San Francisco Art Institute presents Temporary Structures, on view September 14–December 15, 2012, an interdisciplinary exhibition, featuring over a dozen acclaimed international and Bay Area artists. Taking root in the exciting possibilities of impermanence and inspired by San Francisco’s colorful history of World’s Fairs, the exhibition includes works—many of them site-specific—concerned with architectural aspirations, follies, and momentary acts of cultural transformation.
Still from Michael Robinson, Victory Over the Sun, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.
The works on view in Temporary Structures explore aesthetic, political, and social ideals, ranging from the rise of consumer culture to 19th-century French uprisings to the recent Occupy movement, and help bring new meaning and understanding to the past and present. The broad allure of World’s Fairs, and their use of temporary pavilions in the service of now-questionable views of internationalism and entertainment, is a key element of the exhibition. San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, designed as a gateway for the exhibition halls of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, today serves as a “permanent” landmark. The Palace represents a growing collection of temporary-in-design, yet lasting, structures around the world, including those captured in the works by exhibition artists David Gissen and Michael Robinson, as well as in Jacques Tati’s 1967 film Playtime, which will be screened in conjunction with the exhibition.
With their late modernist architecture and long history of hosting impermanent exhibitions, SFAI’s Walter and McBean Galleries are also central to the artwork in Temporary Structures. Revealed for the exhibition is a 1985 wall work by Paul Kos that has been interned under sheet rock for over a decade. Amy M. Ho’s video project focuses on the galleries’ staircase, imposing imagined possibilities and uses on the space. Jonathan Runcio’s newly commissioned piece points to additions to and subtractions from the building since its “completion” 40 years ago. Some elements of the galleries have even been shifted—the entrance reworked, the skylights opened, a wall removed, new structures built—to make transparent the adaptability of fixed space and renew engagement with the perhaps-familiar place.
Artists
Pawel Althamer, Roberto Behar & Rosario Marquardt, David Gissen, Amy M. Ho, Paul Kos, Roy McMakin, Christian Nagler & Azin Seraj, Ben Peterson, Michael Robinson, Jonathan Runcio, Mungo Thomson, and Together We Can Defeat Capitalism
Events
In addition to the art featured in the Walter and McBean Galleries, Temporary Structures includes a series of events, performances, artist talks, and films. For a full schedule, please visit: www.sfai.edu/TempStructures
The exhibition and its associated events are all free and open to the public. Space is limited, and for some events advance registration is recommended.
Curated by Glen Helfand and Cydney Payton
San Francisco Art Institute
800 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, CA 94133
www.sfai.edu/TempStructures