Seeing the Invisible at San Diego Botanic Garden, Encinitas

by Patricia Frischer

El Anatsui - AG + BA (AR) The shadow of the rock and the slight lifting of the drapery as if disturbed by wind in this work make it truly magical. Don't forget to walk up close to see how pieces of aluminum or tin are joined with jump rings making this such an impressive piece of recycling. 

San Diego Botanic Garden (SDBG) in Encinitas is “showing” artworks created to enhance the real physical world. This augmented reality (AR)  exhibition Seeing the Invisible  includes works by 13 artists:  Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui, Mohammed Kazem, Sigalit Landau, Mel O'Callaghan, Isaac Julien CBE, Sarah Meyohas, Daito Manabe, Timur Si-Qin, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Pamela Rosenkranz,  Refik Anadol, and Ori Gersht. 

This means that as you wander through this exquisite garden, you use a smart device and the invisible becomes visible. Some of the artists present moving images, others images that you move through and around. Sound is supplied to enhance and sometimes challenges you. The garden supplies smells and touches of wind and sun. No I didn’t eat any of the fruit I saw, but it was tempting to make this a fully 5 senses experience. 

Nothing about this was static as you had to participate to get the full effect by moving your body and even interacting with others on the site. A few of the works were scary, others were meditative but they all involved you with a surprise of some sort and many engendered questions.

I know this was not intended to be a Halloween specific display, but put it on your to-do list of haunted properties. And go with friends and family, if you can, as like going to the movies in a real theater, the audience adds to the thrill. 

This show will premiere across 12 gardens in six countries simultaneously in September 2021 will be available for a whole year until August, 2022. So in our local venue the works might be seen in a coastal setting but somewhere else it might be in a forest. It is co-curated by Hadas Maor and Tal Michael Haring organized by Jerusalem Botanical Gardens and Outset Contemporary Art Fund.  At SDBG, the president and CEO Ari Novy started this process one years ago, but SDBG was lucky to hire Senior Director of Education and Visitor Services Tomoko Kuta who joined the staff in April and helped to plan each location for optimal viewing. 

Besides investigating the subjects of each of the works, this is a chance to explore the interplay of the physical world with the digital one. It aims to present nature AND digital instead of nature versus digital.

You need a smartphone or tablet to experience these work available to download from Apple App or Google Play App. The exhibition is included in the price of admittance to the gardens and free to members. If your device is not enabled, you can borrow an iphone from SDBG on a first come first serve basis. 

My great thanks to Lourdes Munoz  who escorted me around the display and to Ashley Grable who set up my tour. 

Ari Novy on his World of Bromeliads throne

Ai Weiwei - Stoll through a Gilded Cage with turnstiles which makes that familiar sound as you ratchet around the space.  Look up and yearn for freedom. Or consider yourself safely cocooned from the outside world but with a view. 

Sigalit Landau  - Salt Stalagmite #1 [Three Bridges] Walk all away a round this mountain of miniature waterfalls and moats, hear the water and glide over arches avoiding the barbed wire. This work is based on the idea of salt bridges from the Dead Sea serving to connect warring factions in the Middle East, resulting in peace. 

 

Mohammed Kazem - Directions (Zero) Sited on a dramatic overlook, this enormous zero looms up and over you but peer closely to see the writing on the surface are location of every country in the world. And visit often to see the ever changing color. 

 

Isaac Julien CBE - Stones Agaist Diamond is a slow walk through ice caves in Iceland. All side of these five screens are changing and relating to each other and you as you encircle the work. Slowly the images change, and overlap with your movement. The beauty of the ice is revealed as precious as diamonds. 

Mel O'Callaghan -Pneuma One of the most powerful of the works, this globe distorts your view of the bamboo where it is sited, But as you can move inside the image, the heavy breathing and pulsing of the shapes becomes truly ominous. 

 

Daito Manabe - Morphecore Prototype AR Does this figure look stilted? Just wait to  see him start to dance and as the frenetic pace increased, his limbs are more and more disjointed. Add to that, you can walk right through him and the pixels start to dissolve and then re-align.  The artist extracted MRI scans of his brain and used this raw data to determine the digital movement. 

Jakob Kudsk Steensen - Water Serpent Sorry not to have a better image of this wicked piece of dried out cactus with a giant coiling snake eye that is almost obscene as it follows where ever you go. The artists states that it has "positive spirits and omens of life." You decide, but sounds of water where they is none does give pause. 

