Leave the Capital

ROOT DIVISION PRESENTS: Second Saturday June 2009: Leave the Capital
Curated by Deric Carner* and Jessica Tully*

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Root Division invites you to Leave the Capital, an exhibition about the agency of the periphery—beyond political, economic, and media centers.

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 13th, 7–10 pm

Featured Artists:
David Buuck (BARGE)
Zoe Crosher
Jetske de Boer (S.T.O.P.)
Edmundo de Marchena
Scott Kiernan
Fang Lu
Dominic Nguyen
Jennifer O'Keeffe
Kamau Amu Patton
Nancy Popp
Sam Snowden
Kevin E. Taylor*
Chris Treggiari*
* Root Division Resident Artist

Any capital. Polite no-manners plus
barman of the year claimants =
quick exit. - The Fall

The 13 artists in the show offer a critical mix of observation, confrontation, urban intervention, hybridity, and cathartic celebration in order to assert the self and counter-publics. This is a timely investigation in the face of current economic restructuring. Re-considerations of the role of the public sphere and the individual within larger machines of production are more relevant than ever.

The title is taken from a 1981 song by UK post-punk band The Fall (who in turn are named after the Camus novel The Fall). The song is a starting point from which to investigate how artists address and break off from the need to perform for “Capital,” represented in the widest sense of the word—as money, media, power, rules, lines, roles, etc.

The exhibition presents artists negotiating between the demands of the centers of power and the possibilities presented by secondary zones and identities in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Stanislaus, Amsterdam and elsewhere.

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 13th, 7–10 pm
Sliding Scale Suggested Donation: $2-$20

Exhibition Dates: June 10th–27th, 2009
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays- Saturdays, 12–4 pm (or by appointment)

Off-site Performance: "Rank and File", by Chris Treggiari
June 20, 2009, 1 pm – 3 pm
Market Street from Embarcadero to Valencia Street
ROOT DIVISION
3175 17th Street (at South Van Ness & Shotwell)
San Francisco, CA 94110
http://www.rootdivision.org
415.863.7668


Highlights

David Buuck & BARGE (The Bay Area Research Group in Enviro-aesthetics) – Matta-Clark Parks
For this exhibit BARGE will present selections from ongoing research on the intersections of public space and private property in the Bay Area. In the spirit of Gordon Matta-Clark's "Odd Lots" project, BARGE will be mapping sites for 'conceptual squatting,' claiming new commons for public use from the leftover and discarded private and municipal property. Directly confronting the conflictual logics of private property, land use, real estate speculation, and housing foreclosures, BARGE will present maps, photographs, and text, suggesting new ways of framing our urban landscapes.

Zoe Crosher – Transgressing the Pacific series traces the locations of ocean drownings of troubled famous and fictional figures. It is part of LA-Like (2004-), a body of work inspired by the sun-drenched noir of Raymond Chandler and F.Scott Fitzgerald, anoydyne boosterism of Helen Hunt Jackson and the other early salesmen of the Los Angeles proto-myth.

Jetske De Boer – The Governmental Agency for Future Organization and Planning, S.T.O.P., supports the Dutch government with empirical research into social cohabitation. The objective of S.T.O.P. is to approach social problems from alternative, more constructive points of view. De Boer displays a penchant for the situationist dérive, for the generally unnoticed, unloved places in the city.

Fang Lu – Straight Outta HK is a music video of the same titled song from the San Francisco-based Chinese-American Canto-core rock band, Say Bok Gwai. The video scene is located in the Mission district of San Francisco and intersperses footage of both Say Bok Gwai’s band members, a Chinese immigrant drinking bubble tea, and Oakland-based hyphy rapper, Keldamuzik and her crew.

Kamau Amu Patton – San Pablo Avenue
Kamau Amu Patton will present a selection of images and artifacts gathered along the San Pablo Corridor from Oakland to Richmond, that depict aspects of the rich cultural history of the region. Along this corridor exists a myriad of businesses, many of which are closing down due to poor local economic conditions. Likewise, many of the communities along the avenue are in transition due to economic pressures. Add to this the aging population, and what emerges is an area in flux, whose recent history exists through the stories and cultural artifacts left behind by folks who have lived and worked there, and are now passing on.

Chris Treggiari – Rank and File
The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike saw the rise of the “rank and file” as a united front fighting for workers’ rights and was an important catalyst for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s. Major events from this 83-day strike took place in San Francisco. July 5, 1934 saw the most intense demonstrating and conflict to that point as the day ended with the use of teargas, the overthrowing of trucks and the deaths of two strikers. Treggiari will commemorate these strikes with a parade float that will illustrate some major scenes took place in San Francisco. The parade float will be performed June 20, starting at 1 p.m. along the Embarcadero leading to Market Street and will proceed down Market Street to Valencia Street.


About the Curators
Deric Carner is a current Resident Artist at Root Division, San Francisco. He is a collector and manipulator of signs and messages, replaying them in speculative relation to media and narrative. He makes drawings, posters, publications and the occasional performance. Deric Carner has had solo exhibitions at Ping Pong Gallery (SF, 2008), 21 Grand (Oakland, 2007) and 5er (Rotterdam, 2004); Group shows at Geisai (Miami, 2008), Silverman Gallery (SF, 2008), ICA (Philadelphia, 2008); Performances at the Witte de With (Rotterdam, 2006), CAC (Vilnius, 2005) and Kunstverein Malkasten (Duesseldorf, 2005). Carner is a member of Kunsole, a multimedia collaborative project recently on view at the San Francisco Arts Commission Grove Street Site and at Swissnex (SF, 2008). http://www.dcarner.com

Jessica Tully is a current Resident Artist at Root Division. As a cultural worker and artist, Jessica Tully's work activates the intersection of performance and social sculpture. She sets her site specific video, performances and drawings within socially charged public spaces such as a San Francisco Housing Project prior to demolition, San Francisco’s public water system, a salt water hotel pool in Havana, Cuba, the Bay Bridge, and a 16-site walking tour of San Francisco's major unionized creative institutions. Her vividly shot Hip Hop aesthetic overlays spectacle and synchronicity. She has exhibited widely in the Bay Area including recent shows at Southern Exposure, Intersection for the Arts, Oakland Art Gallery and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (The Way That We Rhyme, BAN5). She currently serves on Southern Exposure's curatorial committee and is a co-founder of the Regime Change Cafe, a political and cultural salon series the Brittenham-Thomas estate in Santa Monica, CA. The salon is now in its 6th year. http://www.jessicatully.com



ABOUT ROOT DIVISION:
Root Division is an arts & arts education non-profit located in the Mission District of San Francisco. Root Division's mission is to improve appreciation and access to the visual arts by connecting personal inspiration and community participation. We provide subsidized studio space to working artists in exchange for their service in creating shared learning opportunities for the community. Artists develop creatively and professionally by teaching art to under served youth, leading adult education classes, and producing exhibitions that showcase local emerging artwork. By combining multiple opportunities for creative exchange, Root Division cultivates an artistic ecosystem that enriches life throughout the Bay Area.

Root Division is supported in part by grants from Grants for the Arts: San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund & Voluntary Arts Contribution Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and Potrero Nuevo Fund. The Second Saturday Exhibition Series is sponsored by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission through a Cultural Equity Grant/Organizational Project Grant, the Fleishhacker Foundation, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

For further information regarding events and/or press materials, please do not hesitate to contact Selene Foster at 415.863.7668 or events [at] rootdivision.org.