Nathalie Miebach: Restless Waters at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Central Balboa Park

 by Patricia Frischer

Detail of installation below

Sometimes we are very lucky when a person’s compulsive behavior is not an obsession, but instead a passion. That is the case with Nathalie Miebach: Restless Waters at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Central and her relationship to data. Her subjects are broadly climate change and the pandemic for this exhibition especially the storms and floods and general extreme weather in California and Florida where her parents live. But the intense research that informs each creation does not dull but, instead, enhances the buoyant colors and kaleidoscope of shapes on display.

For anyone watching weather data, there are high and lows of temperature, humidity and. for us on the coast, tides and waves sizes. But Miebach includes the number of sunny days, or cloud cover, or her own mask wearing comfort level. She interviews bystanders and includes data from tweets. The data becomes very personal and the symbols used are varied, like the little chairs that denote or symbolize the death tolls. There are a huge variety of materials included and lots of construction techniques. This all makes for a carnival like spread of investigative possibilities for the viewer.

detail of sculpture below

Please note: artist Nathalie Mieback completing the installation in the far background

Working in collaboration with local experimental music organization Project BLANK, Miebach will develop a musical score  based on a new work Restless Waters to be performed on November 23 as part of PST ART (AKA Pacific  Standard Time), presented by Getty. In the past she has worked with 12 other composers on 16 works. This takes the art from a scientific understanding to an experimental interpretation.

Thanks go to the dedication of the installation staff at ICA for the huge effort to display these enormous works under the direction of the curator Jordan Karney Chaim.

Nathalie Miebach: Restless Waters
ICA Central, Balboa Park
Sat Sept21, 2024 - Sun, Jan 26, 2025
1439 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101
Thursday–Sunday Noon to 5 pm
Monday–Wednesday Closed

Read also: “Restless Waters” Art+Music Event= A Splash Hit at ICA San Diego Central By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

Jeanne Dunn Walks on the Wild Side at RB Stevenson

by Patricia Frischer 

Jeanne Dunn: Forest Bathing Exhibition at R.B. Stevenson Gallery

We consider Jeanne Dunn a San Diego artist even though she spends some of her time in Los Angeles now. R.B. Stevenson Gallery has been a strong supporter of  Dunn for many years and helped to shine a light on her, especially with these new paintings in a one woman show that are so alive and vibrant that they delight the eye. 

The Japanese act of shinrin-yoku or "forest-bath" is the custom of a walk in nature to help establish a mind/body connection and to release you from your day to day cares.  In contrast to some of her previous works, these are truly wild images, more exotic rain forest than California Torrey pines. These sensual shapes are all hand painted (not a stencil in sight) and we would be more than happy to stroll through this wilderness trail. 

Works are in a variety of sizes and range from $900 - $7000. We say the bigger the better. Several have already sold so get there before Oct 5th and immerse yourself in Jeanne Dunn's world. Your soul will thank you. 

Jeanne Dunn: Forest Bathing
R.B. Stevenson Gallery
Showing until  Oct 5
7661 Girard Avenue, Suite 101, La Jolla, 92037
(858) 459-3917 rbstevensongallery@sbcglobal.net
Opening Hours  11:00 to 5:00 PM Tue thru Sat

A Wondrous Exhibition in Balboa Park

 By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

 

A stunning wool and silk carpet by Faig Ahmed, an internationally renowned contemporary artist in Azerbaijan who combines his own distinctive stylings with traditional weaving techniques.

 Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World is  truly a wondrous exhibition based on a text by a 13th-century Islamic author-- Zakariyya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini--who survived two Mongol invasions and yet invited his readers to contemplate the world’s wonders.

Organized by Ladan Akbarnia, Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at SDMA, Wonders of Creation is part of the Getty Foundation’s PST Art initiative which this year has the theme “When Art and Science Collide” and has over 70 SoCal cultural institutions participating.

For this special exhibition, SDMA gathered over 200 extraordinary pieces from the wider Islamic world, including North Africa, Spain, the Middle East, and Central, South and Southeast Asia. Covering thirteen centuries of art and craft, it’s a great opportunity to explore these parts of the world through new eyes.

Two folios from the Blue Quran. Iraq, 9th-10th century.

Demons in Wild Landscape.  India, 1600.

Incense burner. Iran, 12th-13th century.

Untitled “el sokareya” by Sherin Guirguis, a contemporary Egyptian-American artist, born in Luxor, Egypt, based in Los Angeles.

The Zodiac Man. Iran, 19th century.

Woman’s Headdress. Central Asia, Turkmen, 18th century.

 

An amazing amount of scholarship went into the creation of Wonders, which also includes commissioned works by contemporary artists and craftsmen who have found their own ways of portraying their worlds.  

