Gina Osterloh’s new film project, Anonymous Front, is a visual essay on physical blindness and identity, created in collaboration with a vocational massage therapy school for the blind in the Philippines.
Super 8 is a collection of video art in multi-channel formats, selected by a peer-to-peer curatorial process. Eight artists from eight cities across the globe were invited to present their videos, and invited four other artists from their respective cities to join them.
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.
The Raw Feed presents work from three artists who explore the issues of globalization and dislocation, focusing on the ways in which we are given sustenance. The project includes an interactive rice factory that examines the politics of grain production and world hunger; a multidisciplinary video installation that takes a critical look at the messages fed to us by the United Nations; and a pop-up café built on a bicycle chassis that connects food with personal narratives of dislocation through a collection of war-time recipes. The act of feeding ourselves has served as the basis of ritual, connection and artistry for as long as we've lived in societies, and The Raw Feed brings together these disparate strands of shared experience in an exploration of what sustenance means.
Mark Bradford transforms found material – much of it paper from sources such as billboards and newspapers – into large-scale collages and installations. Included in YBCA’s presentation is the large-scale work Detail, an ark-like sculpture reconstructed from components of Mithra, a piece created in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Also on view at YBCA will be Bradford’s socially charged 2011 work, Rat Catcher of Hamelin, which is composed of components of 50 billboards collected from all around South-Central Los Angeles. This comprehensive survey of Bradford’s career to date is co-presented by YBCA and SFMOMA and will be on view at both venues. Please note that there are separate admission policies for each institution.
The rock band on the stage, the athlete on the soccer field, the politician at the podium — all command the attention of huge crowds, not to mention cameras. Audience as Subject, Part 2: Extra Large turns the lens back on the audience, exposing the dramatic and narrative potential of the crowd itself.
By Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega
When two young friends visit an Austin bookstore to hear a talk on upcoming protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention, they are approached by a charismatic local activist ten years their senior, who quickly becomes their mentor. Six months later, they cross a line that radically changes their lives. The result: eight Molotov cocktails, multiple domestic terrorism charges, and a high-stakes entrapment defense. A dramatic story of idealism, crime, and betrayal, Better This World goes to the heart of the “War on Terror” and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in the United States after 9/11. (2011, 93 min, digital)
Feb 17, 2012 – May 6, 2012FREERoom for Big IdeasPublic Programs
Feb 18, 2012 – May 27, 2012Gallery 2Visual Arts
