’t we be active, critical citizens and patriots?) It’s significant for me to see this clear connection between everyday attitudes and an approach to larger, more complex issues.
If we cultivate the heroic imagination, if we maintain our integrity and courage in this age of irony and pessimism, if we did what we really knew was right—What would be possible?
SF Bay Area Art Listings
What’s going on in SF Bay Area art? Sure, there are museums, but don’t forget commercial galleries, art colleges and ICAs (institutes for contemporary art, like CCA’s Wattis and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, are museum-gallery hybrids with rotating exhibtions and no permanent collections. They’re refreshing successors to the Modern museum). The Bay Area features a thriving alternative art scene for diverse, cutting-edge art. Exhibits are usually free at alternative spaces (but your donations are welcome). Check these listings to stay up-to-date!
EMAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS
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Artsync. Weekly events calendar, emailed weekly. Includes notable lectures by national and international artists and curators at the local colleges.
Flavorpill SF. Weekly events calendar across different kinds of entertainment. A great source to hear about edgy, grassroots events.
WEBSITES
Artforum’s Artguide. Lists many museums and commecial galleries in town, but doesn’t always have current exhibition information.
KQED’s Spark. Lots of listings of events, spaces, educator guides, artist’s profiles, art tours and more. Don’t miss their excellent TV program about local arts/dance/theater/music, with a focus on artistic process.
ArtBusiness.com. Alan Bamberger is a no-nonsense art consultant. When he goes to openings, he shoots loads of photos and posts them on his site. Since few galleries post installation views, it’s a great resource for photos of what’s currently up in galleries around town.
ATA Webzine. The webzine of a teeny alternative art institution devoted to film/video/new media.
SF Arts. Not comprehensive, but a good start.
Fecal Face. Though it’s all grown up, Fecal Face’s tastes reflect its skate/lifestyle beginnings. A central hub of a certain kind of accessible, hip visual art, sort of like Giant Robot and Juztapoz. Also features tons of community listings.
COLLEGE LECTURE SERIES & EXHIBITIONS
The area is also rich in great art schools, which host amazing lecture series by artists, curators and critics (and architects, designers, writers, etc). And, the lectures are free and open to the public.
The California College of the Arts’ calendar
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art
SF Art Institute’s exhibitions and public programs
PRINTED GUIDES
In the commercial galleries (such as the cluster downtown at 49 and 77 Geary and the surrounding area), you can find free, printed gallery guides, which list exhibitions at commercial spaces for the next few months.
You can also find a copy of a printed map of spaces to see art for free, in a project lead by Intersection for the Arts and the De Young Museum. I think an online version is still in development.
CRITICISM
In addition to daily papers, alt weeklies, glossy mags and industry rags, there are a growing number of review websites.
Keith Boadwee & Patrick Rock at Queen’s Nails Annex
Keith Boadwee at QNA is a great example of a high-caliber show in a small space. Super meticulously executed and installed photographs, collages, sculpture, drawings. Love the Magritte-ish/Lucas Samara-ish self-portrait, the David Hockney yarn drawing, and the Santa Monica Blvd meets Castro Street Ruscha-inspired map drawing. Don’t have photos, but you cans see previous work at the artist’s page at Lightbox Gallery (LA).
Portland-based sculptor/conceptual artist Patrick Rock is showing his cake on a flourescent pink floor, along with a short video and a photograph. The whole space is an installation of intense pink color, intensely sweet cake smell, and a loud video of a pink baloon deflating. It’s weird how Rock sparingly uses intense, loud elements to make a statement. Very funny. See Patrick’s artist’s website.
Patrick Rock’s fallen cake at Queen’s Nails Annex. It’s huge, maybe 6-8 feet long. The walls are actually white, but look pink due to the screaming florescent floor.
Recommended: Events
Thursday 4/19
5-8pm: Opening Reception: Faction at Playspace Gallery
Faction is an exhibition/zine/screening by CCA Curatorial Practice students. Yours truly has work in the zine. Don’t miss work by Stephanie Syjuco, Luke Butler, Zachary Scholz. At CCA’s Playspace Gallery.
Also tonite: Opening for Beasties at Crucible Steel Gallery at Cellspace. After being reminded of what a “furry” is in the post Kenneth Eng debacle, I’ve been a little creeped out by animal art. But Josh Short is prodigious, smart artist, and promises to delight with a giant cardboard beast that might have good content on recylcing and the Mission neighborhood context.
