I got my State!

The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.
—Walt Whitman

Americana: 50 States, 50 Months, 50 Exhibitions is a long-term presentation consisting of 50 displays, each approximately one month long, coorganized by Wattis Institute director Jens Hoffmann and CCA's Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice. (That's Me!)

Each month's display will examine an American state, in alphabetical order by state name.
Through artworks, historical artifacts, curiosities, and other elements, Americana will focus on overlooked and little-known aspects of each state. All presentations take place in the same exhibition space, which is configured in the shape of the continental United States.

Americana examines the states as they are today, looking at how America's social and political imperatives condition the production, presentation, and interpretation of art and exhibition making. The brisk pace of the 50 displays reflects the varied and constantly changing fabric of this relatively young country and its multilayered, shifting national identity.

The title is a reference to an exhibition of the same name that was curated by the artist collaborative Group Material at the 1985 biennial of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Group Material also focused on art and elements of mass culture that they understood as overlooked, forgotten, and outside the mainstream in order to investigate critically how museums and exhibitions assist in the formation of American identity.

Founding support for CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts programs has been provided by Phyllis C. Wattis and Judy and Bill Timken. Generous support provided by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Grants for the Arts / San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, Ann Hatch and Paul Discoe, and the CCA Curator's Forum.

Georgia: Br'er Rabbit's Narrative Trap




And My State will be....(Drum roll please)


The Show Me State
Bluebird


Flowering Dogwood

Home of Mark Twain

Sunday Tea

We have been having people for tea at our house from 2-4 on Sundays. If you know where that is you should come!
I found these guys at the thrift store and painted them white

Bingo Kings at the MG Gallery

We enjoyed a crazy Bingo night at MG Gallery that opened up by our house. The MG gallery has a lot of potential. They already have a great group of artists lined up for exhibitions and they've focused some of their programming on residencies for artists interested in making permanent improvements to their space.
Very Smart.

Mr. H wins a Bake Sale Betty gift card!

Sweet!

I am super excited about the first artist residency at SoEx with Brion Nuda Rosch! 

The Portable Ice Cream Stand

Part art-object, part functioning ice cream stand, The Portable Ice Cream Stand is a nomadic food stand and social gathering serving sweet refreshments at local functions, playgrounds, campsites, laundry mats, and bookstores. During his residency at Southern Exposure, Rosch will work with a visiting cast of artists to build the stand along with an ongoing assemblage of objects. Interested in creating alternative economies, The Portable Ice Cream Stand will hold business hours and function as model for an alternative economy to support various artistic efforts. Stop by the gallery for some ice cream and a visit with the artist.

Visit the Artist: Thursday – Saturday, 12:00 – 6:00 pm

I put on my super rad Ice cream T-shirt to show my support and wore it home. I noticed I got a few more cat-calls than normal walking to the BART. That's weird I thought, I should check in with Mr. H and make sure this dress looks ok. "Hi Mr. H"  I said. "Nice cones" said Mr. H.First thing.  Whoa this shirt is dangerous.

I dyed my hair last night and then when I woke up this morning I said "Wow my hair is super red! I didn't know it would be so red." and Mr. H was like "Doesn't it look just like the box?" And I said "yeah it's so weird nothing ever looks like it does on the box."

Dear Grandma,

It was so nice to see you last weekend! I had fun seeing the Frida Kahlo exhibit and making so much good food with you. Thank you for the fair trade chocolate. It is super tasty. I would just like to let you know I really really want a hand-made apron or two for my birthday (I know know that's not until December.) Here are a few from Anthropologie I thought you might enjoy looking at until then! (**wink wink**)

love always--Jo

Pretty things:

Items I want for cooler weather

Images from Anthropologie

Yellow Tights

Obscene amounts of blush

We have been putting all the beautiful veggies and organic lamb we bought at the farmer's market into the crock pot in the morning and coming home to hot stew at night. What a nice way to start September!

I figured out how to load a high Rez copy

Dear Ilsa,

This is the coolest couch Ever. I love it sooo much, but I don't think Mr. H is going to go for it. I mean where would we put it in our teeny tiny apartment?! I think you should buy it ( I just know you could fit it somewhere.) Then, I will come visit it whenever I feel the urge. It is at the Clausen House thrift shop and will set you back about $75.

yours truly,

Josephine

Look what came in the mail today! Yay for ebay treats!

We got really lost yesterday looking for Ship Art for class and ended up in this really strange look South San Francisco suburbia. It looks so foreign when you are used to an urban landscape.

Do I look like a tired Grad Student yet?

We had some people over on Sunday for tea. Oh my God look what Rona brought! Beautiful.

Saturday Video!

a little something I made music by one of my all time favorite bands: The Books

Getting all Salon on your Ass!

Hanging work for an art show "Salon Style" always sounded romantic to me. Very Bohemian.

The Salon (French: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: Salon de Paris), beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the world. Since 1881 it was organized by the Société des Artistes Français.--wikipedia

The Salon, in its early formation, acted as an audit of what art was being made at one place at one time- in this case the Academy. Taken as a whole body-often from floor to ceiling-it is the attempt to create an overlapping impression of art in mass. Modern "Salon hung" art shows feel young, rebellious, low budget and much like their namesake attempting to survey some art makingin mass.

My first art show ever was in my house when I live in San Luis Obispo. The city had an art walk and we were near downtown, so we put up signs to lure people off the path and to our opening. We also made photo copied flyers and left them at the "real" galleries. It worked pretty well.

2006 Virus SHOW Lobot Gallery

This show is the result of releasing a constructed viru

s into Oakland.

---The action of this virus is simple:::: It infects only Oakland artists and causes them to infect other Oakland artists.

---The virus is intially within 6 people AND each of these people will infect 6 more people, this process will happen 4 times resulting in 1554 artis

ts being infected.

---EACH ARTIST IS RESPONSIBLE IN MAKING SURE THAT T

HEIR 6 CHOSEN ARTISTS CHOOSE ANOTHER 6 ARTISTS EACH. (except for the 4th and final tier)

Boontling Gallery Overhung Trilogy

(this Oakland gallery is now closed)

Lost Art Salon , San Francisco

Monster Drawing Rally 2008
Southern Exposure
images from: http://bunnywax.wordpress.com/

The art is drawn live and then goes onto the walls! You can see Mr. H helping out in the picture above. He's wearing a dark red shirt in the very middle.

I love Deth amd Marci!!