Press Release: Altars, multi-dimensional art installations, live music and performances acknowledge the cycles of life and death and changes in the Bay Area
Jess Young, Director of Communications & Community Engagement
SOMArts Cultural Center
415-863-1414 x112 • jess@somarts.org
Sally Douglas Arce
510-525-9552 • sdarce@lmi.net
SOMArts Cultural Center Presents VISIONS AT TWILIGHT: DIA DE LOS MUERTOS 2014
15th Annual Day of the Dead exhibition, October 11–November 8, 2014
Invites thoughtful attention to the loss of culture & people being felt in the Bay Area now
San Francisco, CA, September 9, 2014–– Now in its 15th year, the Day of the Dead exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center offers a visually dense and stimulating environment of elaborate, traditional altars and multi-dimensional art installations where creativity leads the way to meaningful reflection. Inspired by cherished relationships, current events, and a breadth of cultural traditions, Bay Area artists utilize multifaceted, contemporary creative practices in Visions at Twilight: DÃa de los Muertos 2014.
Over 700 visitors are expected to attend the opening event, Friday, October 10, 6pm to 9pm, $12–15 sliding scale admission. The exhibition unveiling features live music by Rupa of Rupa & the April Fishes, San Francisco’s 2014 poet laureate Alejandro MurguÃa reading poems by Maya Angelou and Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, interactive installations and a DÃa de los Muertos-inspired artist market.
The exhibition is open from Saturday, October 11 through Saturday, November 8 at SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, with free admission during gallery hours Tuesday–Friday, 12–7pm, Saturday 11am–5pm, and Sunday, 11am–3pm.
Each year, more than 80 Bay Area artists from a breadth of cultural backgrounds acknowledge the cycles of life and death in the Day of the Dead exhibition at SOMArts, examining local and global issues through altars and contemporary art installations that address themes ranging from the deeply personal to the political and emphasize viewer interaction.
His family’s eviction from their Mission District home of 35 years drew headlines, and has been covered by the New York Times, Al Jazeera America, The New Yorker, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and others.
Yañez is not the only artist in the exhibition grappling with the harsh realities of San Francisco’s housing crisis. Multiple altars address the gentrification of the Mission District, utilizing historic and family photos, and telling the stories of immigration to the neighborhood or of the changes felt by longtime residents.
Ytaelena Lopez and Gaurav Narasimhan create a playground where images and icons of the neighborhood buried in the sand can be discovered and manipulated by visitors. Above the sandbox, which doubles as a surface for digital projection, hangs a condominium-shaped piñata.
Many of the altars offer a glimmer of hope, a step toward healing, and an opportunity for the creative envisioning of a city that offers a place for everyone. Some are celebratory offerings, honoring treasured family members, friends and creative influences including actor Robin Williams as well as the exhibition’s four dedicatees.
William Rhodes leads student artists participating in programs offered by the Bayview Opera House in the creation of a superhero-themed altar, “The Guardians of San Francisco,†featuring a cohort of newly minted heroes that protect important cultural elements identified by each young artist.
Several altars draw inspiration from physical landmarks, such as the former Bay Bridge, small businesses being shuttered and displaced or endangered arts and cultural organizations. Others address a loss of culture, lamenting the migration of artists driven away by economic pressures.
Howie Katz, a former software engineer, creates an installation with a live streaming component that depicts a crowd of headphone wearing skeletons distractedly consuming video on tablets and other rectangular devices. The footage, shot at now-extinct San Francisco galleries, comments on technology’s impact on both our landscape and our ability to connect with one another offline. Martinez [sic] turns her creative lens to her own experiences in a city in flux, offering a pictorial view of the creative, financial, political and practical dilemmas facing a female artist with children living in San Francisco.
Several altars consider history’s impact on the present. Viewers may draw connections between artworks memorializing Africans lost during the transatlantic slave trade and those addressing police brutality and institutionalized racism and oppression.
The entrance to the exhibit features elaborate paper cut stencils and special lighting effects by artist team CJ Grossman, Todd Hanson, Choppy Oshiro and Victor Mario Zaballa. Architect Nick Gomez creates the material aesthetic and layout for these installations, including a large house inside the expansive gallery as a central visual element and a display space for smaller works.
In addition to the ticketed opening and closing events on Friday October 10 and Saturday, November 8, 6pm–9pm, the exhibition features a night of performance by local artists on Friday, October 24. In Gathering the Embers: The Spirit of Home, a 4th annual performance showcase, sisters Natalia and Amanda Vigil gather emerging and established writers, interdisciplinary performing artists, media makers and musicians to pay tribute to love, life, loss and resiliency and explore the spirit of place, Friday, October 24, 7–9:30pm, $8 in advance, $10 at the door.
CALENDAR LISTINGS
The exhibition and all related events take place at SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St. (between 8th and 9th Streets), San Francisco, CA 94103. SOMArts is wheelchair/ADA accessible.
