Evolution of Atrophy

@ Mission 17

July 20 - August 18, 2007

Featuring work by:
Taylor Tschider, Bernie Sale, Trisha Gum, Lauren Schuppe, KC Skinner, and Juliette

Opening Reception: July 20, 6-9pm

Curated by: Leia Casey, Gilpin Matthews, Audrey Penven, and Megan Semple

Gallery Hours are Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 3-6pm or by appointment

MISSION 17
2111 Mission Street, Suite 401
San Francisco, CA 94110
510.467.4818
The exhibition presents sculpture and mixed media pieces that delve into the complexities of the ever-changing human form.  The work of Lauren Schuppe and Bernie Sale can almost be viewed as biological studies, focusing on that which exists in our body that we cannot see.   Trisha Gum's mixed media pieces present the viewer with characters coping with the limitation and deterioration of the body.  And Taylor Tschider, KC Skinner, and Juliette create work that acts as if there will be no deterioration, no atrophy, instead only fantastical metamorphoses.  Evolution of Atrophy is a collection of pieces that explores the life long struggle with bodily changes that we must endure, with the hopes that by viewing art related to the human form, we may better understand and appreciate our own.

Visual Narratives:

“Jordan in The Mission”

column & photos by Leena Prasad

It’s not that I don’t notice the murals in the café.  It’s just that I’m at Café Petra so often that the murals become backdrops that I’m vaguely aware of.

I was there once on a weekday when the place wasn’t as packed as it is on the weekends. That’s when I noticed the stark differences between the murals on the two sides of the inside walls. The mural on the north side is a depiction of the café’s namesake, an archaeological site in Jordan called Petra.  On the south are portraitures of people and animals captured at slices of moments in their daily lives.

The north side is a warm kaleidoscope of oranges and reds and yellows punctuated by the blues of the sky.  The painting of the building and the rocks in the mural capture the color palettes of the Petra site.  The style of the painting is rocky and curvy and sensuous, seducing the viewer with the overwhelming beauty of not only the subject but that of the mural itself. Whenever I look at it, I feel transported out of The Mission and into the exotic charms of the Middle-East. I imagine what it would feel like to stand in the place where a man now stands in the mural. His image is minuscule. Looking at him, I can feel the sense of awe that I would feel if I were to go to Petra and stand in the same place as him.

On the south wall, shades of green and brown capture the personal daily landscapes of the people who live in Jordan (I’m guessing that’s who they are). On closer inspection, I notice that the paintings are partially rendered using the pointillism style.  The mural is a mix of portraiture and landscape. The landscape forms a realistic background into which the pointillism style portraits are ‘inserted.’ The brown brick wall has small green leaves floating down from the top to bottom. There are terra cota water containers lined up against the wall. There are three independent portraits: two little girls, a woman, and a deer.  Two of the portraits are drawn inside a "frame" and each frame is drawn as if it is hanging on the wall. The third portrait is painted on a very tall plate that sits next to the terra cota containers. The two little girls smile out at us as they stop in their playing to pose - the girl in front is carrying the other one on her back in a piggyback ride. What have they being doing at this point and what will they do afterwards?  In the second portrait, a woman, perhaps a mermaid, is submerged in water, and is surrounded by fish; in her hand is a mug of coffee. The third portrait is that of a deer caught in mid-run with his right front paw up in the air poised for motion. 

Having looked at the murals in detail for this article, I’ve become much more aware of the ambience they help create inside Café Petra.  I often find myself gawking at the Petra mural and re-arranging the name Jordan on my priority list of places to visit. The opposing mural, with its overwhelming palette of green and brown remind me of olive trees and dessert. It also offers a glimpse into the lives of the people who live love and laugh there in Jordan as I sit in the café sometime with the people with whom I live love and laugh.

I look at the murals and I think about how art can transport, connect, and open up our world… even as we sit eating a bagel and sipping a coffee in a neighborhood café.

Café Petra is located in the Mission neighborhood on Valencia between 16^th and 17^th Street.  The address is: 483 Guerrero Street, SF

I’d love to talk about this or any other topic with any of you who are reading this…feel free to fling some words out to art@WeAreNotAmused.com. Ideas for future articles are also welcome.

The Cycle Plays
07 / 07 / 07

Theatre of Yugen is developing The Cycle Plays, five plays performed during the course of a one-day-only presentation informed by the ritualistic Japanese Noh theater, written and directed in an ensemble process by Yugen’s Artistic Associate and playwright Erik Ehn, with musical composition by Allen Whitman and Suki O’Kane.