Ori Gersht - Forget Me Not Yep, it looks like just a 17th century Dutch vase of flowers, but then as you come close, it explodes with a loud noise (big bang theory) and the individual flowers, petals, leaves, glass and insects are shot into the air and then float down. Makes you think about the state of our own environment. 

Pamela Rosenkranz - Anamazon (Limb) This ghoulish green limb grows out of a real bright green leafed plant, but looking closely at the base, you can see a weird green glop dripping onto the ground. Shades of the Wicked Witch meets Little Shop of Horrors as this could be plant or human arteries and veins.  

Refik Anadol - Machine Hallucinations: Nature Dreams AR This abstract painting comes to life, pulsing as if the artist's paint was alive and trying to escape the frame. The colors are beautiful and the shapes enticing. But the algorithm that generates this work is based on natural images. (68,986,479 million of them)!

Sarah Meyohas - Dawn Chorus A simple grand piano playing itself with keys moving and string vibrating but then the blue birds (of happiness?) whips through the scene. When I changed my stance I came face to face with one of these creatures. These birds are what I imagined Cinderella's seamstress birds were like as they outfitted her for the ball.  Are the birds conducting the music or is the music orchestrating the birds movement?

 

Timur Si-Qin -  Biome Gateway It is hard to remember you are standing in the middle of a parking lot as you enter this dark cave with florescent cave drawings on the walls. Suddenly a ellipse of light beckons you forward and you find yourself outside under a star filled night. Nope, it is still sunny and bright in the real world, but this is a strong shift in perspective.  

Some helpful tips to make the most of your visit:

• If you have not been to the Botanic Garden recently, there is a new entrance which is just a few block north from the old entrance. It is well marked and you park in a lot right next to the Dickenson Family glass conservatory. 
• When you download the app, swipe up to start, try to find the signs for each of the AG sites. The little blue direction cones help to orient you to the right direction.
• Put your sound level on high for the best experience. 
• The app will let you know when you are there and then follow the prompts.
• Try centering at different points of the same work especially if the sun is in your eyes.
• Move around and even through the works, Look up and down and go up close.
• If you smart device is not accepeted, borrow one of the loaner phones (which I had to do).
• Go back again on a day with different weather as the background is so much a part of the experience and the AG is available until August of 2022.
• Take water with you and make sure your device is chargedh!

Here are a few bonus images of the World of Bromeliads which was in the new Dickinson Family Education Conservatory. 

A wonderful tower of Bromeliads.

This wonderful new space can be used for all sorts of events. When the Bromeliads are gone, the large overhead displays can be lowered to fill the space or stay high to accommodate a large crowd. What a beautiful venue for a wedding!

San Diego Botanic Gardens

300 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024
Wednesday - Sunday 9 am - 5 pm (Closed Christmas)
Admission charges vary

visitorservices@sdbgarden.org 

760-436-3036 x231

Want more digital exhibitions: Digital Me opens to the public on Saturday, October 9 at the Fleet Science Center through January 9, 2022 and was created by Amir Schorr, produced by Madatech: The Israel National Museum of Science, Technology and Space. It lets you track your digital footprint in the world with over a dozen larger-than-life exhibits covering geolocation, facial recognition, Artificial Intelligence, computer vision, data privacy including some wacky Insta-filters. 

Selling Art Tomorrow

by Patricia Frischer

(clockwise: Linda Mariano, Erik Smith, Craig Kausen

 

RAVE Art Fair Exhibitor Series: #2 Selling Art Tomorrow– second of 4 invitation only sessions produced by Redwood Art Group

Because the SD Art Prize has shown at Art San Diego since its inception, I keep track of all the progress made by this international art fair company. They offered a series of discussion about the future of the art market in a set of 4 panel discussion. Here is my summary of the second session but you can view all the archived session once they are complete. They also come with a valuable set of tools for artists and gallerist from writing an artist’s statement to engaging social media supplied by the Art Business News.

Linda Mariano, Redwood Art Group managing director of marketing, reminds us that Content is King. You need to be able to talk about your art work. Tell your story and that behind the art. Visually show the artist in his/her studio. Create an experience for the viewer online. It is OK to test out new things and don’t worry about being perfect. Get comfortable being uncomfortable in front of a camera.