What: Visions at Twilight: DÃa de los Muertos 2014 group exhibition When: Saturday, October 11–Saturday, November 8, 2014 Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Friday, 12–7pm, Saturday 11am–5pm, Sunday, 11am–3pm Cost: Free admission during gallery hours Information:https:///www.somarts.org/visionsattwilight
What: Opening Event for Visions at Twilight: DÃa de los Muertos 2014 group exhibition When: Friday, October 10, 6–9pm Cost: $12–15 sliding scale admission Tickets & information:http://visionsattwilight.eventbrite.com
Exhibition unveiling features live music by Rupa, interactive installations and DÃa de los Muertos inspired artist market.
What: Gathering the Embers: The Spirit of Home When: Friday, October 24, 7–9:30pm Cost: $8 in advance & $10 at the door Tickets & information: https://gatheringtheembers.eventbrite.com
Multi-disciplinary performers connect past and present with an evening of story and performance.
What: Closing Event for Visions at Twilight: DÃa de los Muertos 2014 group exhibition When: Saturday, November 8, 6–9pm Cost: $7–10 sliding scale admission Tickets & information:https://visionscloses.eventbrite.com
The final opportunity to view and interact with the altars features live music by Las Bomberas de la Bahia, interactive installations and DÃa de los Muertos inspired artist market.
ABOUT THE CURATORS Rene Yáñez, founder and former Artistic Director of San Francisco’s GalerÃa de la Raza in San Francisco’s Mission District, was one of the first curators to introduce the contemporary concept of Mexico’s Day of the Dead to the United States with a 1972 exhibition at the GalerÃa. Each subsequent year he curated a Day of the Dead exhibition either at the GalerÃa or at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. Then, in 1994 and 1998, he curated Rooms for the Dead and Labyrinth for the Dead at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. His first year curating a Day of the Dead exhibit at SOMArts Cultural Center was 1993. There were a few years when he curated elsewhere, but then returned to SOMArts on a regular basis.
Active as both a visual and performance arts curator and artist, Yáñez co-founded the successful Chicano performance trio Culture Clash. In 1998, he received the “Special Trustees Award in Cultural Leadership†from The San Francisco Foundation for his long-standing contribution to the cultural life of the Bay Area.
Yañez has curated numerous exhibitions including Chicano Visions (2001–2007), an exhibition hosted by museums such as the de Young Museum (in San Francisco), El Paso Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution.
In 2009, 2011 and 2012, Yañez created a living altar for the San Francisco Symphony's Day of the Dead concert featuring a large cast, crew and suite of musicians, curated Four Juan Five, an exhibition about the San Francisco Mission District at Alley Cat Books, and performed in Guillermo Gomez-Peña's Corpo Illicito at the New Performance Gallery in San Francisco.
In 2014 Yañez printed a popular zine, Zine a la Mode over a Pot of Coffee, with a circulation of over 200 copies. His recent work includes a collaboration with artist Patrick Piazza for an installation on the De-Appropriation wall on Valencia street, an exhibit with the S.F. Print Collective about displacement, and Las Chicas de Esta Noche, a drag queen review show at the de Young Museum in collaboration with comedian Marga Gomez. With his collective The Great Tortilla Conspiracy he has participated in art events benefitting the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness and the St. Peters Dining Hall. 2014 will be the 7th year he will be contributing artwork to the Coalition’s annual fundraiser, a 3D Picasso print collage commissioned by the de Young Museum for their Picasso exhibit.
Rio Yañez, born and raised in San Francisco’s Mission District, is a curator, photographer, and graphic artist. As an artist he has exhibited his work from San Francisco to Tokyo and created artwork installations for Jean Paul Gaultier’s touring exhibit The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk. His Bay Area solo exhibitions include Pocho Adventure Club at GalerÃa de la Raza in San Francisco, Cholas to Picasso: The 3D Artworks of Rio Yañez at Asterisk Gallery, Bubblegum Crisis at Ginger Rubio Salon and Pochos & Pixels at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Multicultural Center.
Yañez is a curator of more than 10 exhibitions. As with his curatorial work, a part of Yañez’ visual art practice is dedicated to exploring how Chicano and Asian Youth have used social media to exchange aesthetics and language. In addition to creating graphic art, Yañez is a founding member of the Great Tortilla Conspiracy, the world’s first and only tortilla art collective. As a tortilla artist he silkscreens art and political graphics onto tortillas using edible inks and serves them to eat to the public as interventionist performance art. Yañez' recent projects include self-publishing board games designed around Chicano pop culture icons and a collaborative series of portraits with activist and performer April Flores.
ABOUT SOMARTS CULTURAL CENTER
SOMArts (South of Market Arts, Resources, Technology, and Services) was founded in 1979 and operates the South of Market Cultural Center, one of four city-owned cultural facilities in San Francisco. SOMArts produces and supports exhibitions, performances, classes and other collaborations that serve its mission: to promote and nurture art on the community level and foster an appreciation of and respect for all cultures.
SOMArts exhibition programs are supported by the Community Arts and Education Program of the San Francisco Arts Commission and The San Francisco Foundation, and are sponsored in part by a grant from Grants for the Arts.
For more information about upcoming events, space rentals and technical services, visit www.somarts.org or call 415-863-1414.