exhibit reviews:
Reconciling America, SFAC
San Francisco, CA
by Tonya Warner
Mark Titchner, BALTIC
Gateshead, England
by Rea Cris
Amidst the Ruins, Mission 17
San Francisco, CA
by Tonya Warner
Amidst the Ruins
Featuring Work by Val Britton, Michael Damm and Zachary Royer Scholz
Mission 17
San Francisco, CA
14 March - 12 April 2008
By Tonya Warner
The intersection of creativity and destruction is by no means a new concept. However, unlike in economic theory or Fluxus actions of the 1960s, the artists in this show use destruction as both process and material. There is the very physical act of slicing paper or cutting the gallery wall, but also the concept of destruction as a social indicator - where we stand in the world in relation to what has come before. The new cannot be raised until the old is razed.
Val Britton's works are both larger and more general in tone than the last show of hers reviewed in this magazine [here]. Here, she is addressing the topographic language of maps and the meticulous process of craft. Although the cuts are delicate, they appear less precise than intuitive, more emotional than clinical. "Ways to navigate through what we've built and what we've destroyed" lays crumbled on the floor, transforming the flat abstraction of the map into something sculptural.
Michael Damm's work revolves around photographs and video that use sites of urban destruction as psychological markers. He displays his small serial photos along and inside a deep line carved into the gallery's wall. Down towards the ground is a small video projection of a demolished house. The scale of his images and their positioning invite a certain level of intimacy that encourages emotional readings.
Zachary Royer Scholz, arguably the most destructive of the group, actually cut away a portion of the gallery's white wall, exposing insulation and pipes - the infestructure of the building. In front of this sits what loosely resembles a desk, made from scrap building parts. He explores not only a satisfaction in demolition but the subsequent renewed construction that is enabled by such destruction.
There is definitely a satisfaction to be found in the act of destroying - a sense of relief in letting go of objects and places, in finding ways to rebuild, to make better. There can be no construction with out destruction - both with physical objects and with ideas. These three artists all find quite different ways of approaching this within a conceptual, non-performative framework. What is on display is the idea of destruction, not destruction itself - a reminder to let go and challenge what exists.
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