WEEK 15 FINAL GROUP EXHIBITION

Here is the summary of our meeting about final group exhibition. We need to finalize the opening date, title of the show and artists’ works to be exhibited.

Venue: Alter Space, 1158 Howard Street

http://alterspace.co

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alter-Space/312933352070877

Dates:

May 5th (Tuesday)- Installation of works

May 7th (Thursday) or May 8th (Friday)? -Opening of the exhibition *need to be finalized

May 10th (Sunday)- Deinstallation of works

Works:

-Prints (Photographs and screen prints)

-Video by Andres Moya (tv monitor on floor)

-16mm projection by Joseph Dwyer at the jail cell space

-Painting by Ben Jones

Title of the Exhibition- not yet finalized- any suggestions?

Advertisement

Week 11: Group Final Project Planning

Hi everyone,

Thanks to all who shared their work on Tuesday, I look forward to hearing about the rest of your work next week!

For the final project, we need to decide what the nature of the BFA/BA finals will be. There are a couple of options:

1. Each person does an individual creative project created before final show that you will propose to Thea and Jevi by week 12 for approval.

2. One ore more groups of students will produce a collaborative artwork created before final show, again proposed by week 12.

3. One or more groups of students will produce a collaborative piece at a final event, with the participation of the public (to consist of community group/s, other artists at SFAI or elsewhere, general public, and/or another group of your choice).

Let’s get this conversation going! What are people thinking of doing?

Week 10: “Conversation piece with Carlos Villa” project

This week, artist/students will bring work (maximum of 3 works) that tells a story in conversation with Carlos Villa’s work and art practice.

Carlos Villa had a wide range of art practice- from abstract painting, mixed media, sculpture, installation, performance, community-based projects or social practice as well as organizing symposia and lectures series and art teaching. The concept of the activity is to present your work along with a work by Carlos Villa- for instance showing an abstract painting along with Carlos Villa’s painting and comparing the similarities or even dissimilarities in terms of style, content, and/or issues each work is addressing.

You can bring an actual artwork such as painting, photographs, small sculpture, or even render an impromptu performance in the class. You can also bring in electronic files of your work, in .jpg format that will be sent to Thea (ttagle@sfai.edu) before class. If you have organized (or have participated) in a community-based project or curated an exhibition, you can make a presentation using powerpoint and website links. The presentation should be atleast 5 mins to 7 mins long but if you are presenting a video or film, you can make short segments or clips of your work (10 to 15 mins ). We will also have an open critique and discussion after each presentation.

In Carlos Villa’s critique class in 2009, before students presented their work, he always asked us these questions- “For whom ?” and “what for?”—that you should also consider when selecting your art works and preparing your presentation.

1. “For whom?” What is the work all about? Is the work intended for oneself, for the society (immediate environment, current social issues or concerns) or history (like paying homage to your past or investigating historical past that have been largely forgotten)?
2. “What for?” What is the intention of the work that is relevant to the artist, in response to his/her immediate environment? what was the rationale of the artist? or what triggers the artist in making such a work in that particular   moment?

3. Are there any similarities regarding your work presented and Carlos Villa’s, in terms of concerns and issues that he addressed in his individual practice; his curatorial projects; in the symposia that he organized; or in his teaching? Is yes, why? If not, why?

Below you will be able to see three conversation pieces by Jevijoe Vitug that will give you an idea for the project. 

Week 10: “Conversation piece with Carlos Villa” project

This week, artist/students will bring work (maximum of 3 works) that tells a story in conversation with Carlos Villa’s work and art practice.

Carlos Villa had a wide range of art practice- from abstract painting, mixed media, sculpture, installation, performance, community-based projects or social practice as well as organizing symposia and lectures series and art teaching. The concept of the activity is to present your work along with a work by Carlos Villa- for instance showing an abstract painting along with Carlos Villa’s painting and comparing the similarities or even dissimilarities in terms of style, content, and/or issues each work is addressing.

You can bring an actual artwork such as painting, photographs, small sculpture, or even render an impromptu performance in the class. You can also bring in electronic files of your work, in .jpg format that will be sent to Thea (ttagle@sfai.edu) before class. If you have organized (or have participated) in a community-based project or curated an exhibition, you can make a presentation using powerpoint and website links. The presentation should be atleast 5 mins to 7 mins long but if you are presenting a video or film, you can make short segments or clips of your work (10 to 15 mins ). We will also have an open critique and discussion after each presentation.

In Carlos Villa’s critique class in 2009, before students presented their work, he always asked us these questions- “For whom ?” and “what for?”—that you should also consider when selecting your art works and preparing your presentation.