Eric Smith, President Redwood Media Group, is exploring new option since the onsite art fair had to halt.
In the first session many out of the box idea were discussed including such as small, select home shows with your collectors, 30 pieces in 30 days to create excitement, getting artists together for a pop up perhaps an outdoor restaurant venue. He notes that virtual events are starting slow but will build and be ongoing. He is starting to see super stars involved which will build and attract more people. People are not going to want to travel right away, but collectors are still wanting to buy. There are large savings to be had right now since virtual fairs are much less expensive i.e. a RAVE virtual booth starts at $495. Virtual includes all sorts of communications including zoom type meetings, but also Instagram Facebook and utube groups.  In this context virtual means the viewer can stay home and participate.

RAVE (Redwood Arts Virtual Events) are not just a viewing room, but a real experiential platform where you can meet and talk to artists and gallerists, attend unique events, and have an art buying experience from wherever you are virtually. The 2-day events have lots going on at the same time and is well priced for exhibitors. You have access to 100,000 on the Redwood mailing list plus all the exhibitors sending out notices to their mailing list. This is new and planned but it is still an experiment. Even when the live events are back, then there will be live streaming. The first RAVE is RAVE Miami Dec 4 and 5th

Next year live events when they come back could be better than was first thought as the statistics just came out that flying is very safe as COVID cases are only 1 in 27 million flyers.  

Craig Kausen, President & CEO of Linda Jones Enterprises and Chuck Jones Galleries, also the Chairman of the Board of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity,  shuttered all 3 galleries and their non-profit took a breath and now has free programs through the Center for Creativity with Creative side chats. Jones Family Gatherings is a weekend event that is usually a way to connect with collection Very intimate studio tours with artists capable of exciting people about their work. This year they went virtual and he shared some advice about how to do this.

Not many in the arts used digital zoom, or created virtual art galleries, but since the pandemic closed everything down, we need to be prepared, educate ourselves and move forward with all things digital.  Visuals, text messages, video, online sales, shipping learn it all. Get out there and try something new as the old gallery viewing is not available. He suggests about 30 minutes - 1-hour total for an event with a presentation or two and time for questions and answers. Choose what is appropriate for the people that you can attract. Make sure there is interaction between panelists and the viewers. Record it all and archive it. If you include a pre-recorded video it should be no longer than 5-6 minutes. Then break it down to 30 seconds to a minute for Instagram and other social media as a teaser. Remember hatch tag #s.

A virtual event can be in any size space and with only one smart phone, but multiple cameras are better and some basic editing is important. Ear pods mean the artist can hear the questions. They did no rehearsal, but had a plan of how the event would be presented. He believes the key is you are doing this yourself is to try to have someone else running the tech. The big question is how you are going to connect with the collector. What is the story about the artist?  You can’t sit back and wait for the sale; you have to present a greeting and an emotional bond of some kind. The collector needs a story to tell people when they see the work in their own home once they acquire it. It has to be interesting and attractive and engaging.

Brick and Mortar is on the way down or at the best staying level. People are clamoring for something to do. How do you create the emotional bond between artist and collector online? Maybe this starts with a simple outreach to find out about them and how they are doing. The more dialogue between you and people with a real interest the better. Get good at telling your story.   A virtual art fair brings lots of collectors into one place just like the real thing so get involved with RAVE.

You can view the first session and there are 2 more session: You must RSVP to access the Series. All confirmed participants will be sent calendar invitations prior to each event. Please RSVP by November 2 to participate.

Session #3: Next Level Strategies for a Successful Art Fair on Thursday, November 5 | 1:00 pm Eastern 

Session #4: Creating a Business Plan for Today and the Future on Thursday, November 12 | 1:00 pm Eastern  with Crista Cloutier dearcrista@theworkingartist.com

Local Filmmaker Couple Shine in San Diego International Film Festival

 

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt 

PHOTO: MAKING LEMONADE: OUR COVID-19 STORY (Courtesy)
See On-Demand Screenings October 15-18 at San Diego International Film Festival

This is the 19^th anniversary of the San Diego International Film Festival and from October 15-18 they’ll be screening 114 films from around the world, most of them San Diego, West Coast, U.S. or World Premieres.

But this year, it’s a whole new game, with rules determined by Covid-19. Besides online live-streaming and on-demand screenings and special events in a Virtual Village, there will be four Drive-In Movies in a parking lot at Westfield UTC, for film-lovers eager to get out of their living rooms and back to a big screen.

