A Brief History of Invisible Art
30 November 2005 - 21 February 2006
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
Logan Galleries
1111 Eighth Street
San Francisco
www.wattis.org
Opening reception: November 30, 78:30 p.m.
Tom Friedman, Untitled (A Curse), 1992. Courtesy Feature Inc., New York <i>A Brief History of Invisible Art
Curated by Ralph Rugoff
Also opening November 30, 7-8:30 p.m.: Capp Street Project 2005: Jeanne Dunning
Artur Zmijewski:Repetition
A Brief History of Invisible Art
Art & Language, Michael Asher, Robert Barry, James Lee Byars, Maurizio Cattelan, Jay Chung, Trisha Donnelly, Tom Friedman, Carsten Höller, Bethan Huws, Bruno Jakob, Yves Klein, Glenn Ligon, Jonathan Monk, Gianni Motti and Andy Warhol.
A Brief History of Invisible Art brings together artworks from six decades that place a pronounced emphasis on the conceptual and communicative possibilities of the work of art, while bypassing its seeming requirements of visibility and materiality. In surveying this terrain, the exhibition includes works that represent a wide range of aesthetic practices and that engage with surprisingly diverse concerns. Whether underscoring the role of the audience, mocking the theological aura of museum rhetoric or calling attention to the importance of linguistic description in cultural production, these works prompt us to see through the more grandiose distractions of contemporary art and so to think more clearly about its underlying functions.
68 pp. fully illustrated catalog with essay by Ralph Rugoff available (to order, contact: Deborah Sprzeuzkouski dsprzeuzkouski@cca.edu 415.551.9202)
Capp Street Project: Jeanne Dunning (November 30, 2005February 21, 2006)
Capp Street Project artist in residence Jeanne Dunning presents new work elaborating on her continuing investigation of equivocal photographic representations that evoke disturbing, often corporeal associations. Centering around a series of large-scale photographs depicting a red color-fieldthe aftermath of an eleven-person action inspired by the La Tomatina festival in SpainDunnings installation explores the boundaries between the sublime and the grotesque, while probing the viewers instinctive visceral reaction.
Artur Zmijewski: Repetition (November 30, 2005February 21, 2006)
Artur Zmijewskis film Repetition (2005) is a complex and riveting documentary of his restaging of the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. In place of college students, Zmijewski hired unemployed Polish men to enact the roles of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison environment. Filmed with hidden cameras, their behavior quickly progresses from play-acting to acts of seemingly genuine frustration and anger. Confrontations between prisoners and guards escalate ominously. Just when it seems that Zmijewskis experiment will replicate the traumatic results of the original, things take an unexpected turn, in a manner that raises questions about the differences between art and science, and whether either can offer convincing conclusions about human nature.
SPECIAL EVENT
Artur Zmijewski and Professor Philip Zimbardo (originator of the Stanford Prison Experiment) in conversation
November 30, 67:30 p.m.
For further information on the CCA Wattis Institute please visit www.wattis.org.
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
Logan Galleries
1111 Eighth Street
San Francisco
415.551.9210
Gallery hours:
Tuesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.7 p.m.; Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, 11 a.m.6 p.m.; closed Sunday, Monday.
Established in 1998, the CCA Wattis Institute serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of leading-edge local, national and international contemporary culture.
