A Series Of Doings
For the month of October 2015 Adobe Backroom Gallery presents, “A Series Of Doings,” with artists working in the ethos of performance art. Curated by Nathalie Elisabeth Brilliant.
Further information can be found by clicking on the title of each event.
Oct 6
JOHANNA BREIDING: Following Vito Acconci
Johanna Breiding’s practice stems from photography, considering the medium’s history, its representational role and limits. Expanding to video and installation, to emphasize voice, movement and experiential pathos, Breiding locates her work within the intersection of analog and digital technologies, the construction of gender and cultural identity, and a critique of heternormative ideologies within the personal and social space. Her recent solo show, Epitaph for Family, addressed notions of queer family-making, exploring love, intimacy and loss through the image and connotations of the horizon line and the dinner table. Breiding currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in New Genres at the San Francisco Art Institute. She is based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and originally from a small village in Switzerland.
johannabreiding.com
October 8
MARIA DAWN
Maria Dawn is an artist from Cincinnati, Ohio. She studied at the University of Cincinnati, where she received a BA in Psychology and at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she obtained a BFA. She is an interdisciplinary conceptual visual artist focused in painting and performance art. She is influenced by human interactions based on awkward situations and explores conceptual ideas in relation to human spaces and hoaxes. Her paintings are figurative, narrative and abstract; her performances are body focused, usually durational and often looking to push the body to unestablished limits.
maddawn.com
October 10
CHRISTY CHAN: How to Read
Chrsity Chan will read from books written in the English language using the traditional Chinese modality of reading. Instead of reading in the western structure — left to right, front-to-back — she will read up-to-down, back-to-front in in order to adhere to eastern tradition, from some of following books:
15 Minute Microwave Dinners, The Reagan Revolution, American Baseball, “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclaire, Fortune Telling and Yoga for Californians, “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, Tony Robbin’s book on making money “Unleash the power within,” Are you there God, it’s me Margaret?, Huckleberry Finn, and The Bill of Rights.
The performance is intended to examine the hybridization of cultural identity, the nuances of assimilation into foreign cultures, and the experience of immigrants. Chan is a second-generation American, and the performance is in dedication to her family.
Christy Chan is an artist and filmmaker based in Oakland, California. Her videos, installations and live storytelling events examine everyday moments of disconnection in American culture. Her work has been exhibited in film festivals, galleries and public venues including Southern Exposure, the Moth, National Public Radio, Film Independent & the Los Angeles Film Festival’s Shorts Series. She received an M.A. in Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University and was a recent Artist in Residence at Montalvo Art Center, Kala Art Institute and Project 387.
christychan.net
October 17
CHRISTINE LEE: Gone Native – The Pocket Oxford English Dictionary (1989 and 2013)
The Oxford English Dictionary in its complete form may never be printed and bound in a physical book again. The publishers claim that it is no longer commercially viable. Christine is interested in this perception and how it reflects trends in the global marketplace. It is of note that brick and mortar booksellers have generally suffered as a result of online retailers like Amazon.com selling their books more cheaply by dodging sales taxes.
The Adobe Bookstore and the Adobe Books Backroom Gallery were established on 16th Street in 1989. Due to the tide of rising rents in the Bay Area, Adobe was pushed out of its original space in 2012. It was re-established as Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative in 2013 at its current location on 24th street.
Presently, the Google “omnibar” sources the Oxford English Dictionary’s online database for its word definitions. This virtual interface corresponds with the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary. The search engine is a technology just as the dictionary is a technology. They are both continually evolving and their growth patterns ebb and flow around their use. This project deals directly with these two overlapping technologies by comparing two printings of the POED: the seventh edition, printed in 1989 and the 11th edition, printed in 2013.
A live sound performance in repsonse to the information and ideas presented above.
Christine Lee was born in Los Angeles, California. Her work has been largely shaped by her love of poetry and images surrounding second-generation-Californ
crseptry.com
October 17th
MOE ORTANEZ: Participatory Patriarchy
A performance by Queer Interventions for Critical Resistance
How have queer people mobilized to occupy space in a transforming city? How have queer people contributed to and been shaped by the city’s transformations?
This performance piece is a meditation of lost queer landscapes in San Francisco. Queer and Trans folx, especially Queer an Trans folx of color in SF, live with the constant ‘push out’ of the city due to ongoing and persistent gentrification / racism / colonialism in this urban sprawl. This repetitive performance piece is a meditation of this ‘push’. Its a type of critical resistance to trauma on the queer body.
Moe Ortanez is a bay area teacher and artivist whose creative research centers around QTPOC belonging and marginalization in local landscapes. He is a fed up transdude looking to ‘challenge the tyranny of sweat shop produced rainbow flags and participatory patriarchy.
October 22nd
MIRABELLE JONES: Push / pull / suspend
Push / pull / suspend is an endurance performance that interrogates the relationship between stability, individuality, queerness, status, and the flexibility and stamina necessary to maintain these within the context of the collective.
In one corner of the room, the artist will remain bound in shibari / kinbaku for a period of three hours as an anchor point. Suspended from her will be a number of objects representative of the social / psychic / emotional / spiritual / poetic / and other ties which establish her identity. Visitors are invited to add to the installation by tying and attaching a number of provided objects with the assistance of trained riggers and knot enthusiasts, shifting the tension and weight placed on the artist with every added object. A small library of feminist, bookbinding, shibari, climbing, and survivalist texts will be provided for inspiration, exploration, and self-therapy.
Mirabelle Jones is a performance and installation artist, a sexual assault and domestic violence victim’s advocate, a bookbinder, a writer, a good witch, an art cult leader, and a queer mob boss. She possesses an MFA in Book Art & Creative Writing from Mills College and a BA in Language Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She currently resides in sunny, sassy Los Angeles, CA but remains forever bound to her roots in the Bay Area.
MirabelleJones.com