This marathon theatrical event presents American stories told in the signature poetic, dance-drama style of Yugen, with its roots in the spirit of Noh, reaching up to new movement and narrative forms through original, cutting-edge contemporary music. The five categories of plays forming the traditional Noh architecture are re-invented in the lexicon of Western archetypes and with American legendary figures:

• Winterland – the God play – is about two girls and their quest to see Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols in their last performance at Winterland in San Francisco
• Letters from a Small House – the Warrior play – examines the life of Unabomber Ted Kaczinski
• Dark/Silent – the Woman’s play – centers on Helen Keller
• Long Day's Journey into Night – the fourth category play is a “Deranged Woman play” with an adaptation of O’Neill’s American classic
• Pretty – the fifth category Demon play – is the story of the abduction and murder of a young girl.

The day begins with 10,000 – a ritual dance play featuring three of Yugen’s founding members: Helen Morgenrath, Brenda Wong Aoki and founder Yuriko Doi.

07/07/07
at Project Artaud Theater in San Francisco
FREE – reservations strongly recommended
(415) 621-7978 or online

ANGEL FACE
a world premiere Noir thriller by Cornell Woolrich [about the author]
directed by Stephanie Hunt

August 10 - September 2, 2007
Wednesday-Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
Project Artaud Theater, 450 Florida Street, San Francisco

inkBoat & Nanos Operetta

Will Franken's
GRANDPA,
IT'S NOT FITTING

July 6 thru August 4, 2007
thursday thru saturday at 8pm

@ The Marsh

The Marsh presents Will Franken in his "Grandpa, It's Not Fitting." More of exactly what you've come to not expect from Franken. Will Franken's latest solo show, "Grandpa It's Not Fitting" will take audiences on a strange and satirical trip to Westminster Abbey for the Final Broadcast of the Christian Faith, to a prison cell for a heart-to-heart talk with everybody's favorite political prisoner, Too-koo Moo-moo, and for a ride on a doomed aircraft piloted by 9-year-old Captain Griffin. There will be some political chants from the Common Book of Chants, and everybody will get all nice and screwed-up and cheated out of their life savings by the Lord of Scientology. And, if everybody's really good, Will just might attempt to play the piano with his bare hands! Grandpa, It's Not Fitting might not fit the mainstream, but it just might fit you!

Three easy ways to buy tickets

1.        By Phone
CALL OUR 24/7 TOLL FREE TICKET HOTLINE
800-838-3006

2.        On The Internet

3.        In Person
To purchase tickets in person with cash or check, visit our box office located inside the Marsh Café at 1070 Valencia. Our Box office is open 7 days a week, from 3:30PM and 10PM.

The 2007 Bay Area Summer Poetry Marathon

@ The Lab

2948 16th Street @ Capp
San Francisco 415-864-8855

Curated by Donna de la Perriere & Joseph Lease

Saturday, May 26, 7-10 PM
Saturday, June 30, 7-10 PM
Saturday, July 28, 7-10 PM
Saturday, August 25, 7-10 PM
$3-$15 sliding scale admission

From its inception during the summer of 2000, the Boston Poetry Marathon developed a national reputation among experimental poets. An annual weekend-long event, it featured approximately 40 readers (poets primarily but also artists from mixed genres). Everyone, from the distinguished poetic elder to the excited emerging poet, read for 20 minutes each. Boston Marathon readers included Charles Bernstein, Anselm Berrigan, Frank Bidart, Maxine Chernoff, Norma Cole, Robert Creeley, Forrest Gander, Paul Hoover, Fanny Howe, Laura Mullen, Jena Osman, Maureen Owen, Heather Ramsdell, David Shapiro, Tom Sleigh, Juliana Spahr, Cole Swensen, Anne Waldman, John Yau, and many others. When co-founders/co-curators Donna de la Perriere and Joseph Lease moved to the Bay Area in 2003, they moved the Poetry Marathon to San Francisco. A tremendous success, the 2004, 2005, and 2006 Bay Area Summer Poetry Marathons took place as four day long events at The LAB.

This year, poets from across the U.S. and the Bay Area join together again to celebrate innovative poetry in a series of readings throughout the summer at The LAB. May 26, 2007 readers include: Lee Ann Brown, Anna Eyre, Kevin Killian, Dana Teen Lomax, Erin Morrell, Stephen Ratcliffe, and more. Come join us to hear this year's exciting line-up!