1. “For whom?” What is the work all about? Is the work intended for oneself, for the society (immediate environment, current social issues or concerns) or history (like paying homage to your past or investigating historical past that have been largely forgotten)?
2. “What for?” What is the intention of the work that is relevant to the artist, in response to his/her immediate environment? what was the rationale of the artist? or what triggers the artist in making such a work in that particular   moment?

3. Are there any similarities regarding your work presented and Carlos Villa’s, in terms of concerns and issues that he addressed in his individual practice; his curatorial projects; in the symposia that he organized; or in his teaching? Is yes, why? If not, why?

Week 9: Bringing Filipino/American Art to the Fore

This week focuses on Filipino American art, a teacher once told Villa that there was no Filipino art history to investigate. Do you think this inquiry could have motivated him to be the “interlocutor” to fill such historical absence/gaps? What kind of strategies did he use/employ as interlocutor?

What is the difference between validation and self-validation (based from article Actions Speak Louder than Words: Carlos, The Man by Theresa Harlan, Filipino American Arts Exposition Catalog)

In Carlos Villa and the Integrity of Space article (edited by Theodore S. Gonzalves), why do you think Carlos Villa is neglected by art historians and by Asian-Americanists? What is meant by the term “art action” in Villa’s “artwork”?

Regarding the Worlds in Collision website (http://worldsincollision.org) devoted to Filipino American art history, it seems hasn’t been updated in a while, any comments or suggestions to improve the site?

Week 7: Worlds in Collision

This week, we will be talking about The Agenda for the 1990s, a symposium that was later compiled in the book Worlds in Collision. Its mission questions were the following: 1. Where are we? 2. What are we celebrating? 3. What are the issues that the art and artist of color face in the 1990s?

We are lucky enough to have a draft copy of a Worlds in Collision Study Guide that Carlos intended to have published as a companion piece to the text. We will be discussing several questions from the guide in class, but you can also begin to think through them now. If you would like to respond to one or more of the following questions from the guide (click images to enlarge), please do so in the comments! {Just FYI, here‘s some background on David Hammons, who Kellie Jones discusses and who is brought up in question 2}

We will be having a brief class visit tomorrow from Dewey Crumpler, a fantastic artist, fellow SFAI professor, and a close friend of Carlos. He will be speaking about his own work and of “multicultural art” as they were debating it in the late 1980s and 1990s. Here is a link to an interview of Dewey by Carlos Villa for Villa’s Rehistoricizing the Time of Abstract Expressionism project. You might want to click on these links to learn more about Dewey’s work before he comes speak with us tomorrow, in case you have questions for him!

Week 6: Other Sources and the 1970s

This week topic focuses on community activism in San Francisco in the 70s plus an oral history interview with Carlos Villa to give us brief overview of San Francisco art scene in those days. It is remarkable to note how our school (SFAI/ CSFA) plays a major role in shaping the local art scene here in the Bay Area particularly the “community mural movement” of the seventies. Are there any differences between community murals in the seventies (mentioned in Lost Murals of the Seventies by Timothy W. Drescher and Art and Social Consciousness by Margo Machida) and street/urban art today in San Francisco? in terms of subject matter, style and concern?

What was distinctive about Mujeres Muralistas on collaboration and how they deal with funding? Does it have something to do with the “rasquache” strategy of resistance and resilience?

In the article, “Third World Art is a State of Mind” by Paul Kagawa (Other Sources: An American Essay), do you agree that such “cultural cartel” exists in the art world?

In 1976, Carlos Villa organized an exhibition entitled Other Sources: An American Essay about “Third World” artists, activism and multiculturalism. Why is community action such as “bringing people together or bring cultures together” (page 274, Machida) integral to Carlos Villa’s art practice? Do you think his concerns with ethnic and cultural diversity  are somewhat autobiographical?   ( Oral History interview with Carlos Villa, 1995 June 20-July 10 by Paul Karlstrom)

Week 5: Ritual and 60 Forms of Utang

A post from Jevi. You can comment on this post up through Friday this week, since it was posted belatedly.

—

In this week’s topic on Indigenous Roots and Rituals, it is interesting to discuss the parallelism between Carlos Villa’s Atang and Lucy Lippard’s Telling, particularly the struggles of artists of color in their art practice and everyday life. Although Lucy Lippard speaks about “artists of color” in general ( from African American, Latin Americans to Native Americans..) Carlos Villa tells stories of Asian Americans in the Bay Area on a personal level.

