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One-night-only luminous art exhibition with performances takes over SOMArts, indoors and out, and embodies the spirit of activism alive in Bay Area alternative spaces 

"I Gave Myself Space to Come Back," 2014, Yetunde Olagbaju, click here to download a high-res version

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jess Young, Director of Communications
& Community Engagement
415-863-1414 x112 • jess@somarts.org

SOMArts Cultural Center Presents

NIGHT LIGHT: MULTIMEDIA GARDEN PARTY
A one-night-only luminous art exhibition with performances in homage to the Bay Area’s rabble-rousers, trouble-makers, independents and outliers
Ticketed event Saturday, July 18, 2015, 8:30pm–midnight

San Francisco, CA, June 4, 2015— One-night-only, Saturday, July 18, 2015, performances 9pm to midnight, galleries open at 8:30pm, Night Light: Multimedia Garden Party blankets SOMArts Cultural Center in luminous art installations, including audiovisual performances and performative interventions by 27 artists, and digital and cinematic projections by 30 artists.

Now in its fifth year, Night Light utilizes SOMArts’ post-industrial indoor space and grounds, including the garden path, street-side loading bay, theater, Bay Gallery and Main Gallery to display a multitude of applications of light in art. This year Night Light evolves in a new direction: as an homage to the Bay Area’s rabble-rousers, trouble-makers, independents and outliers in conjunction with Making a Scene: 50 Years of Alternative Bay Area Spaces, an exhibition on view in SOMArts’ Main Gallery July 9 through August 20, 2015.

Making a Scene spotlights a rich history of Bay Area artist-run, independent and alternative spaces, as well as the pioneers and contemporary trailblazers of social justice who utilized these spaces as a catalyst and megaphone. For more information about Making a Scene, as well as a distinct list of visual artists whose work will also be on view in that exhibition during Night Light, visit www.somarts.org/makingascene.

Night Light centers a series of robust, sometimes overlapping performances and site-specific art installations that activate SOMArts post-industrial space with the spirit of activism, embodying the idea of “making a scene” in opposition to the status quo and uniting communities in pursuit of social justice.

Rashad aka Soul Nubian leads “The Urban Masquerade Parade".  This ancient tradition of the Masquerade is found in many parts of the world as masked performance and spectacle. The parade will consist of dancers, live drum instrumentation and a DJ. This performative ritual will awaken the legacy of forgotten Bay Area performers, including Sylvester, Ed Mock, Marlon Riggs and other trailblazing artists.

In a durational performance, Alice Cunt embodies the role of a sex worker discovering the power of her body through dance, gesture and movement while flipping through channels of the prerecorded past and live feeds of the present. Perspectives of struggle and survival, the power of sex and the threat of violence, particularly violence against sex workers, women, trans people and queers, will be illuminated.

Tooth, filmmaker, and Sophia Wang, movement artist and writer, collaborate on a performance/installation, circling around the works of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and the material and immaterial residue of language. Fragments and concepts from Cha’s experiments with text, performance, and film serve both as source material and point of departure for a movement/expanded cinema piece made with the techniques of "cinema povera," which include using discarded industrial film stripped of the original images and printed over with a direct animation method using xerox copy machines. The result is a new image with elements of both immediacy and impermanence.

Frida Ibarra offers “Our Home is On Fire,” a song performed live that features her vocals, synth and other electronic sounds. Inspired by the recent apartment fires in the Mission District of San Francisco, which rendered many families and individuals of color homeless, this performance expresses the oppression shared throughout multiple communities and identities in the Bay Area.  

Pr3ssPlay Poets [sic], an all-female poetry, spoken word and theatrical performance collective and production organization, performs “The State of Black Bodies,” directed by Mona Webb, as an exploration of issues regarding the current state of Blackness in America, and traces the shifting nature of Blackness throughout history. In addition, it explores the intersections of the "Black body" as a target, and as triumph, the conditioning of Black male, female, and queer bodies in service of white supremacy, and the collective desire to be freed from its talons. 

Karen Seneferu exhibits “Black Lives Matter: From Fruitvale to Ferguson,” video documentation in tribute to Oscar Grant, Treyvon Martin, Andy Lopez, Alejandro Nieto, Renisha McBride, Akai Gurley, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamar Rice, and hundreds of people of color who have been killed by police officers, security guards, and vigilantes. Seneferu said, “The video challenges the idea of gazing out and into the eyes of others who refuse to recognize the genocide occurring in these communities by the judicial system.”

