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A panel discussion with artists Weston Teruya and Jina Valentine, and invited panelists

5/6/2009 6:30pm
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PATRICIA SWEETOW GALLERY is pleased to present Weston Teruya, The Pull of Two Signs Rising Over the Land, drawings; Jina Valentine, Lot's Wife, drawings, installation; and a project by Arnold J. Kemp, (Them) Trees... (Them) Changes 2. Exhibition dates are May 2 through June 13, 2009. The artists' reception is Saturday, May 2, from 11:00am - 1pm.

On Wednesday, May 6, beginning at 6:30pm, PSG will present Speculative Fiction - Contradictory Narratives, a panel discussion with artists Weston Teruya and Jina Valentine, and invited panelists: Jerome Reyes - City Studio Faculty, San Francisco Art Institute; Gail Wight - Assoc. Prof., Director of Graduate Studies, Art Practice, Stanford University; Arnold J. Kemp - Artist, Writer, Curator; and James Merle Thomas - Department of Art History, Stanford University. All are welcome.

Weston Teruya's second one-person exhibition at PSG, The Pull of Two Signs Rising Over the Land, references two historic markers – one a men's golf club sign in Los Angeles, and the other a Dole cannery sign in Honolulu. The men's golf course sign conjures up a mixed history of restriction and privilege - the privilege available only to those who conformed to socio-economic, racial and religious proscription. To further confound its history, the golf course, though no longer restricted, still speaks symbolically of privilege, since it sits immediately adjacent to a juvenile detention facility. The Dole cannery sign is emblematic of ethnic and worker repression and exploitation. It currently sits as a ghost in an empty lot, truly the psychological space of restriction.

Teruya remarks, "...the golf course is now an open, co-gender public course and the plantation and mega-agricultural eras of Hawai’i have passed. But they continue to shape the social spaces of these locales as they are relics against which social progress continues to be mapped."

Teruya's works on paper are sourced from his own drawings, cut and collaged in a new composition. The refiguring of symbols such as wood barriers, golf carts, pineapples, marker flags, and fences recombine to form unexpected new meanings. Teruya's drawings tamper with social/political realities, speculating on issues of power, control, visibility, protection and, by contrast, privilege. He further states, "I am interested in collecting and collapsing the signals and objects of exclusion, separation and leisure. These images typically define and reinforce spaces of privilege through the creation of sites of control. The work is a speculative exercise of sorts. I am particularly interested in suggesting new fictive configurations which imagine new social possibilities or frustrate present political realities."

Jina Valentine presents Lot's Wife in her first exhibition at Patricia Sweetow Gallery. Lot's Wife refers to the story of Lot's wife, Irit, who was turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back upon the city of Sodom, a biblical metaphor for reverting back to sinful ways. For her exhibition, Valentine meticulously cuts and collages five works of paper, 5 Damned Cities, creating the calamity of "fire and brimstone" visited upon the cities by the Angels as ordered by God. Whereas the genesis of the exhibition is borrowed from biblical reference, the works convey a tongue-in-cheek playfulness. Valentine suggests, "There will be a Salt and Paper Pillar, which references the archeological/geological research devoted to proving the existence of Lot's Wife as a rock-salt formation."

In a world where biblical reference is cited to support the denigration and punishment of women, homosexuals, and any manner of human relations deemed out of step with those that adhere to literal biblical interpretations, Valentine's work presents a thoughtful recasting of parable into objects, imbued with fragility and beauty. In an attempt to allay the destruction of Sodom by the Angels, Lot offers the townspeople his daughters, who are virgins. The townspeople reject the offer, instead choosing the occupants of Lot's house, the Angels.

Arnold J. Kemp's photographs, (THEM) TREES... (THEM) CHANGES 2, originate from a project for the Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem Postcards. The Studio Museum’s ongoing series invites contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds to reflect on Harlem as a site for artistic contemplation and production. Arnold Kemp was invited to contribute his thoughts about Harlem, which are on view at the museum through June 28, 2009. For his project at PSG, Arnold J. Kemp is expanding his photographic thoughts. He explains, "In early winter late 2008, I spent a day chasing a snowflake, then walking from 125th Street to Sugar Hill in search of the address I found for Duke Ellington’s home (the tune ‘Take the A Train’ directing me this way and further). Along the way I found some trees, and then I returned to the spot three times in the next two weeks. This is an image where the relationship between structure and chance is intrinsic to the work and to my sense of a place with a very particular light."