Between the Walls

Between the Walls

Featuring projects by Sarah Filley, Steve Green and Kathryn Kenworth, Sasha Petrenko, REBAR, David Stein, Sundown Salon, and Wowhaus. Also featuring a collaborative project by Southern Exposure’s Youth Advisory Board with artists Moriah Ulinskas and Theo Rigby.

Curated by Emily Sevier, Southern Exposure Curatorial Committee member.

Southern Exposure is pleased to present Between the Walls, an exhibition exploring the notion of home and the relationship between space and identity as the final exhibition before a major gallery renovation. An opening reception will take place Friday, May 19 from 7 - 9 pm and the exhibition will remain on view through June 3, 2006. A Closing Day Open House will take place on June 3, 2006 from 12 – 8 pm with multiple participatory events led by exhibiting artists. Additional public programs are listed below. The exhibitions and events are free and open to the public.

Southern Exposure is about to temporarily relocate from its home, reinventing itself to present works in the public arena from 2006 – 2007. At this momentous time in the organization’s history, Southern Exposure has invited artists to respond to the gallery’s tangible space, examining the notion of home and the relationship between space and identity. Several of the exhibiting artists literally tear down the gallery, using the walls as raw materials to investigate the communal role of the nonprofit arts organization. Other participating artists build makeshift structures, occupying the space to foster a temporary nexus of activity. These seemingly opposing processes of destruction and rebuilding capitalize upon resourcefulness and innovation, and the resulting projects demonstrate new possibilities for creating comfort and a sense of home under temporary circumstances. Curated by Emily Sevier, this exhibition includes work by Sarah Filley, Steve Green and Kathryn Kenworth, Sasha Petrenko, REBAR, David Stein, Sundown Salon, and Wowhaus. Also featuring a collaborative project by Southern Exposure’s Youth Advisory Board with artists Moriah Ulinskas and Theo Rigby

ABOUT THE PROJECTS:

Sarah Filley’s Survive This! is a project sparked from her on-going interest in the human instinct of personal survival in contrast with the modern individual’s reliance upon both material and community support. Filley’s installation takes the form of a trade show booth, complete with products and infographics, designed to prepare local residents in the event of a major disaster. In addition to maps of the Southern Exposure neighborhood indicating evacuation routes, rendezvous points, and nearby hospitals, Filley will also provide her services to create individually tailored survival kits and I.D. cards highlighting essential items and characteristics needed for both physical and mental well-being in survival situations. Survive This! will also include a booth at the exhibition opening, as well as a brown bag lunch about disaster preparedness on Thursday, June 1, 2006 from 12 pm – 1:30 pm, and a trade fair with several local experts in the field of disaster planning on Saturday, June 3, 2006 from 2 – 5 pm.

Steve Green and Kathryn Kenworth will build Porch in the gallery to act as a temporary, communal resting spot for passers-by. The porch, as an architectural concept is a roofed, but incompletely walled living area attached to the frame of a house. Green and Kenworth’s porch will be connected not to a house but to a simple façade with an open door that people can walk through for an added experience of permeability. Built mostly of cardboard and other common and recycled materials, this porch will provide a framework for people to walk through, sit on, touch and linger in a comfortable atmosphere.

Sasha Petrenko’s project We Will All Wake Up Together is an exploration of and an exercise in community building. Materially the project consists of a modernist mini-loft containing a series of integrated bunk beds rising up toward an expanding butterfly roof. The framing of ‘Wake Up Together consists of mostly refurbished and re-used material while the siding, roofing and interior components will be collected from the surrounding community. Petrenko invites the public to participate in the creation of We Will All Wake Up Together by donating or lending objects and materials ranging from plywood to houseplants. Over the course of the exhibition, ‘Wake Up Together will grow reflecting the idea that although a concept may be conceived by an individual, through community engagement, an individual’s vision can reach it’s fullest potential. To view Sasha Petrenko’s wish list and instructions on how to participate in We Will All Wake Up Together visit SashaPetrenko.org. A public building day will take place on Saturday, May 20 from 12 – 5 pm.

Rebar, a San Francisco artist collective with a fluid membership led by Matthew Passmore and John Bela, will knock down a gallery wall, break it in to pieces, and place the fragments in sealed cans. This project is inspired by the building’s previous existence as a canning factory, and allows for Southern Exposure to be processed, condensed, labeled and distributed as a sort of "portable community space" to actual members of its community. Canning demonstrations will take place at the opening and closing receptions on Friday, May 19 from 7 – 9 pm and Saturday, June 3 from 12 – 5 pm. Cans will be labeled and sold to support REBAR and Southern Exposure.

San Francisco artist David Stein will construct a lean-to shelter entitled MP3 Fort and Reparations Center. Stein’s fort, mimicking a childhood hiding place, is built of hoisted tables with a crawl space underneath outfitted with cushions, chairs, cables, CD burners and blank CDR’s to facilitate music trading and MP3 exchange. The table surface above will have apology/excuse forms for the illegal file sharers to complete and send to the musicians (with or without a token payment) to absolve his or her guilty conscience. Participants can schedule to meet up with their friends at the fort. The spontaneous visitor can show up, looking for a trade. The artist invites the public to attend swapping events at the opening and closing receptions on Friday, May 19 from 7 – 9 pm and Saturday, June 3 from 12 – 5 pm.

Sundown Salon presents SUNDOWN BOOK SALON (& SLIDESHOW) facilitated by Fritz Haeg. The project extends their on-going series of salon events by pitching a geodesic dome tent for the duration of the show at Southern Exposure, echoing Sundown Salon’s home base in Los Angeles. A slide show of one thousand images from Sundown Salon events over the past 5 years will be projected in the tent throughout the day. Each evening at sunset, a discussion leader will moderate a conversation about a text of his or her choosing. Participants will gather on cushions spread on the tent’s floor to drink tea and engage in a dialogue. Each event can accommodate up to eight people and will be held on Tuesday – Saturday, May 23 – May 27; and Tuesday – Saturday, May 30 - June 3 from 6 – 7:30 pm. To sign up to participate, please call (415) 863-2141. The salon events will be filled on a first come, first serve basis.

San Francisco based Wowhaus will create an Opening Kit, a mobile structure that houses all the gear necessary for a successful opening. Wowhaus artists Scott Constable and Ene Osteraas-Constable excavate Southern Exposure’s gallery walls to cull materials for constructing a magical cabinet of sorts, containing compartments for glasses, wine, and ice as well as shelves for bowls of chips and crackers. Mounted on wheels, the small cart can be towed by a bicycle. The Opening Kit responds to the transitory, celebratory nature of community generated at Southern Exposure’s openings and the structure can continue to be used during the organization’s Off-Site phase from 2006 - 2007. Drinks will be served from the Wowhaus Opening Kit at the opening and closing receptions on Friday, May 19 from 7 – 9 pm and Saturday, June 3 from 3 – 5 pm.

Southern Exposure’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB) collaborates with artists Moriah Ulinskas and Theo Rigby to present “What’s Happening?!?”, an investigation of performance art and the legacy of the happenings of the 1950’s and 1960’s. YAB will present documentation of their unique experiences. Young artists include: Luther Blue, Jontonette Clark, Kit Gallagher, Elizabeth Jaeger, Hector Magaña, Leslie Perez, Kelsey Shell, Julian Watts, and Tammy Zena.