Folding Gardens, A Stained Memory by Pantea Karimi, born in Shiraz, Iran, based in San Jose, CA. “This piece is a response to my childhood in the time of the 1979 Iranian Revolution,” she told us. “I actually was injured in one of the protests, and my blood stained the floor…the red segment here is my bloodstain.” Step close to the piece to experience it fully and be showered with the sounds of her strangely soothing recording.

Brass standards carried in religious processions. India, late 17th-early 18th century.

 Surah Al-Tur verses 48 and 49, by Fouad Kouichi Honda, a contemporary Japanese calligrapher famed for his Arabic calligraphy. This piece was donated to SDMA by the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia as a collaborative gesture.

Detail of Nation with Wings, from a manuscript of “The Wonders of Creation and the Rarities of Existence”. India, circa 1650-1700.

One on One, by Timo Nasseri, a multimedia German/Iranian artist born and based in Berlin who explores the aesthetics of Arabic writing in this piece.

For Wonders of Creation, Timo Nasseri came to SDMA to re-create a site-specific version of Florenz-Bagdad, a display he originally created for several walls of a Vienna gallery in 2016, inspired by a book about Renaissance art and Arab science. Referencing a traditional Persian architectural feature in mosques, shrines and palaces that uses small, hand-cut pieces to move and reflect light, he added mirrors to the mix, and in 2017 did a room-size installation for the Maraya Art Center in the United Arab Emirates. He has called this “a space that dissolves spatial boundaries” and you have the good fortune to be able to walk in and experience it here.

Try to come at less crowded times so that you can spend more than a few moments with the pieces that catch your eye. Taking time to contemplate what you see is very rewarding and you’ll have a deeper, more personal experience of the treasures on view.

Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World 
September 7, 2024-January 5, 2025
San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA)
1450 El Prado, Balboa Park

 HOURS: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 10-5, Sunday 12-5.
Closed Wednesday. $5 surcharge on admission to this special exhibition.
619-232-7931. 

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net. 

 

Other Pacific Standard Time: Art and Science Collide exhibitions to watch for in this column are:

Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park Picked RAW Peeled by Patricia Frischer
Mingei International Museum:  Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo on view to March 16 2025.

For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability at The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Picked RAW Peeled by Patricia Frischer
For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
on view from September 19, 2024 to February 2, 2025.

For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability at The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Picked RAW Peeled by Patricia Frischer
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego: For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability on view from September 19, 2024 to February 2, 2025.

Oceanside Museum of Art: Transformative Currents: Art And Action In The Pacific Ocean through Jan 19, 2025.

Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park

 by Patricia Frischer

Unidentified maker - Girl's blouse and skirt, Fulani Wodaabe culture, 20th Century, probably Niger

Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo is a very large exhibition covering the entire top floor of  the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park showing until March 16, 2025.  Of the 180 works on display only 26 are on loan to the museum, the rest come from the permanent collection. As part of the PST(Pacific Standard Time) : Art and Science Collide the show is more complex than usual aided by a $200,000 grant from the Getty Foundation which have given out more than $17 million in funding in Southern California for the PST project. 

My recommendation is that you start clockwise i.e. turning left at the top of the stairs. Even though you will see wall hangings including tapestries, quilts and rugs as well as clothing all using indigo dye, by going in this direction you will more easily follow the science part of the show with explanations of the processes for making the dye followed by a whole lot of ways to use the dye. Don’t worry if you see a variety of colors at the beginning, they all do have some of the blue gold in them. The exhibition is not chronologically or geographically organized, but instead it seems like it is set to delight the eye with different stagings of the objects. You could view this show just for the remarkable visual experience. 

Unidentified coat and vest in Dragon motif - Dong, China

Aranya Naturals Artisans - Collarless shirt, India, 21th Century

Keisuke Serizawa- Summer Kimona, Japan mid-20th century

Unidentified maker, Boys pants, Yi culture, China

Unidentified maker - Huipil (Tunic), Guatemala

Unidentified maker, Thob Dress, Palestine, 20th C

Look out for some of the specially commissioned works like the slides show of indigo stained slide specimens and the special rescued indigo recipes used to make a ceremonial outfit which was lost of generation but now back. One of my favorites is the room within a room of intense blue hangings featuring the flight and blight of butterflies.
 

Lou Ann Moses  - Canneci Apache Camp Dress, part of the Lost Blue project

Porfirio Gutierrez - Temporary Spaces, 2024, USA. A comparison of the monarch butterflies migration with the migration of indigenous people of the Americas. Each butterfly represents 200K Zapotecs who are living and working in South California

Throughout the space are market racks, displaying lots of more samples of cloth, a hint to the enormous economic role that indigo played in world trade.