A number of the films—which include feature-length and short-form dramas, comedies, documentaries and animations—are about ch-ch-ch-changes and involve dealing with difficult situations and creating new beginnings. And considering how many of our changes this year have been Covid-related, it’s interesting that one of the most affecting films is done by a San Diego couple who were both infected by the virus and decided to make something good out of their experience.

Like many of us, Chris Francis, a documentary filmmaker, and his wife, Krista, an office manager for FitBit, were leading an active and pleasant life until one Friday evening in March, when she noticed she’d lost her sense of smell. Not only that, she couldn’t taste anything: a raw onion tasted the same as yogurt; only the texture was different.

She did some research online and found a few studies suggesting that these symptoms were a side effect of the new virus. That Monday morning she was tested; two days later she learned she was positive. It turned out Chris was positive too.

“At night, when I went to bed, I’d start coughing, and I just couldn’t stop,” he said, when I spoke with him recently. “It’s been seven months now, and I still have a little cough. Krista has some of her sense of smell back, but only about 10 percent of her taste.” 

They started quarantining, not doing much of anything except keeping away from other people, trying to get better and not worry about whether they might get worse. Thankfully, they didn’t have to be hospitalized.

“Since I was a filmmaker stuck at home in a one-bedroom apartment, I figured I’d document our story as it happened,” Chris said. “It would give me something productive to do.” 

He decided to highlight some of their lighthearted moments and also show how they found ways to make themselves useful, by participating in Covid-related research studies. What happened to them was, as Chris says, “not the funnest thing in the world,” but the film has turned out very well. Its title—MAKING LEMONADE: OUR COVID-19 STORY—indicates that the couple not only tested positive but kept up a positive attitude. Now it has brought them awards in L.A. and Las Vegas, and been hailed as moving, inspirational, and often surprisingly funny. You can see for yourself in on-demand screenings anytime during the four-day festival.

Two other films you won’t want to miss, both about life-changing journeys:

 NOMADLAND, the Festival opener, has already won major awards in Venice and Toronto. It stars one of my favorite players, two-time Oscar-winner Frances McDormand (“Fargo” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri”) as a 61-year-old woman who loses everything and takes off in her van to find work on the road. Appropriately, this is a Drive-In Movie: Thursday, 10/15, 6:30 p.m.

 150 MILLION MAGICAL SPARROWS is a compelling Indian film about a 9-year-old girl’s search to find and free her “disappeared” 7-year-old brother. (On-Demand Screenings) 

With 114 movies to choose from, it’s hard to believe you won’t find something completely different from what you’ve been watching on Netflix. For full program and tickets go to www.sdfilmfest.com  

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has written about arts and lifestyle for the La Jolla Light and other local media for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net

Buhm Hong Awarded Digital Art Guild Prize at 2015 SDAI International Exhibit

The 53rd San Diego Art International Exhibition for 2015 awarded Buhm Hong the Digital Art Guild Prize. 

As one walks into the SDAI entryway, about to descend to the lower level gallery, one senses the presence of Hong's memory-like animation on the wall space immediately across the open space.

It is a challenge to present the animation with the ambient lighting. Nevertheless, the imagery tugs at one's curiosity. Here are two samples of the animated flow.

Buhm Hong / Floating Dreams

medium : Cinema 4D, HD projectors, media player, speaker; size : 1920 X 1080 (pixel); date : 2014

Joe Nalven: I imagine that most viewers will stand in amazement, wondering how this video came into being. Would you share your process with the readers?

Buhm Hong: Let me talk about the process of making a video work 'Floating Dreams' briefly. I took photographs of the wallpapers from the houses of redevelopment areas and used for the backgrounds of the video. The lights of window frames were made by a 3D program 'Cinema 4D' that simulates the movements of the lights and the shapes  of the houses.

Thinking of abandoned and vanished towns and houses, I tried to draw the living memories within. I scanned the drawings and through the post productions in computer, they appear and disappear with moving lights. In this exhibition, I projected to a wall of the gallery space. I aimed to show an optical illusion as if the light comes from outside with a constant changes of walls and drawings.

