ECCE EGO – By literally kissing Chris Isner’s feet, Refusalon has lured the prodigal Bay Area Artist back from the jungles, back from long, bloody exile, back into the fold for a quasi-retrospective spanning the last quarter century garnished with the unbelievable stories of the work’s genesis. ECCE EGO means “check me out” in Latin, probably with an unhealthy dose of Messiah Complex thrown in, or more likely its antithesis. SF ArtWeek once characterized Isner as being “firmly entrenched under the banner of the Black Knight, providing an all-too-tangible viewport into the abyss.” Eerily prophetic given that twenty years later, Isner’s next work will apparently be the last great work of art ever for the mere fact that it will annihilate the Universe. Funny stuff lol until you get a look at his eyes and a cold certainty that he isn’t joking.
“There is one reason to make art,” Isner tells us. “Work made for any other is that of a dilettante. Lack of choice speaks of a madness which is power and humans react to power with fear, always, so at the core of great art is great fear, our sublimated terror. You can see it if you close your eyes and look; only fools claim to see nothing.” To artists, Isner warns, “If comforts concern you, if you are unscarred and unwilling to do great violence to your own mind, then I have no sympathy for your delusion that you’re an artist.”
FOLLOW – There is nothing intrinsically creepy about walking down the street while a stranger walks ahead of you, but point a camera at that person's back, taking shot after shot as you follow, and you are a stalker. Tamir Karta’s Follow series is both creepy and beautiful. The central figures of the stranger being followed, awash in layered, time-lapsed backgrounds, become a distillation of obsessive intent, the visual constant in the photo anchoring the viewer's own fixation. As we shift back and forth between staring at the victim’s back and deciphering the chaotic time-lapse, it is as if we are complicit in the stalker's pursuit or at least silent, helpless witness to the lead-up for whatever tragedy may take place. Karta takes us along with him and the effect is mesmerizing, both seductive and repellent.
UNSEEN PARTICULARS – Katherine Kaslauskas’ work inhabits the space between light and shadow, simultaneously directing these elements and being subsumed by them. Her fused glass grids, pushed to the limit of fragility’s distraction, are connected together and suspended in a dark room, lit like jewels by LED lights on black, snaky appendages pointing from the ceiling, casting tangled, organic shadows on the walls and floor. The space is transformed into something otherworldly; silent and serene yet pulsating with life and, as with the rest of the show, both eerie and beautiful.
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“There is one reason to make art,” Isner tells us. “Work made for any other is that of a dilettante. Lack of choice speaks of a madness which is power and humans react to power with fear, always, so at the core of great art is great fear, our sublimated terror. You can see it if you close your eyes and look; only fools claim to see nothing.” To artists, Isner warns, “If comforts concern you, if you are unscarred and unwilling to do great violence to your own mind, then I have no sympathy for your delusion that you’re an artist.”
FOLLOW – There is nothing intrinsically creepy about walking down the street while a stranger walks ahead of you, but point a camera at that person's back, taking shot after shot as you follow, and you are a stalker. Tamir Karta’s Follow series is both creepy and beautiful. The central figures of the stranger being followed, awash in layered, time-lapsed backgrounds, become a distillation of obsessive intent, the visual constant in the photo anchoring the viewer's own fixation. As we shift back and forth between staring at the victim’s back and deciphering the chaotic time-lapse, it is as if we are complicit in the stalker's pursuit or at least silent, helpless witness to the lead-up for whatever tragedy may take place. Karta takes us along with him and the effect is mesmerizing, both seductive and repellent.
UNSEEN PARTICULARS – Katherine Kaslauskas’ work inhabits the space between light and shadow, simultaneously directing these elements and being subsumed by them. Her fused glass grids, pushed to the limit of fragility’s distraction, are connected together and suspended in a dark room, lit like jewels by LED lights on black, snaky appendages pointing from the ceiling, casting tangled, organic shadows on the walls and floor. The space is transformed into something otherworldly; silent and serene yet pulsating with life and, as with the rest of the show, both eerie and beautiful.