Friday 4/20
Midday: Ann Markusen talks at Cal
Fascinated by the cold logic of economics, that sweet, indifferent science? Ann Markusen, who recently published a report about artists working in different sectors, will be speaking at Cal 4/20 mid-day…
6-9pm: Opening reception: Breakthrough at SF Arts Commission Gallery
Billed “An Amateur Photography Revolution,” this show by JPG Magazine seems to hit some current notes… Crowdsourcing… People as art producers, instead of art consumers… More.
7-10pm: Opening Reception: Cult Classics, Not Best Sellers at Queen’s Nails Annex
Keith Boadwee & Patrick Rock. Two one-man shows. Leave the kids at home.Queen’s Nails Annex.
Saturday 4/21
Noon: Jim Campbell speaks at BAM
Artist and M.I.T. techie Jim Campbell speaks at the Berkeley Art Museum at noon. Campbell’s current show at the Hosfelt Gallery was astounding. Life-affirming, even. The gallery images are nice, but the exhibition’s amazing. See it yourself. It’s up through 4/28.
Noon: San Francisco World’s Fair on Third Street, SF
Art on the edge of the city, curatorial activity on the edge of where art meets life meets cultural production meets ecology and transportation. (Nice title in contrast with the former paternalistic usage, BTW.) Features Poppa Nuetrino of New Yorker fame. Free, outdoors, eclectic in a good way. Continues through Sunday… See the website for a map and schedule.
1pm: Art on Market Street Walking Tour
You’ve seen the SF Art Commission’s Art on Market Street posters, now go on the tour. With Amanda Hughen, Jennifer Starkweather, and David Buuck. Link
1-3pm: Walter Kituundu Artist’s Lecture and Kid’s art workshop at MOCFA
OK, I’m in the show at MOCFA right now, but even if I wasn’t I’d be excited to hear the self-taught artist/photoharpist/instrument maker talk and make music. I saw him a few years ago at Meridian Gallery. The instruments are stunning and his music is gorgeous. Bring the little ones to make mini instruments. Part of the Beats Per Minute exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art.
(Next week will be my workshop. We’ll be doing papercuts of your favorite word, and maybe even some gothic lettering. Gothic as in medieval, not Marilyn Manson, k? For kids and adults!)
Sunday 4/21
Earth Day, well, is actually everyday. Yes to bikes. No to crappy plastic goods (plastic=petrol!). Yes to re-ducing and re-using, too! No to bottled water. In the US, almost 2.5 million water bottles are used every hour, but only one in five get recycled. And plastic, compared with glass, is much more difficult to recycle, uses lots of water in the recycling process, and the resulting plastic is really degraded. I read it in Recycle: the essential guide, an easy book for getting to know your PETs. Besides, safe, clean, affordable tap water should be a public right, not a private commodity.
Going: Philip Kan Gotanda’s “After the War” at A.C.T.
After the War is about life and love in the Fillmore district after WWII. I’m fascinated by many of its subtexts: racial politics, the strained relationships between APIs and African Americans, jazz, culture as a space of connection, SF Bay Area (re)development, California history…
Since I hope that dancers, actors and choreographers would be interested in going to gallery openings, I’m trying to make a point of attending performances. It’s also nice to support work that deals with identity issues and isn’t relegated to second-stage status. To show that this work can be viable means supporting it with your dollars.
Inspiration: Jonathan Lethem’s “Ecstacy of Influence”
The writer Jonathan Lethem on why copyright in this country is ineffective for creative vitality. In the process, he discusses the frontiers of art that borrows and quotes, including some gems on objecthood, strangeness, the flatness of reality and gift economies. As in, art as a gift. He’s responding to Harold Bloom’s book, The Anxiety of Influence, a treatise on originality that can be creatively stifling.
Though Lethem’s central argument is not my main concern, there’s many parts of the essay that are thought-provoking and energizing my studio practice. Read it on Harper’s website.
[This came across my radar by way of writer David Buuck. Lethem’s article is also a piece of conceptual writing (that is, its form is determined by its content), but I won’t spoil the surprise at the end.]
Open Studios was delightful
Yesterday’s Open Studios at CCA was a blast, a lot people made their way all the way out to CCA’s Potrero Hill campus. It was great to share my work with the public, and to talk to people about projects that I’m excited about.
I hope viewers feel comfortable walking into studios and asking questions about the work. Despite the stereotype that artists are egomanical, condescending or asocial (well…), I hope that people see that many artists are happy to talk to the public and share their enthusiasm…
There was a lot of buzz and I was proud to think that the work of my peers was exciting enough to keep people wandering into almost 100 studios…
R+D 