The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)

Berkeley Art Museum, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley

Architecture of Life

January 31–May 29, 2016

On this nice overcast day, I finally found it to be the appropriate time to visit a museum in the Bay Area. To my dismay, it just so happened that the BAMPFA exhibition on the Architecture of Life happened to have migrated to a new location. This resulted in some haphazard panicking as I arrived at the address presented on Professor O’Brien’s syllabus to a closed museum. With a bit of recomposing and a quick search on the lovely internet, I learned of the museum’s new location. I was then overjoyed for it allowed me to take a nice long walk through the Berkeley campus as I made my way to the new destination. I would like to say that the campus is truly a spectacular place and anyone attending it is truly deserving of respect. After a few minutes of walking, I finally arrived at my desired location.

                           

From the outside, the museum looked quite inviting. It had a simple yet fresh design that I appreciated.  After crossing the street and paying for my pass, I was finally allowed proper entrance. The interior itself was fairly simple, sporting a mostly white color with the exception of connecting corridors and stairs being a bright orange. Most of the building was dedicated to lecture halls and social gathering areas with the actual gallery taking up a very small portion. Just before the gallery is this massive work on the wall that seems to be a backdrop for what appears to be a little amphitheater. It was so massive in fact that I was unsure if it was titled. I spent a good minute looking around and part of me wants to believe the piece has no information, but another part believes that I just missed it. Regardless, it’s a map that parodies a region of Northern California. Most of it is dedicated to culture and nature.

 

Nipam Patel, Radiolorian Confocals 1x-10x, 2015

Entering the exhibition itself, I found some stunning works. I took the liberty of taking all the pictures that was allowed by security, but made sure to focus on the ones that people were viewing most. The piece above is one such. Many spectators flocked to this video of raiolorians under magnification.It was an ever changing a video of how radiolorians constantly took different shapes. Nipam Patel is one of the professors in UC Berkeley, and he took these videos to show these particularly small protozoa. What is most impressive are the shapes that the take as they continuously move. Though not quite perfect polygons, there is a near perfect geometry that is quite enthralling. If I had not read the title of this work, I would have never known that the object on the screen was not an object and actually a living organism.

Avery Preesman, Within S.W.S., 2008-9

A few steps to the left is this sculpture made by Avery Preesman. It is a mix of cement and other materials on carved wood. Preesman took many inspirations, and what started out as a simple carving became this intricate wall mount. There isn’t much about the hidden meaning of this piece other than what Preesman was thinking. It was the culmination of ideas banding and joining together to form this end result. One could say that this is a work that started out in several places and joined together in a terminus that gave it life. In other words it is a metaphor on evolution and it’s ultimate goal to make a species capable of adapting and surviving in its natural environment.

Jay Nelson, The Goodbye Ranch, 2007-9

Then we have this sketch by Jay Nelson. Nelson is a well known artist in San Francisco who has consistently submitted her works to the local museums. Specifically, she is known for helping and taking in people from all backgrounds to help them fight against drug use and abuse. With her help, many have been able to move on from their past addictions and have started new lives. This work is similar to what she does for these individuals. The ranch is representative of a place where animals are tended to and taken care of. It is very much like an asylum for those in need of a fresh start or reprieve from the many atrocities and chaos of life. Nelson can then be said to be using this ranch as a metaphor for her actions in life with regards to these people that she helps.

Will Yackulic, Trait Family A, 2015

 Hyun-Sook Song, 21 Brushstrokes, 2007

 Finally, these two piece had quite the crowd around them. Starting with the sculpture done by Will Yackulic, there was quite the group arguing whether it was rightfully art or not. Many were disturbed that such a small sculpture could be called art, and it resulted in a few exchange of words between spectators. Some who were less shy to voice their opinions could be seen whispering to their companions. A quick glance at the description and its size quickly became clear to me. Will Yuckalic apparently made these sculptures a part of a set. Each one is supposed to represent an individual. Knowing this, it would make perfect sense why they are so small. If each is an interpretation of a person, it might be small due to the intimate nature of said person being interpreted. Since it is part of a series interpreting many individuals, it could also just be a small piece of a much larger whole similar to one individual when compared to a large number of people. Together, the pieces itself might form a nexus that appears more cohesive.

The second and last piece that was heavily spectated was done by Hyun-Sook song. This artist has an interesting way of naming her pieces after a little bit of research upon reading the title. Song often names her pieces by the amount of brush strokes present. The one above is done in the number presented by the title and represents a symbolic practice in her culture. The brush strokes looks similar to wrapping, which is a process often preformed on the dead in Korea. Secondly, the painting itself forms what appears to be a simple gate or passage. This is representative of how the dead exit one world and enter another. This piece was heavily viewed and had very little criticism. I can even vouch and say that I heard none on my visit.

At the end of the day, I spent well over an hour viewing everything in the museum and can honestly say that I was very impressed. Many of the works were very well made and seeing some of the reactions on people were priceless. It truly fit the bill that contemporary art often shocks. For those who have not visited this exhibition, I highly suggest you do. 

The Sac State Symposium

This is a late post, but one I've been wanting to share. This weekend was Sac State's Annual Festival of the Arts Art History Symposium. At first, I decided to attend the event so that I could write about it here. As it turns out, All my other Art History professors were offering extra credit if I attended, so I effectively killed three birds with one stone out of sheer convenience. This year's Symposium was titled Hers and Hers: Women as Artists, Clients, and Consumers. As expected, the focus of the event was primarily on women and their role in the arts. This Symposium also doubled up as a retirement tribute to the beloved Catherine Turrill-Lupi,who was the department chair of Sac State's Art and Art History concentrations for twenty-one years.. 

