Work/Space: Visual Relations Incorporate

Nancy Barton, Deborah Bright, Jordy Jones, John Wilson White, Pamela Bailey, Ray Beldner, Molly Bleiden, Heidi Brant, Fritzie Brown, Peter Coffin, Stephanie Ellis, Carl Ewald, Laura Hartwick, FACE, Men of the World, Heide Solbrig, Brad Spence, Stafford, and Julie Zemel.

Work/Space: Visual Relations Incorporate

October 4 – November 2, 1996

Opening Reception: 6:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday, October 4, 1996 (at Southern Exposure and the Financial District, San Francisco)

Work/Space: Visual Relations Incorporate, is a multi-site project which examines the evolving rapport between the art and corporate worlds. The exhibition is comprised of gallery, street and corporate sited exhibitions, performances, film and video screening, panels and lectures.

“The framework for funding in the arts has shifted dramatically in recent years, exacerbating anxieties over the exercise of corporate muscle in funding, display and collection practices.” Work/Space, responds to this sense of disempowerment by reversing the corporate gaze. The project makes visible those aspects of everyday contemporary office work environments that have become invisible: office design, corporate uses of space, and electronic forms of communication. It also explores gender’s play in the exchange of power, the meaning of attire, and the execution of routine tasks.

The exhibition has two sites. One site, at Southern Exposure, focuses on “corporate archaeology”, which includes the artists, Nancy Barton with her installation “ I Spit On Your Desk”, Deborah Bright’s “All That Is Solid”, Jordy Jones’ video installation “Corpus” and John Wilson White’s “Black Material”. The second space is at a downtown site. 17 participating artists use office materials and corporate language in their installations to question the visual dynamic of the workplace. Work/Space, challenges conventional notions about how art is motivated and displayed and reframes the relevance of art in everyday places.  The two sites of the project generate cross-traffic between art and corporate worlds and examine how downtown work environments engender compelling visual relations.