Divided By Common Language

Sara Lewis, Midwood/Hamaker, Ella Tideman

Divided By Common Language

September 4 - October 3, 1992

Opening Reception: 6-8pm, September 4th, 1992.

Sarah Lewis’ work bridges the gap between painting, sculpture, literature and signage, creating assemblages which meld together the concepts of thrift store paintings and the playfulness of word construction in family-oriented board games such as Scrabble. Consisting of ‘possessions, constructions, curios, and cast-offs which survive long after we are gone…” her work confronts the viewer with the apparent playfulness of her constructions but yet confounds and intrigues with the use of ransom-note signage and unsuspecting catch phrases such as ‘sculpture workshop’ reworded as ‘scripture workshop.

Ella Tideman, a recent graduate of the B.F.A program at the SF Art Institute, works in video, performance and objects. Her works at first glance appear ‘normal’ and unsuspecting such as a pair of worn red shoes, which upon closer inspection are embroidered to read ‘Don’t Fuck With Me’ in gold thread along the top. She challenges the viewer to wrestle with the layers of ideas she brings to each object and presents us with the opportunity to see how quickly we attempt to label and categorize objects with which we think are familiar.

Midwood/Hamaker, two local artists from the MFA Program at the SF Art Institute, delight in the creation of commercially luxurious pop art images that drip of post war, family fun and cold-war consumerism. With images reminiscent of 50s Technicolor Hollywood movies and ‘visually audible’ phrases such as ‘REMOTE CONTROL,’ their work knocks the viewer into a looney-tunes psycholand.