ECCE EGO – By literally kissing Chris Isner’s feet, Refusalon has lured the prodigal Bay Area Artist back from the jungles, back from long, bloody exile, back into the fold for a quasi-retrospective spanning the last quarter century garnished with the unbelievable stories of the work’s genesis. ECCE EGO means “check me out” in Latin, probably with an unhealthy dose of Messiah Complex thrown in, or more likely its antithesis. SF ArtWeek once characterized Isner as being “firmly entrenched under the banner of the Black Knight, providing an all-too-tangible viewport into the abyss.” Eerily prophetic given that twenty years later, Isner’s next work will apparently be the last great work of art ever for the mere fact that it will annihilate the Universe. Funny stuff lol until you get a look at his eyes and a cold certainty that he isn’t joking.
“There is one reason to make art,” Isner tells us. “Work made for any other is that of a dilettante. Lack of choice speaks of a madness which is power and humans react to power with fear, always, so at the core of great art is great fear, our sublimated terror. You can see it if you close your eyes and look; only fools claim to see nothing.” To artists, Isner warns, “If comforts concern you, if you are unscarred and unwilling to do great violence to your own mind, then I have no sympathy for your delusion that you’re an artist.”
FOLLOW – There is nothing intrinsically creepy about walking down the street while a stranger walks ahead of you, but point a camera at that person's back, taking shot after shot as you follow, and you are a stalker. Tamir Karta’s Follow series is both creepy and beautiful. The central figures of the stranger being followed, awash in layered, time-lapsed backgrounds, become a distillation of obsessive intent, the visual constant in the photo anchoring the viewer's own fixation. As we shift back and forth between staring at the victim’s back and deciphering the chaotic time-lapse, it is as if we are complicit in the stalker's pursuit or at least silent, helpless witness to the lead-up for whatever tragedy may take place. Karta takes us along with him and the effect is mesmerizing, both seductive and repellent.
UNSEEN PARTICULARS – Katherine Kaslauskas’ work inhabits the space between light and shadow, simultaneously directing these elements and being subsumed by them. Her fused glass grids, pushed to the limit of fragility’s distraction, are connected together and suspended in a dark room, lit like jewels by LED lights on black, snaky appendages pointing from the ceiling, casting tangled, organic shadows on the walls and floor. The space is transformed into something otherworldly; silent and serene yet pulsating with life and, as with the rest of the show, both eerie and beautiful.
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“There is one reason to make art,” Isner tells us. “Work made for any other is that of a dilettante. Lack of choice speaks of a madness which is power and humans react to power with fear, always, so at the core of great art is great fear, our sublimated terror. You can see it if you close your eyes and look; only fools claim to see nothing.” To artists, Isner warns, “If comforts concern you, if you are unscarred and unwilling to do great violence to your own mind, then I have no sympathy for your delusion that you’re an artist.”
FOLLOW – There is nothing intrinsically creepy about walking down the street while a stranger walks ahead of you, but point a camera at that person's back, taking shot after shot as you follow, and you are a stalker. Tamir Karta’s Follow series is both creepy and beautiful. The central figures of the stranger being followed, awash in layered, time-lapsed backgrounds, become a distillation of obsessive intent, the visual constant in the photo anchoring the viewer's own fixation. As we shift back and forth between staring at the victim’s back and deciphering the chaotic time-lapse, it is as if we are complicit in the stalker's pursuit or at least silent, helpless witness to the lead-up for whatever tragedy may take place. Karta takes us along with him and the effect is mesmerizing, both seductive and repellent.
UNSEEN PARTICULARS – Katherine Kaslauskas’ work inhabits the space between light and shadow, simultaneously directing these elements and being subsumed by them. Her fused glass grids, pushed to the limit of fragility’s distraction, are connected together and suspended in a dark room, lit like jewels by LED lights on black, snaky appendages pointing from the ceiling, casting tangled, organic shadows on the walls and floor. The space is transformed into something otherworldly; silent and serene yet pulsating with life and, as with the rest of the show, both eerie and beautiful.
show less
Date/Times:
Refusalon
721 Commercial Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
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