The event consisted of lectures from four different experts of Art History. They were pretty interesting, but I would be lying if I said that there weren't any dry parts. Despite this, I regret not being able to stay the entire event due to my job having me work on weekends specifically from 5pm to 1am. None the less, I did manage to take part in two presentations.

The first was called Noble Exemplars of their Sex by Sheryl Reiss. Professor Reiss is a well decorated Art Historian who graduated from Princeton University and has taught in many Universities including the prestigious Cornell University. She has received many accolades for her work and has written many dissertations and thesis statements on several topics regarding the Arts and its rich history. Her presentation focused on tombs of women during the Renaissance. Specifically, she focused on tombs to commemorate women in churches. Professor Reiss covered the many designs that are shared and unique to several tombs for both women and their families as well as the differences they held compared to men's tombs. She also covered how the location and wealth of the family or individual dictated how they were constructed and what they were comprised of. After her presentation, a question asked by an audience member allowed professor Reiss to state that while most the tombs were made for and commissioned by women, there is no evidence to state that it was constructed by women themselves. This is due to the obscurity of women artists during the time period.

The next presentation actually continues my previous point on the obscurity of women artists during this time period. This presentation was done by Professor Turrill herself and focused on the artist Plautilla Nelli. The title was The Friar's Follower: Classifying the Work of Palutilla Nelli. Professor Turrill covered the history of Plautilla Nelli through the documentation at the time made by other artists such as Giorgio Vasari. Vasrai's opinion of Plautilla Nelli while at times respectful, was also quite rude. It is safe to say that Vasari's view of her was akin to a backhanded compliment. Nonetheless, it confirmed and showed some of the artworks done by Plautilla Nelli. She had a style that was considered to have made men look too feminine by her fellow nuns. She had done many works, but most are unknown and some are mislabled. While some of her works have turned out to be the work of others, there is strong evidence that others works might turn out to be hers. The problem with this is that no man would ever admit they did not make the art in front of them or that a woman could have painted the art. This leads to a predicament where Art Historian are scouring the globe and analyzing paintings with a similar art style to Plautilla Nelli's to try and clarify if they were works done by her. Through chemical analysis and study, it is becoming easier and more accurate to do so. This in turn allows her to finally get all the credit she truly deserved that she was never given.

After Professor Turrill's presentation, it was already getting close to the time I had to work. It was also time for some much needed socializing and motion after having sat for over two straight hours. I conversed with my professors who were all not surprisingly present for the event. I did not however, converse with Professor O'Brien, whose class was the main reason I went to the even in the first place. Professor O'Brien seemed busy every time I saw her, so I did not want to interrupt her conversations. Still though, it is quite ironic. I stayed as long as I could to see if I could at least catch the beginning of the next presentation, but with 4pm fast approaching, and the social event still continuing, I thought it best to leave less my boss kills me for being late... again. All in all, it was a fairly interesting event. I'm very glad I came and I left with an air of satisfaction after learning some new information and after having eaten over a dozen cookies.

Visiting Old Places for New Sites

This week, I decided to visit the place from whence I came before I transferred to Sac State. This place might be familiar to many students since it is one of the most well known community colleges. I am talking, of course, about Sierra College. For three years it was my home for academics and there isn't a place anywhere I am more familiar with. Since it has been a long time, I decided to pay a short visit to Sierra's small yet very impressive gallery known as the Ridley Gallery.

The Ridley Gallery is a great place for all sorts of art ranging from just about any kind a person can think of. On my more than a dozen visits to it, there was always a new theme that was put on display. Perhaps the most popular one that I remember since I saw the installations appear multiple times on two different semesters was a presentation on African Masks as well as the history and culture of African Aesthetics. Other exhibits included Classical Art renditions that are similar to what an old master would paint and authentic Hatian Art that were reactions by artists towards the tragic earthquake of Haiti. 

This time, there was an emphasis on contemporary art as shown by these images. I took a few images, but I didn't care much for the names of the artists and titles of the pieces. I did take pictures of the pieces that I found most interesting. The name of this particular piece was caught by my companion as Friend Chicken Not People. I love this particular work for two specific reasons. One, it reminded me of my childhood and some of the old cartoons I used to watch where people would be able to deep fry anything. Two, I find this as cruel irony with regards to us Americans. It's no coincidence that all the items that have been deep fried are weapons. Weapons tend to cause harm, and if it's one thing thing us Americans do, it's cook everything in a way that makes just about anything we eat nearly toxic to us. I find this piece as a satire to our regular(or irregular) diets as a society.

Moving on, the piece I really wanted to talk about is this one. This is a piece from a ceramic artist named Linda S. Fitz Gibbon called Narcissus. This specific piece is a type of hard clay inflatable. These have always interested me because of how naturalistic a shape clay can take. At first glance, this simply looks like two blown up swans with nothing more to it. Upon a closer look and a more thorough inspection, one can learn that these seemingly plastic or rubber swans are in fact clay. This deceptive nature caused by the clay creates a jarring idea that on one hand is naturalistic and on the other artificial. It's pretty much a big metaphor on how life can be so random at times, going from being completely orderly to extremely chaotic. With all that said, I have nothing more. I will say that it was fun visiting this small gem of a gallery once more. Though my stay was short(no longer than 15 minutes), I found much enjoyment at what I saw. I hope those who see this will consider visiting this outspoken gallery for themselves.