Bartalos

Waste management is a high priority on the Ice and is practiced in accordance with the Antarctic Treaty. Learn more on my Antarctic Long View blog.

Projections 8, the latest in my Projections series, features colored acrylic panels much like Projections 6. This one however is more layered, with an embedded mirror. The piece will hang from the wall in its final state.

The Long View is a research-based project about the history and current practice of waste management in Antarctica. My LV sketchbook is an integral part of the project: it’s a space to experiment with visually elaborating on the practice, challenges, progress, and importance of keeping Antarctica clean.

Projections 7, a follow-up to Projections 6, is a new work in progress. It’s part of series that explores line, color, and transformation in regards to changing light.

My video installation, Mission : East, is part of Introductions 2015, the current exhibition at Root Division. The piece, documented above, occupies a wall alcove on the east wall of the gallery. The show is up until July 25.

I’m pleased to be part of Introductions 2015 at San Francisco’s Root Division, showcasing thirteen Bay Area artists. The exhibition dates are July 1-25 with an opening reception on Saturday July 11 from 7-10 P.M.

Projections 6 is a recent wall piece made from wood, thread, and colored acrylic panels. Like previous works in this series, the sculpture suggests multiple concepts around ‘projection’ — that of physical protrusion as well as cast images and shadows that create a virtual, extended space.

It also deals with line, which appears in three weights: The first and heaviest is formed by the wooden frame, the second is produced by the acrylic’s luminous edges, and the third is traced by a fine thread running throughout the composition.

Optically-mixed colors change with viewers’ perspectives as they move around the translucent panels. When lit by natural light, the shadows shift over time as well.

My newest sketchbook page references the optical spectrum of the sun and its spectral lines of varying colors. Read about it on my Antarctic Long View Project blog.

Escandón : West / Mission : East / Headlands : North / SoMa : South is the title of the video installation I contributed to Build It Up/Break It Down, the Graduate Fellowship exhibition at the Headlands Center for the Arts, on view through June 7.

The installation is comprised of four looping time-lapse videos chronicling the sun’s path as shot through an array of shifting fabrics in four different locations. The translucent fabrics, shot against windows, migrate across one another to produce optically mixed colors while revealing glimpses of life outside. The sequences serve as meditations on light, architecture, the poetics of color, and the transitory nature of our surroundings, including changing neighborhoods and the idea of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders.’

As the title suggests, the four videos depict windows facing four different directions. Escandón : West captures sunset in Mexico City, Mission : East features San Francisco’s Valencia Street, Headlands : North utilizes Marin’s coastal light, and SoMa : South offers up SF’s Mission Street.

In the Headlands installation, the projections match the directions in which the videos were shot, creating a four-screen semi-enclosure. The screens are translucent, viewable from either side, blending disparate geographical locations into one another and bringing the notion of ‘inside’ and outside’ into question. As viewers circulate among the screens, they might reflect on how time is divided, space is measured, and boundaries are defined in a world where such divisions are often porous and disputed.

Build It Up/Break It Down was guest curated by Zoë Taleporos, Public Art Program Associate for the San Francisco Arts Commission and Co-Director of Royal NoneSuch Gallery in Oakland. The exhibition includes work by Heather Engen, Joyce Nojima, Vicci Jang, Lauren McKeon, Joy Fritz, and Sarah Ammons. It is located in Building 945’s Project Space on the 3rd floor and the hours are Sunday through Thursday, 12 noon-5 PM. Zoë’s curator statement can be found here.

Long View Sketchbook Page 048 addresses the role of shape and form in conveying ideas in data and art. Learn more at my Long View Project blog hosted by the California Academy of Sciences.