In honor of the Sculpture program’s 80th Anniversary, the Libraries/CCA/C Archives presents the exhibit History Lessons: Sculpture at CCA/C, revealing sculpture’s central place in CCA’s history. From the 1913 image of Life Modeling students creating crucifixion pieces for the Competition for an Altar Crucifix, to the 2016 image of future grads installing the spatio-temporal works of The Immediate Archive, these images of student and faculty makers, their workshops, and the works of art they created give us a glimpse of sculpture through the decades and of the continued passionate pursuit of sculpture practices at CCA. “Like I hope all of the stories told in this little ‘history lesson’ might suggest, sculpture is and always has been, quite literally, something to rally around. So next time you are “casting about for an occupation,” consider building a life in and on and around it.”
Wherein we celebrate Constitution Day, aka the supreme law of the United States, with video clips from Alexander Hamilton and Schoolhouse Rock! Alexander Hamilton, a wildly popular, hip-hop musical about the founding father, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, recently visited the White House; this clip of that performance includes a great introduction by President Obama! Schoolhouse Rock!, an ABC-TV educational series broadcast from 1973-1985, includes over forty infectious songs on subject matter ranging from grammar to economics & of course, the Constitution.
Increasingly popular, some artists and book publishers are making “bootleg” versions of photo books and editions that have become rare (and thus hard to find or very expensive). Often these bootleg versions are made on a copy machine, with different paper than the original or perhaps even a different edit and binding. Assignment: Make a bootleg version of a book from Meyer Library that you think honors the original but is more in the style of an homage. Meaning: take inspiration from the original but make a version that you think is worthy of a re-issue and that takes some imaginative liberties with the original. While this may go beyond a strict “bootleg,” it should definitely go beyond a mere facsimile of the original. The CCA Libraries will acquire the bootlegs on view into the artist books collection.
Lange explores notions of comfort, safety, identity and home through textiles. For this exhibition, four large-scale fabric sculptures are suspended from the Simpson Library wall alongside an artist intervention with the Science Library. Shelters operate as wearables and have been utilized in performances by Lange in previous iterations of the work, one such performance will be hosted during the opening reception.
The CCA Fall 2016 Library Exhibition program presents the work of Prima Sakuntabhai (MFA '17) at the Meyer Library on Oakland's campus. The work on view combines image, text, and ephemera collected during the artist’s time at the SOMA SUMMER 2016 artist residency in Mexico City. Prima spent two months this past summer in residence at SOMA SUMMER in dialogue with a community of international artists and contemporary art practitioners from Mexico City. The conceptual foundations of architecture and ruin are critical to the narratives Prima constructs. Layering of image, text, and oration are fused in the artist's practice with auto-topographic storytelling, while simultaneously making visible the erasure of cultural histories in Mexico City through the construction of site. The re-framing of 70's vernacular architecture, by visualizing the stylistic appropriation of Mayan Aztec motifs by European Art Deco in (Site) Specificity II, reveals a transparency in cultural boundaries that are open and clo…
On November 2nd we celebrate Day of the Dead. A tradition originally practiced in Mexico, Day of the Dead is now recognized widely as an important holiday in the U.S. as well. In California especially, this ritual has become a bridge that brings together members of diverse communities in order to remember and honor our loved ones who have passed away. The altar will be up through Friday, November 14th, and we welcome your leaving of offerings, images, notes, mementos, etc. to commemorate your loved ones. Remembrances can be left at any time this week and are not restricted to the main build today. If including photographs/images, we recommend using photocopies rather than originals.
On July 25th, 1912 United States world chess champion (1909 – 1936), Frank James Marshall, sacrificed his Queen (Q to G3), beating out opponent, Stefan Levitsky, in what is considered one of the most brilliant twists of game fate in recorded chess history. This move, now canonized in chess terminology as a “swindle,” is the achievement of a win or a draw from a distinctly losing position. Shotgun Shells and Pinecones presented at the Meyer Oakland Library brings together the aesthetics of chance and gender. Curated vitrines offer a selection of books, photographs, and texts from the library archive in addition to found artifacts, images, and books from a family archive. Presented in conjunction with Angela Berry’s CCA MFA Thesis exhibition on view at the Perry Family Gallery until April 2nd, Shotgun Shells and Pinecones, is a playful counter-point to Berry’s thesis body of work Rough Weather Makes Good Timber, which looks at different processes of resilience in the ancient forest habitat of the Blue Ridge…
Experiencing a transition from working primarily with clay here at California College of the Arts, John Boychuk has created a series of sculptures that present the intricacies of the way the body, physics, and art are interwoven.Wrapping the pieces around his body in what the artist terms a “dance”, Boychuk’s actions themselves are written in the graceful sweeps of the wooden bands. The wire twists in all directions around the wood, both securing the pieces together to create the larger form and shaping the voids that his body had once inhabited. Displayed within the library are books that have motivated Boychuk’s practice, including the 19th century satirical novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions . In Flatland and in the sculptures on display we see the examination of dimensions taking a central role in the work. Situated both on the ground and in the air, the delicate lines and negative space of the objects navigate one’s eye through the artist’s study of dimensions and the body’s interaction in sp…