All summer long, the Series has played off of ideas present in our exhibition on Gustav Stickley. This was a man who was deeply interested not just in our domestic settings but, more broadly, our civic communities. Stickley designed entire planned neighborhoods that held the promise of a better way of life and he himself hoped to revolutionize the way we lived through his craftsman style furnishings. And while Gustav Stickley and his business eventually plunged into financial failure, we salute his vision. Cities need visionaries. So for this, our final Salon Series night of 2011, we explore the idea of virtual cities and utopian visions. As Dr. Geoffrey West said at the August 11 Salon, cities are the best hope to the problems of cities, as they are the centers of innovation. And entire communities exist now in virtual space, challenging our notions of what a community physically means in our contemporary world.
The following is a detailed list of the evening's events and participants:
5:00 – 9:00 pm: Ela Boyd: Refraction
What happens in the realm of ideas that is lost in the translation of physical space? Rather than regarding the virtual as a synthetic signifier to a real object, can it be understood as an actual object in itself? These are some of the questions that Ela Boyd asks in her art practice. She seeks to collapse space and time using the mediums of photography, collage, sculpture and new media installations. For her Museum presentation, Boyd will create a site-specific installation using both three dimensional and two dimensional elements that confuses the visual field. In this work it becomes difficult to tell what's 2D and what's 3D–what's tangible and what's intangible.
This presentation will take place in the Museum's Lower Rotunda.
5:00 – 9:00 pm: Joshua Tonies: Ikaria
"San Diegans dared to have faith in the future when clouds still obscured prosperity's horizon, and it was that faith that broke down barriers of pessimism to build an exposition which is recognized as yesterday's beginnings of tomorrows greater prosperity."
- Frank Merriam, Governor of California, 1936
Ikaria uses cut-out animation to reveal the features of a floating city, offering a speculative glimpse into the conditions of the near future. The work is informed by the visionary architecture of Claude Ledoux, the writing of Italo Calvino and the industrial tradition of the World's Fair.
This presentation will take place in Gallery 18.
5:00 – 9:00 pm: Brian Goeltzenleuchter and Katharine Whitcomb will present Smelling the city, an olfactory artwork that will be present at each remaining night of the 2011 Summer Salon Series. This project juxtaposes a poetic text printed on a fragrance blotter against an artist-made scent into which the blotter is dipped. Upon request, Summer Salon patrons receive a blotter which is lightly scented and highly transportable. The blotters become points of personal reflection and conversation pieces.
This project will take place in the Museum's Lower Rotunda.
5:00 – 8:30 pm: Giuseppe's Restaurant will offer a no-host bar with beer, wine and light snacks.
The bar is located in the Museum's Lower Rotunda.
6:00 – 7:00 pm: Art Making Activity: Indian Art Join Museum Educator Lucy Eron for an art making activity that is fun and engaging for all ages and skill levels.
This activity will take place in the Museum's IMAGE Gallery.
7:00 – 7:30 pm: Katie Farris and Ilya Kaminsky: Poetry Reading
Katie Farris is the author of boysgirls (Marick Press, 2011) and her poetry, fictions, and translations have appeared in various journals, including Verse, Indiana Review, Washington Square, Hayden’s Ferry Review, New Orleans Review, Mid-American Review, Meridian, Fugue, and others. She holds an MFA from Brown University and currently teaches Comparative Literature and Creative Writing at San Diego State University.
Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union in 1977, and arrived to the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. Ilya is the author of Dancing In Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004) which won the Whiting Writer's Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Metcalf Award, the Dorset Prize, the Ruth Lilly Fellowship given annually by Poetry magazine. Dancing In Odessa was also named Best Poetry Book of the Year 2004 by ForeWord Magazine. It was translated into several languages. He is the editor in chief of Poetry International and the poetry editor of Words Without Borders.
This presentation will take place in the Museum's Asian Court.
8:00 – 8:10 pm: Wendell Kling: Four Dimensional Painting for Miró
Using a phonographic turntable, a sewing machine, a color organ and projector, Wendell Kling will present a performance of his four dimensional painting in close proximity to works by Joan Miró, who proposed a type of painting that would transcend its two-dimensionality and even the three-dimensionality of sculpture.
This performance will take place in Gallery 12.
