Bellwether
Featuring works by Ant Farm, Renee Gertler, Liz Glynn, John Herschend, Whitney Lynn, Jay Nelson, Nonchalance, Lordy Rodriguez, Christine Wong Yap, and Youth Advisory Board
Southern Exposure
San Francisco, CA
17 October – 12 December 2009
by Tonya Warner
For the opening of Southern Exposure’s beautiful new gallery space, they have decided to begin with the end. The theme of Bellwether is envisioning a future to our uncertain times. I personally feel that all the political and cultural shifts that have been occurring recently will lead to something positive, a recognition that current systems are broken, a movement forward. However, when asked to “envision scenarios related to our uncertain and ever-shifting future,” I can’t help but immediately think of apocalyptic distopia. Culturally we have been trained to think of the future with suspicion, through books, movies and television. In the media future, we are always controlled by technology, the government, corporations, aliens, or a combination of these. For some reason we are taught that it is our destiny to sacrifice free will for progress. Gone are the heady days of Buckminster Fuller and his utopian visions of improved living. The idea that the future holds innovations for making us happier, healthier, and overall better people now seems naïve – the phrase “but at what cost” creeps in. Beaten down by infringements on civil liberties, endless pointless wars, and a disastrous economy has lead our society to lose its sense of optimism.
Despite its aims for ambiguity, the sense of impending future apocalypse pervades this exhibition. Both Jay Nelson & Whitney Lynn created models of survivalism for the DIY set. Lynn also provides survival skill workshops echoing the periodic earthquake preparedness meetings that crop up around the neighborhood every so often. Although with Lynn and Nelson, one asks what are we having to survive? In the aftermath of Katrina and the economic collapse, there is a paranoia of becoming too comfortable and a need of “being prepared.”
Renee Gertler’s “Deluge Collapse,” one of the more interesting pieces in the show, presents a vision of flood waters pouring over the wall and overtaking objects in its path. Although, as this is a representation of water, frozen in space and time, the deluge is broken into vectors of enameled basswood rods. Admittedly, I didn’t get “water” when I saw it in the gallery, rather, I saw a beautiful modulation of forms in space with a vaguely invasive presence.
Another intriguing piece in the exhibit is “mirrorsblack” by Christine Wong Yap, consisting of two full-length mirrors mounted back-to-back on an A-frame. On one side the mirror is spray-painted black to cover the visitor from the waist down; on the other side, only one’s legs are visible. Starring into either side, one is filled with a feeling of being consumed by this darkness – of being slowly erased. It too is distopian and dark, but also playful.
Overall there seems to be an air of cynicism – both towards our current state of affairs and the future. But then again, how can we help it? The way that we posit the future is most indicative of our present, our fears and apprehensions, than anything else.