Lisa Kina -Hajichi Quilt, Hawaii, USA, 2023

Unidentified maker -Huari culture, 6-9th century Peru

It was thought that the earlies know use of indigo dye was in the Fifth Dynasty Egypt around 4400 BP. But in 2007, it was discovered at the Huaca Prieta ceremonial mound in northern Peru dated at around 6200 BC. We were told that dye vats can last centuries and they are some in existence today that go back to the 14^th century. A couple of centuries ago indigo was so exclusive that only royalty and the aristocracy could afford it. It was a major trade commodity in ancient Egypt,  China, Japan, India, and for Native Americans and Mayans and of course throughout Europe. Thirty countries are represented in Blue Gold:  Japan, Laos, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, China, India, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Niger, Egypt, United States, Bermuda, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Palestine, France, England, Greece, and Turkey.

Shelly Jyoti - 18th Century Merchant Ship, 2023, India

In South Carolina in the 18^th century, everything to do with indigo production was handled almost entirely by African slaves. In Bengal, India in 1859 there was a huge revolt when peasants refused to grow indigo for European planters. Thirty-give barrels of indigo was used by Benjamin Franklin in 1776 when he went to France to gain support for the American revolution. 

Unidentified Maker, Yoruba culture, "Adire Eleko (Cassava Paste Resist-Dyed Cloth)," 20^th Century. 

 Unidentified Maker, "Shibori Textile." Japan. Cotton, indigo. Collection of Eriko Saito.

Detail: Unidentified Maker, "Shibori Textile." Japan. Cotton, indigo. Collection of Eriko Saito.

Unidentified Maker, "Shibori Textile." Japan. Cotton, indigo. Collection of Eriko Saito.

Unidentified maker- True Lover's Knot quilt, USA, late 1870's

Indigo can be process from many, many plants types. So no one country or people discovered the leaves or invented the process. Artisan from all over kept the process alive so it was not lost.  

Unidentified maker -Indigo resist printed quilt. USA or Bermuda, 1750-1770

To activate the dye is equally complex.  It is not water soluble so has to have a chemical change. When the fabric comes out of the dyebath, the oxygen in the air changes the dye back to an insoluble deep colored indigo depending on how often the fabric is submerged.

American Navajo Indian Chief rug

To derive indigo dye, basically the leaves have to be fermented. This can happen by leaving them in water and letting natural fermentation happen by organism and cells. Or they can be cut pounded (West Africa), shredded and dried (Japan) or ground (Europe) or they can be put in a dye vat where an alkaline like ash, lye or urine  is added along with water to start the fermentation process. The result can be a cake or ball of dye or the liquid dye. Now we have artificial indigo colors, of course.

Although fabrics can be dyed an overall color, to created patterns, a resist is used that can  be any kind of a block,   There are mechanical resists like using ties, stitches or folding to prevent dye from reaching certain areas like tie dying and Shibori. There are chemical resists that uses wax or paste to block the dye from reaching certain areas like Batik. Ikat means that the yarns are tied dyed before the object is woven.  

Jessica Hanson York, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Mingei International Museum

Co-curated by Guusje Sanders  (above), Emily Hanna, Director of Exhibitions and Chief curator and guest co-curator Barbara Hanson Forsyth

Indigo did go out of fashion for a while until Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis invented blue jeans. Did you know that originally there were crotch rivets, but they were removed when cowboys sitting in front of fires got uncomfortably hot.  A reminder that the faded wrinkles cause by wear on blue jeans are called whiskering,  probably as they look like cat’s whiskers. This sign of the human touch adds to the story of indigo.

• Mural by local artist Stephanna Bennett in the study room

  

There are workshops and talks led by local artists, including a Master Craftsman Lecture with Porfirio Gutiérrez and Dyeing Classes with Sarah Winston at the Mingei, but there is a study room on site, a chance to add to a jean tapestry in the main lobby, and a very clever display of other blue objects in the Mingei collection including, glass, gems and ceramics.

 

Arianne King Comer, Lampshade

This enormous exhibition might take several visits and luckily it is on view until March 16, 2025. We see indigo blue in all of our futures and you can start at the gift shop with a wide selection. My blue jeans are calling….

Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park is one of many PST (Pacific Standard Time): Art and Science Collide projects that we are covering this month.  PST is an  initiative of the Getty Foundation with more than 60 exhibitions on this year’s theme in southern California with 818 artists participating. (Of course, you know SDVAN did it first in SD with the DNA of Creativity back in 2014!)

Other exhibitions to watch for in this column are:

A Wondrous Exhibition in Balboa Park Picked RAW Peeled by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.
San Diego Museum of Art: Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World  on view from Sept 7, 2024 to Jan 25, 2025  

For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability at The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Picked RAW Peeled by Patricia Frischer
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego: For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability on view from September 19, 2024 to February 2, 2025.

Oceanside Museum of Art: Transformative Currents: Art And Action In The Pacific Ocean through Jan 19, 2025.

Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo at Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park
September 14, 2024 to March 16 2025.
Co-curated by Emily Hanna and Guusje Sanders, and guest co-curator Barbara Hanson Forsyth
Tue, Weds, Thurs, Sat, Sun 10 to 5, Fri. 10 to 8 pm, Closed Monday