Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

YBCA welcomes Bay Area photographer and installation artist Derick Ion to the Room for Big Ideas. His installation transforms the RBI into a meditative and sensual environment rich in symbology, Jainist iconography, and Subcontinental texture. Complementing and contrasting YBCA's large first floor exhibition, The Matter Within: New Contemporary Art of India, the ephemera and minutiae displayed in Ion's space reflect another contemporary – and timeless – perspective on India.

At the point where long-held beliefs fall into decline and once-esteemed notions crumble, questions arise about those belief systems. It is at this point that John-Mark Ikeda begins his exploration of the current economic climate. Ikeda deconstructs the iconic business suit — which he equates with the failed economy — stripping it down to its component parts and pinning it to the wall like a specimen, with accompanying business accessories, in an attempt to reconstitute it as a symbol of power.

Our annual screenings of the British Arrows Awards (formerly known as the British Television Advertising Awards) have become one of YBCA’s most popular programs. And for good reason — these sly, sexy, sometimes hilarious and sometimes somber British commercials, PSAs, and (new this year!) social networking experiments have a wild creativity generally lacking in our own homegrown efforts. If our commercials were this inventive, we’d have no desire to fast-forward through them. Sincere thanks to Dean Otto, Walker Art Center. (2011, 75 min, digital)