In Dust We Trust: Parkeology Exhibition at San Diego Art Institute

reported on by Patricia Frischer
In Dust We Trust showing June 24 to August 13
 

"Directed by artist Kate Clark, Parkeology is a public art series that excavates lesser known sites, senses, and stories in urban parks. In its first season, Parkeology explored the hidden narratives of Balboa Park; collaborating with museums, archivists, artists, and locals to create temporary performances, installations, and tours that unearth the park’s past and examine its present.

In Dust We Trust, at the San Diego Art Institute, chronicles these projects in an expanded exhibition about Balboa Park oddities, ephemera, and relics. Part Parkeology retrospective and part archaeology of long-forgotten park treasures, this exhibition features abandoned museum artifacts and newly minted media documenting the first-ever Balboa Park-wide art and curatorial project."

It was so much fun to discover what Kate and her team discovered of the hidden treasure in Balboa Park. The exhibition uses numbers written on the floor as well as wall labels to identify the object much like you would see in an archaeological dig.

SDMA  Relief ca 1926 object found in the Inspiration Point Storage Yard

John Spreckles puppet (by Kate Clark) who was a Channel Parkeology episode V Guest together with a Keep Out sign ca 1933 also found at the Inspiration Point storage area

This is the Gwen  Isaac puppet. She is the Curator at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institute and co-guest with John Spreckles puppet who was a Channel Parkeology episode V

Puppet set miniature objects here and below

Photos and record documentation of Museum of Man 1915 Face Casts, form the Hdrlicka series, native American tribes. The real casts were displayed at the Panama California Exposition.

Facing Artifacts: Casting and Collecting Profiles - Plaster face casts of volunteers with documentation made from a station set up at the Museum of Man, 2016

The Naked Truth: The rise and fall of the zoo gardens which was a nudist colony right in the park. Viewer could watch for a fee of $. 75 during the 1935-36 California-Pacific exhibition. Maybe the first and only time a nudist park was open to the casual public to observe.

Nude suits by Kate Clark

Daniel Barron Corrales created a new, temporary installation for SDAI’s staircase. This sculpture is constructed of several inflatable sections that are densely embellished with textiles and other materials. The parts range from 4 feet to 10 feet tall and are threaded onto a 21 foot steel reinforced PVC tube. This tube is then pressurized with a blower to allow each section of the work to be inflated. This work will be suspended 13 feet above the gallery floor and attached to a motor that allows the viewer to control its rotation when it works. Some problems were encountered to make the work actually turn but that does not take away from the presents of this work floating over your hear and seen when you first enter the gift store at entrance level.