What do artists of color have in common?  Especially those who migrated and grew up in the United States. Why are hybridity, fusion and syncretism very important subjects in Lucy Lippard’s article? Why are storytelling and personal narratives  very important methods or strategies used by artists of color to understand one’s “roots” and history?

Do you think Carlos Villa’s storytelling method in “60 Forms of Utang”– about artists he admires– is an effective way of narrating the “forgotten” history of Asian American artists in the Bay Area? As Villa mentioned in Atang No. 53, “..history belongs to those in power.”

In both articles, art is often mentioned as survival mechanism; do you think art can be used as a form of ritual like Atang or Santeria to “ward off evil spirits” by artists of color in order to survive our contemporary society?  Can artists still be griot- story teller of the past or shaman-a healer of the future in the 21^st century? 

Week 4: The Manongs of Manilatown

This week we are visiting the International Hotel / Manilatown Heritage Foundation Center, to hear about the work of activists and artists in the I-Hotel movement from Tony Robles, nephew of the late “poet laureate of Manilatown,” Al Robles. He will expound on what we have read this week- tracking earlier migrations of Filipinos to the Bay Area, before the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act allowed for later migrants to suburbs like Daly City.

Villa, like Al Robles, grew up in one of the only Filipino families in San Francisco, at a time when immigration from the Philippines was largely restricted to bachelor men.  Born and raised in the Tenderloin, growing up around the manongs of Manilatown, and going to the bars and jazz clubs in the Fillmore, he also had a very different background from his fellow CSFA / SFAI colleagues and teachers.  How do we see a melding of Villa’s personal experiences in San Francisco and his training at CSFA  reflected in works like “My Father Seeing Market Street For the First Time” (see previous blog post for image)? Does knowing VIlla’s background change your impression of earlier and later abstract works such as the following door piece, from his My Uncles series of 1991?

We also read this week an essay from the exhibition catalog for At Home and Abroad: 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists, where they write in part of the Indigenous Art Movement of the 1970s. How do we reconcile Villa’s uses of indigenous motifs in early works like “Tatu” with these other types of pieces? Do you see as “more” Filipino/American these indigenous-inspired motifs or his abstracted negotiations with the history of the manongs– and why?

Carlos Villa, Tatu

Week 3: Asian American Modernism

So we’re up and running with the semester, and I look forward to reading your comments and responses to the posts on this blog!

—

This week, I’d like us to consider the category of “Asian American modernism” that Paul Karlstrom works through in his article “Postwar California” in Asian American Art: A History 1850-1970. Karlstrom begins his article by asking: “Is there an Asian American modernism that reflects–as in the multifaceted hall of mirrors to which modernism has been compared–shared experience? Or are we finally obliged to consider individuals in terms of their participation within the broader modernist concept?” (231). He then goes on to profile a handful of artists whose work variously incorporated, challenged, and/or disavowed influences from the Asia-Pacific— from the “inauthentic” Japanese identity played with in Isamu Noguchi’s work to the Zen Buddhist influences on Hodo Tabase and Shunryu Suzuki” (Karlstrom 236-7). Karlstrom spends a short moment of time discussing Carlos Villa and his practice of “community-directed modernism,” differentiating this from the other kinds of modernist aesthetics discussed earlier in the chapter (251).

Based on this article and what you have already seen of Carlos Villa’s visual art, do you find this categorization of Villa’s work as modernist to hold? By what standards do you evaluate his work as modernist– do you use the kinds of criteria that Susan Landauer or Thomas Albright (from week 2 readings) have for defining a work as a member of a movement or a school (such as the San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism)? How much does the outwards-directed model of action (what Karlstrom calls “community-directed modernism”)  impact your understanding of Villa’s work as modernist, versus other kinds of criteria?

Finally, do you agree that we need to have a different set of criteria for evaluating “Asian American” art, or do you think there should be a universal standard for evaluating a work’s merit? If universal, what factors should these judgments be based on? You should think about how this week’s readings by Johnson, Chang, and Karlstrom evaluate artists and categorize them into discernible movements/schools/traditions versus the readings from last week by Landauer and Albright.

Carlos Villa, “My Dad Seeing Market St. for the First Time” (1979), acrylic, beads, electrical wire, shells on unstretched canvas, 80 x 103 inches

Posting reminders: your response to this post should be a minimum of 2 paragraphs long (4-6 sentences per paragraph). Engage with the readings from this week and last week to support your response, citing properly using MLA or Chicago-style citations. Sign your name to the end of your post so you can receive credit for your writing.