Buhm Hong / Details from animation Floating Dreams

Hong describes his art-video-animation journey: 

"Memories continuously shape our worldview, including our perception of real and imagined spaces. My multidisciplinary practice is an attempt to understand how people accept new and strange places, including the liminal space between “being there” and “being here”. I focus on the origin of consciousness that can connect two disparate yet related places through fragmented, stream-of-consciousness thoughts that gradually form organic structures such as pipes and mirrors. I work across various artistic platforms including video, sculpture, installation, and drawing to express remnants of multi-layered memories that become landscapes of my profound imagination. I create spaces that seem to exist only in our subconscious—places that are simultaneously nostalgic and utterly foreign. I concretize my ideas regarding the structure of memories in the three-dimensional world, often utilizing organic and industrial imagery such as pipes and mirrors, intertwined with labyrinthine elaborateness. The pipes serve as a conduit for the flow of memories, while the mirrors’ poignant reflections constantly change through the shadows of the pipes, forming an infinite loop of faded recollections."


To get a sense of Hong's animation style, visit his Floating Dreams.

Buhm Hong / Artist setting up projector

Also on display at the rear of the gallery is 5 Rooms.

The exhibition was juried by juried by David A. Ross.


Nb. The color variation in the selected details from the animation resulted from the image editing process. Joe Nalven

This article is cross-posted at SDArtReviews.

Ethics and Visual Art: Hanan Harchol at the Gotthelf Art Gallery

Hanan Harchol is an animator, but much more than that. He animates and illuminates his stylized expressionist drawings with Jewish dialectic:  Harchol's stories are composed of conversations between parents and children that harken back to Torah and its commentators; these are the conversations that have lasted for thousands of years.

At the same time, one might think of other duos of dialectic - from the comedic (Abbot & Costello, Burns & Allen, Penn & Teller) to the serious (Socrates and his students or fellow Athenians, Chuang Tzu & Huizi, or the paired learning of chavrusa). 

Learning can follow the professor at the podium and the student in the class model, or the more intimate and relational approach of the mentor, apprentice or peer. There is also the 'family' (or kinship) in its various manifestations: the nuclear family, the extended family, the lineage and the clan. However our society constructs the 'family' (whether in hunting and gathering society, tribal society, industrial society), we consider the 'family' is among the psychic forces that helps glue society together. We also think of social breakdown and anomie as linked to the disintegration of the 'family.' 

In this sense, Harchol's family dialogues have a universal appeal even with the societal nuances identified above. These dialogues are not just Jewish family dialogues although accents and looks and key phrases provide a specific cultural context. 

Together with the strong expressionist style, his dialogues take on the perspective of a "psychological narrative painter." 

Hanan Harchol / Landlord / Forgiveness

Jewish Food for Thought:  The Animated Series by Hanan Harchol Gotthelf Art Gallery San Diego Center for Jewish Culture Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center Jacobs Family Campus 4126 Executive Drive La Jolla, California 92037 Tel. 858.457.3030 December 10, 2014 - February 25, 2015 Hours:  9 am to 5 pm (daily except for Saturdays & holidays) FREE Jewish Food For Thought is a collection of animated shorts that teach Jewish ethics to adults and teens using thought provoking and funny conversations between animated versions of Hanan and his Israeli parents. Each episode focuses on a particular theme such as forgiveness, love, or gratitude, distilling major Jewish teachings on that theme into engaging conversation. The series offers a fresh approach to accessing and applying thousands of  years of Jewish wisdom to contemporary life.

The animated dialogues come with study guides written by Rabbi Leora Kaye. These guides help focus the discussion, whether for the classroom or informal discussion groups.

For example, in the midst of the animated dialogue on Forgiveness, Harchol poses the following scenario:

DADDY: "Actions lead to feelings." Hanan’s father goes on to say: DADDY: "Stopping an action is not the same as taking an action. To free yourself from the resentment, you need to take action." 5. What does “actions lead to feelings” mean? Can a feeling “grow” as a result of an action? Do you agree that there is a difference between stopping an action and taking one? Can you think of times in your life when stopping an action actually was an active choice? Is there something in-between? Do actions lead to feelings or is it the other way around? Which should be the driving force?

This action/feelings issue was noticed by "the psychologist/philosopher William James [who] was one of the first theorists to notice this counter-intuitive process. He believed that emotions arise out of the bodily actions we take in response to what is happening in our lives. It is not, he theorized, that, 'we lose our fortune, are sorry and weep; we meet a bear, are frightened and run; we are insulted by a rival and angry and strike.' In fact, he argued, 'this order of sequence is incorrect...the more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble.'"

