The Lab, The Mission, San Francisco

I realized I haven’t been doing my homework. I had promised myself that on days when I didn’t have anything to do I’d get out there and get to know this city. No staying in!

Hasn’t quite worked out that way, but there are days like last Tuesday, where I succeeded in getting off my lazy ass and went to go look at some art. I went to the experimental exhibition space called The Lab in the Mission District and checked out their current show called Code Switchers.

Now, I’m not a very eloquent art critic, in fact, I’m not an art critic at all but I did find a few things at the show that were of interest and I thought I’d share. There was quite a variety of work. A little of everything, photography, video, painting drawing….some of it didn’t really say much to me but a few pieces did catch my attention.

An artist whose work I’ve seen before, Lauren DiCioccio had a few pieces in this exhibition. I have a soft spot for embroidery of any kind and DiCioccio does a lot of it as well as soft sculpture. The image attached shows the composition book she made out of felt and thread. She also uses newspaper images, wraps them in semi-transparent fabric and embroiders the images and the text often leaving them unfinished.

 

Lauren DiCiccio

 

Lauren DiCiccio

Work that most caught my attention was on the south wall by Klea McKenna titled, 14 days (all your fear just turns into relief). It seemed like one of the most inconspicuous pieces in the show however it directly addressed and encourages the act of translation. The works were produced during a trip where the artist had to care for her sick mother in a foreign country. McKenna took the issues of translating for basic needs and took it a step further by pairing photographs taken during the trip with Braille paragraphs. The prints with braille were humbly tacked to the walls with a sign that said “please touch the braille”. Something about the work made it very difficult to walk away from it. Part of me questioned why the Braille? Another part of me felt like the why didn’t matter simply. I was touched by the exposure of such a personal event accompanied by the proposition to the viewer attempt to translate it into another sensory experience. I’m not too sure if I’m expressing myself clearly but I really like her work. Worth checking out: http://www.kleamckenna.com/

Klea McKenna

 

Klea McKenna

I also loved Badges by James S. Pitt. This wall installation of these series of irregular, ambiguous wood “badges” painted with acrylic.

Klea McKenna

The show goes through October 11th.

~ by estaaquarela on September 26, 2008.