2007-01 eXHIBITION: TAVARES STRACHAN, WHERE WE ARE...

Home Exhibitions & Events 2007-01 eXHIBITION: TAVARES STRACHAN, WHERE WE ARE...

the luggage store
November 17, 2006 - January 13, 2007 (extended one week)

Tavares Strachan
"Where We Are Is Always Miles Away,"
curated by Laurie Lazer/Darryl Smith

Reception: Friday, November 17, 6-8pm

ARTIST LECTURE: TAVARES STRACHAN
“Object Agents” lecture series, presented in conjunction with California College of the Arts/ San Francisco.
Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007, Timken Lecture Hall, 7pm
California College of the Arts, 1111 Eighth St., San Francisco.
Free and open to the public

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday-Saturday 12-5 and by appointment
closed 11/23 and 11/24

Under Strachan's direction, a crew from the City of New Haven, Connecticut excavated a portion of Crown Street –- including cement, earth, a parking meter, a street sign. The accompanying air was collected. The excavated materials will be transported to San Francisco’s luggage store gallery by truck and then craned up to the 2nd floor where it will they will be exhibited in a hermetically sealed container that is being made to recreate the atmospheric and temperature conditions at the time of Strachan’s excavation. The gallery will be darkened and the only light emanating within the space will come from New Haven, Connecticut.

In the winter of 2006, the City of New Haven’s Department of Cultural Affairs in association with the Office of Economic Development and the Enginnering Department agreed to provide pro bono services for Strachan’s project. This included a crew to excavate the sidewalk under Strachan’s direction, a donation of the City’s real estate and "accompanying air" t o the artist’s project, and a crew to repair, recreate and replace the materials that were “taken” from the City street. The crew ultimately left no trace or evidence that anything out of the ordinary had occurred.

"Where We Are…” “Where We Are…” goes beyond issues of forcible displacement by engaging current scientific technologies to explore multiple layers of removal, replacement, repositioning and re-creation while evoking both absence and presence (or non-presence) .

The work can be viewed literally as a physical reality moving to a different space and time. On a poetic level, it suggests the notion of dual and shared experiences, bringing light from one place to another, as well as the play of virtual reality, myth- making and oral tradition. Yet the work also has an implicit association with violence-- a violation of a specific space and time--with intent to extract, disrupt, and displace, ultimately leading to a state of imbalance. In this way, Strachan’s work deftly addresses and reflects on a myriad of cultural shifts and socio-political conditions of the present day.

Strachan is originally from Nassau, Bahamas, and holds an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been exhibited at the CAC in Cincinnati, SAFN Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland, among other venues. His “Artic Ice Project – The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want,” which involved extracting a 4000 pound piece of ice from an Alaskan River and shipping it to Nassau where it was kept frozen by solar energy, was on view during July and August 2006 in Nassau, Bahamas. It will be exhibited in the Wynwood section of Miami, Florida during Miami Basel Art Fair in December 2006. Concurrent with his show at the luggage store, Strachan also is being featured in solo exhibitions at Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn, New York and the Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York City.

PHOTOS

Press for "Where We Are Is Always Miles Away"

SF Chronicle - Kenneth Baker (12/2/06)

The Brooklyn Rail

SF Bay Guardian/Picks - Johnny Rae Huston

SF Weekly - Michael Leaverton

Shotgun Review

Blog--Art Fever

New Haven Register

Yale Daily News

Also: See

NEW YORK TIMES - Roberta Smith (12/09/06) - review on Miami Basel and Strachan's "The Distance
Between.../Arctic Ice Project..."

The exhibition is funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, Grants for the Arts of the Hotel Tax Fund, The San Francisco Foundation and The San Francisco Art commission/Cultural Equity, The City of New Haven Connecticut Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Pro bono support from Kytin Design.

Many thanks to Steven Clifford, Mark Sabatino/Gizmo; Constantine of Kytin and crew, Kory, Sham, Christophhe Thompson, bcci construction, Ed Mayfield, Alicia Utter, Steven Shottenfeld, Don Arce, Paul Waschkowsky, James Keenan, Nathan Groth, Daniel Guzman, Felipe Ortega, Chester Chiu, Juan Beccerra, Sergio Galvez, Dale Robertson; Ricardo Richey and Cigarette Man "Ron" and Mr. Walsh; Maximillian Toth, Travis, Dennis Parlante from Ameriship USA..