Black Salt Collective projects an animation made by the collective alongside with abstract footage of sunsets, landscapes, and textures taken from their experimental narrative film titled, “The Initiation.” The Collective will also showcase a collaborative, self-standing painted and collaged sculpture made of plaster, wood, and fabric. With the idea of performance and ritual in mind, the installation will serve as a living, breathing archive, and a preview of what audiences will see in their SOMArts Commons Curatorial Residency exhibition, Visions into Infinite Archives, on view at SOMArts in January 2016.

Night Light veteran Andy Puls offers an immersive sound and video installation piece inside a tent that provides an immersive experience of live-synchronized, responsive light and sound. When the viewer enters the tent, video and music is generated in a live feedback loop.
 

Night Light Exhibiting Artists:
AAU B.Architecture Studio
Alex Cruse
Auden Lincoln-Vogel
Black Salt Collective
Brittney Kathee-Adams
Eli Coplan
Elia Vargas
Flower Pattern
HLOVE
Jeremiah Barber
Justin Clifford Rhody
Karen Seneferu
Kulture Freedom
Lino
Malidoma Collective
Malik Seneferu
MJ Bernier
NIGHTSHADE
Paul Clipson
Sarah Rosalena Brady
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
The Living Room Project
Will Erokan
Yetunde Olagbaju
Zeina Barakeh
 
Night Light Performing Artists:
AfroFoniX
Aja
Alice Cunt
Andy Puls
Annie Sprinkle
Anthony Julius Williams
Arnetta Smith
Aten
Beth Stephens
Big Gay Warehouse
Black Magic Arts Collective
Chelsea Elisabeth
Choke
Craig Baldwin
D. FAUST
Diosa
Embodiment Project
Frida
Ibn B.
Kevin Seaman
Kolmel W Love
LeVICE
Lisa Ganser
New Circus
Nomy Lamm
Pale Breast
Pr3ssPlay Poets
Quiet Lightning
Russell Butler
Sharmi Basu
Sophia Wang
Stephanie Lister
Sunru
The Urban Masquerade Parade
thePeople Oakland
Tooth
Wreath of Flowers
YGB Sheroes

Night Light was curated by Melorra Green and Kelsey McCurdy with support from Alejandro Archuleta, Ed Dahl, Melonie Green, Rebecca Struch, and Elia Vargas.

Making a Scene was curated by Melorra Green with Sandra Ramirez and Roula Seikaly. Exhibition historical consultation and archival material was contributed by Tom Marioni, Chip Lord of Media Burn, John Held, Bayview Opera House, Mission Cultural Center, and San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.

CALENDAR LISTING

What: Night Light: Multimedia Garden Party
When: Saturday, July 18, performances 9pm–midnight, galleries open at 8:30pm
Where: SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St. (at 8th)
How Much: $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Tickets: http://nightlightparty.eventbrite.com
More info: http://www.somarts.org/nightlight2015

What: Making a Scene: 50 Years of Alternative Bay Area Spaces
When: Exhibition July 9–August 20, 2015. Gallery hours: Tues–Fri, 12–7pm and Sat, 12–5pm. Opening reception with performances and artist talks July 9, 2015, 6–9pm.
Where: SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St. (at 8th)
How Much: Free admission during gallery hours and opening reception
More info: http://www.somarts.org/makingascene

ABOUT SOMARTS:
SOMArts Cultural Center, founded in 1979, cultivates access to the arts within the Bay Area by collaborating with community-focused artists and organizations. Together, we engage the power of the arts to provoke just and fair inclusion, cultural respect, and civic participation.SOMArts plays a vital role in the arts ecosystem by helping activate the arts citywide. We do this by providing space and production support for non-profit events, as well as fairs and festivals throughout the Bay Area, and offering a robust program of art exhibitions, classes, events and performances that are affordable and accessible to all.

SOMArts is located at 934 Brannan Street—between 8th and 9th—within 2 blocks of 101, I-80, Muni lines and bike paths. For public information call 415-863-1414 or visit somarts.org. Stay connected by following us on Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.

For more information about upcoming events, space rentals and neighborhood arts services, visit www.somarts.org or call 415-863-1414. SOMArts’ exhibition programs receive critical support from the San Francisco Arts Commission and The San Francisco Foundation, and are sponsored in part by a grant from Grants for the Arts. Making a Scene is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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"Agglab," courtesy of the artist AAU B.Architecture Studio, click here to download a high-res version
Image courtesy of the artist NIGHTSHADE, click here to download a high-res version
Image courtesy of the artist Sunru, pictured, click here to download a high-res version
Image courtesy of Diosa, click here to download a high-res version
Animation Stills from Scenarios of Breaking Down a Wall courtesy of Zeina Barakeh, click here to download a high-res version
Copyright © 2015 SOMArts Cultural Center, All rights reserved.


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