"James argued that without some kind of bodily response (crying, trembling, striking) we would not feel emotion. 'We might then see the bear, and judge it best to run, receive the insult and deem it right to strike, but we should not actually feel afraid or angry.' While over simplifying somewhat, he was still onto an essential truth. Behavior can create emotion.'" (Emphasis added.) From an article by Noam Shpancer, Insight Therapy. 

To be sure, this action-first-which-then-leads-to-understanding approach appears in Exodus 24:7 (na'aseh v'nishma). Whether one follows Torah or American philosophy, this and other theoretical underpinnings in Harchol's animations and study guides are fruitful to those who wish to investigate, explore and reflect further on this ethical subject matter.

Hanan Harchol / Landlord / Forgiveness 

Joe Nalven:  How do you see the process of learning from others – especially as a dialog? Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski:  My first association was Calvin and Hobbes.  [The Jewish tradition features] the Seder:  Reciting the account of the Exodus requires that the children (or wife) ask the four questions, because the impact is greater in the form of a dialog than by straight narration.

Hanan Harchol / Landlord / Forgiveness

Engaging with Harchol's animations and Rabbi Kaye's study guides is a multi-layered experience. And, the surprise is that if you go down this path, you may find that the adventure does not end at the end of the animation. 

The case of envy and looking into other people's windows is a dialogue that stops short of where I would like the dialogue to go. Imagine the difference between a social worker who monitors the case of a single individual or family helping the person or family to make a positive adjustment (help to get a new refrigerator, to get Section 8 housing and the like) AND the social worker as community organizer who goes out into the community and preaches social action. Schools of Social Work allow for these different tracks:  psycho-social care versus socio-political action.  In the Envy animation, we are treated to the former - a turning inward for dealing with the consequences of envy: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's car or girlfriend is not merely a proscription for social harmony, but a way to soothe the beast of temptation.

Then there is the question of envy as redistribution of wealth in order to exact a sense of fairness - but is such 'fairness' - as a socialized form of envy - any different that coveting thy neighbor's goods?  This scenario about envy requires a Part 2 to the dialogue - actions that go well beyond looking into someone else's window.

Hanan Harchol / Jewish Food for Thought

Finding time away from being a high school teacher as well as a classical guitarist, Harchol benefitted from the support of the The Covenant Foundation. Hopefully, we will enjoy many more Harchols from thoughtful benefactors, bringing together art and cultural values. 

This article is republished from SDArtReviews.

Memories of Freedom: The Berlin Wall Exhibit at Front Porch Gallery

Do you remember the Berlin Wall going up? Or even coming down? And what are your memories about?

Sometimes it takes an exhibition to bring home those memories, albeit in ways that you might not have imagined.

I only recently visited Berlin this past spring and, of course, walking around Berlin - among the most vibrant cities in Europe - I encountered the faux Checkpoint Charlie as well as  real pieces of the Wall. Somewhat unexpectedly, one of the artists in this exhibit (Janine Free) and I had taken nearly the same photograph but from opposite sides of the Wall. But, far more important than this historical symbol is what it meant then, and what it should mean now. 

As one walks the city of Berlin, and reads its history, the Wall is entangled in a many-sided history of WWII and the post-War transitions. The coming down of the Wall facilitates the reunification of East and West Germany less than a year later. There is a much deeper investigation of why Nazism happened - important reminders - just as the symbolism of the Wall, but in several museums: The Topography of Terror; Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe; the Allied Museum; the Jewish Museum and others.

Irene de Watteville / Friday, November 9, 1989

 Holding in my hand a piece of the Berlin wall I thought of the opening
 of this horrific barrier erected to prevent people during 25 years
 from going from East to West, and could hear the utter joy
 surrounding that celebration.

The Front Porch Gallery is featuring an exhibit on the Berlin Wall with 15 participating artists.

