Summer Salon Series 2012: Beyond the Banner

Tim Schwartz
Beginning June 22, the Museum will be exhibiting Schwartz's Gauges throughout the summer.  This work consists of a series of 10 small gauges that display two terms, one referring to modern day branding and the other medieval branding.  Each gauge is fed information directly from the search traffic on the internet, causing the gauge to fluctuate depending on which term is being searched more.  A prior version of this work, for example, measured the difference in search traffic between Paris, France and Paris Hilton.  

Art-Making Activity
Museum Educators will lead this hands-on art making workshop that is fun and appropriate for all ages and skill levels.  This workshop takes place in The Studio. 

Flashback
This work features a parked car, its doors locked, with no one inside.  The car radio is playing so loud that it is still audible, and passersby can hear the last few hours of coverage of the 2008 presidential election results.  Though the outcome of this event is already known, a suspense still begins to build in those listening.  Obama's words at his acceptance speech end up meaning something much different now from they did originally; while it might conjure excitement in some, it becomes a symbol of "the emptiness of unfulfilled dreams."*  The abandoned car in Bismuth's work also contains a myriad of cinematic references (appropriate since the artist's other career is writing for film)-the animated machine which has its own free will and turns against the humans, the car-bomb which explodes when someone turns on the engine or in a less dramatic way - the drive-in theater.   Bismuth's car, in bringing us back to a past moment, resides somewhere between a time machine and a time capsule.  Lastly, the car and the radio also represent a certain tension between private and public space. The privacy of the car interior protects against the potential danger of publicness, politics and our own imagination.

Artist Talk with Pierre Bismuth
Belgium-based Pierre Bismuth is best known in the popular culture world for writing hit films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and in the art world for his stunning exhibitions at such important venues as the 11th Lyon Biennial, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and the New Museum and the Drawing Center in New York City.  He will discuss his work Flashback, installed in front of the Museum for this night of the Summer Salon Series, including how it differs from the version he presented in Los Angeles last year.  

The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975
The Black Power Mixtape is an archive and music driven documentary that examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in the African American community and Diaspora from 1967-1975. Combining startling fresh and meaningful 16mm footage that had been lying undiscovered in the cellar of Swedish Television for the past 30 years, with contemporary audio interviews from leading African-American artists, activists, musicians and scholars, Mixtape looks at the people, society, culture and style that fueled a change.  Utilizing an innovative format that riffs on the popular '70s mixtape format, The Black Power Mixtape is a cinematic and musical journey into the ghettos of America. Featuring inteviews with Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, and Angela Davis, as well as music by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Om'Mas Keith, and The Roots.

*Artist quote taken from Sophie Duvernoy's contribution to L.A. Weekly's blog, titled Warren Neidich and Elena Bajo Turn Parking Spaces into Performance Art. 

Support for Summer Salon Series 2012: Beyond the Banner, provided by Wells Fargo, Mr. Brent V. Woods and Dr. Laurie C. Mitchell, the Museum’s Contemporary Arts Committee, the Members of The San Diego Museum of Art, and the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program. Institutional support for the Museum is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. Curated by The San Diego Museum of Art and agitprop.