PERSPECTIVES: The Berlin Wall Front Porch Gallery    2903 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad, CA 92008    (760) 795-6120 November 9, 2014 - January 5, 2015 Opening reception Sunday, November 9 from noon - 2 pm Join us in commemorating the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and reflect, through art, upon an enduring moment of the 20th century. PERSPECTIVES: The Berlin Wall, an exhibit born of a tragic history, will uplift and illuminate a peak in humanity. This exhibit showcases mixed media, photography and sculpture–including actual pieces of the wall–from international artists currently residing in San Diego and Los Angeles. Come, experience the transformative power of these works! Artists: Janine Free, Brennan Hubbell, Amber Irwin, Dave Johnson, Jessi Mathes, Michelle Moraga & Ed Eginton, John Moseley, Victor Ochoa, Katrin Queck, Andrew Robinson, Lia Strell, Carol Beth Rodriguez, Irene de Watteville, Julie Weaverling

Of course, the U.S. has left its symbolic mark upon this wall in the contest between Soviet ways of thinking (the gulag) and those of U.S. presidents (Kennedy, Reagan). And there are many explanations about how the Wall finally came down from bureaucratic incompetence to soldiers not knowing what to do with the rush of enthusiastic border crossers. In this exhibit, the objective is not to explain the past, but to inform ourselves about the symbolism of the ending of a separation.

Dave Johnson / And His Hair Was Perfect

"All free men, where ever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner.   I am a Berliner.'” John F. Kennedy, June 26, 1963 “There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Ronald Reagan, June 12, 1987

Julie Weaverling has woven her concept of the human spirit into the ongoing contest of ideas about human evolution.  Why is it that we seem to lose that positive energy and confront repressive forms of expression?

Julie Weaverling / Evolution of Mankind

Joe Nalven:  Your text reminds us that freedom is elusive:  "It happened. Therefore, it can happen again."  If you went beyond the individual drawing his or her own conclusions, what might you say for yourself?

Julie Weaverling: When thinking about what I wanted to create with pieces from the Berlin Wall for the 25^th Anniversary of the fall, I started thinking of the symbolism of the wall itself:  Rigid, a closing off, life on one side full of bounty, existence on the other without much sustenance, families torn and divided unwillingly between the two… the human toll.

Then, symbols in art that relate to spirituality. I have always been drawn to the ancient symbol of the spiral.  It speaks to rebirth, spirituality and in my view evolution.

How can we as a species move away from oppression and the hypnosis of an imposed world view and as a people move towards the light.  Many quotes I found in researching graffiti on the Berlin Wall were noteworthy, but the words I selected (“It happened, therefore it can happen again”) are perhaps never more needed or relevant than now; or, are they/will they always be needed until there is a true evolution of mankind.  Is it the dichotomy of humanity itself that is both demoralizing as seen in current events virtually everywhere on earth as well as being capable of inspiring greatness with the connection we share with one another that makes lasting progression seem endlessly difficult yet still worthy of the effort?

While The Evolution of Mankind is meant to ultimately be seen as hopeful and uplifting, a rebirth of sorts and a prayer that mankind can progress past a need to dictate and hold power over one another or groups of innocent people, it is also that reminder that evil exists and cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged.  My belief that by not only not forgetting events of the past, but rather putting them on display to specifically remember and indeed name them and thus perhaps avoid repeating them, we too must breathe in the truth that most people are truly good and the world is full of color and beauty. 

Janine Free / Poetic Wax

Joe Nalven:  You've had the experience of living in Europe and visiting Berlin not only as an adult, but a child as well. What impact has the Berlin Wall had on you and transforming that emotional connection into an art object?

Janine Free:  In 2011, I stayed in Berlin to photograph the city. One day, I was walking along the West side of the 300 foot section of the actual Berlin Wall preserved as a memorial. I noticed a hole in the wall, the shape of a teardrop.  It stirred me and, as I took a picture, a couple walked on the East side, perfectly framed in the hole, the woman wearing a red sweater matching the red paint still encrusted on the wall; a Street Photographer’s dream come true. 

When I was offered to participate in the Berlin show, I visualized the real pieces of the Wall attached together by a rusty wire, tears from the hole in the wall in my photograph, ending up as a pile of rubble on the floor of the gallery.

I visited East Berlin as a young child traveling with my family in the 1950s.  I was horrified at the sight of soldiers laying on the grass on each side of the road leading from West Germany to Berlin, their rifles pointed at the cars going by.  No one was allowed to stop. This was the first time I experienced real fear, hoping we would not get a flat tire or that a soldier would not get bit by a bee, discharging his rifle by accident.  You felt this monster lurking in the fields behind the soldiers, somehow not as sunny as the road we were on.

We forget the Wall but the tears are still there.

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Nb. If you are curious of what I saw in Berlin, well, that's a matter of seeing in infrared:  Berlin Infrared.