Sat September 30, 2017
Blasphemies: Manny Robertson// Opening Reception
SEE EVENT DETAILS
at The Convent Arts Collective
(see times)
Conventional Projects is pleased to present Blasphemies, our inaugural show and Manny Robertson’s debut solo exhibition since earning their MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.
To blaspheme is to curse, to desecrate with words. Or, rather, to blaspheme is to show a lack of reverence for God, to take lightly that which is sacred. (Just joshin’, God, don’t fret!) The intent is more important than the activity itself—or, rather, that depends on who is interpreting the activity. Blasphemy is always indexed to a defiled “sacred,” and also always to the era and system delimiting that “sacred.” We find ourselves in a moment when irreverence, “free speech,” and hate speech are ugly bedfellows.
This exhibition, which takes place in the chapel of a former nunnery, features Robertson’s Droids, enormous gilded icons, alongside new site-responsive installations. The immaculate, genderfuck, racially indecipherable divinities gaze serenely and pose effortlessly. They have no need to blurt out curses; their very existence rattles the ideological scaffolding that is signed all around them, into the stained glass of the convent and into the city itself. This blasphemy is queer, anti-racist, liberatory, and sensual. This blasphemy does not simply negate; it offers new imaginaries, ones that are especially vital in a city so dense with techno-futures being dreamed up by white people.
Manny Robertson (b. 1992, Brownsville, OR) received their MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2017. Working in photography, digital collage, ceramic, fiber, and GIFs, Robertson’s practice draws on visual tropes of science fiction to trace intersections of spiritual-mysticism, QPOC identity, and “technology.” Robertson is a recipient of the Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Arts Award (2016). The artist lives and works in Berkeley.
Blasphemies is co-curated by Natasha Matteson and Ariella Robinson.
Conventional Projects is a trans-disciplinarian inter-media discourse aimed at creating spaces for voices marginalized by the industrial-gallery complex. It is currently based out of The Convent Arts Collective, a 24 person live-work space located in a disused nunnery.
show less
To blaspheme is to curse, to desecrate with words. Or, rather, to blaspheme is to show a lack of reverence for God, to take lightly that which is sacred. (Just joshin’, God, don’t fret!) The intent is more important than the activity itself—or, rather, that depends on who is interpreting the activity. Blasphemy is always indexed to a defiled “sacred,” and also always to the era and system delimiting that “sacred.” We find ourselves in a moment when irreverence, “free speech,” and hate speech are ugly bedfellows.
This exhibition, which takes place in the chapel of a former nunnery, features Robertson’s Droids, enormous gilded icons, alongside new site-responsive installations. The immaculate, genderfuck, racially indecipherable divinities gaze serenely and pose effortlessly. They have no need to blurt out curses; their very existence rattles the ideological scaffolding that is signed all around them, into the stained glass of the convent and into the city itself. This blasphemy is queer, anti-racist, liberatory, and sensual. This blasphemy does not simply negate; it offers new imaginaries, ones that are especially vital in a city so dense with techno-futures being dreamed up by white people.
Manny Robertson (b. 1992, Brownsville, OR) received their MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2017. Working in photography, digital collage, ceramic, fiber, and GIFs, Robertson’s practice draws on visual tropes of science fiction to trace intersections of spiritual-mysticism, QPOC identity, and “technology.” Robertson is a recipient of the Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Arts Award (2016). The artist lives and works in Berkeley.
Blasphemies is co-curated by Natasha Matteson and Ariella Robinson.
Conventional Projects is a trans-disciplinarian inter-media discourse aimed at creating spaces for voices marginalized by the industrial-gallery complex. It is currently based out of The Convent Arts Collective, a 24 person live-work space located in a disused nunnery.
Conventional Projects is pleased to present Blasphemies, our inaugural show and Manny Robertson’s debut solo exhibition since earning their MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.
To blaspheme is to curse, to desecrate with words. Or, rather, to blaspheme is to show a lack of reverence for God, to take lightly that which is sacred. (Just joshin’, God, don’t fret!) The intent is more important than the activity itself—or, rather, that depends on who is interpreting the activity. Blasphemy is always indexed to a defiled “sacred,” and also always to the era and system delimiting that “sacred.” We find ourselves in a moment when irreverence, “free speech,” and hate speech are ugly bedfellows.
This exhibition, which takes place in the chapel of a former nunnery, features Robertson’s Droids, enormous gilded icons, alongside new site-responsive installations. The immaculate, genderfuck, racially indecipherable divinities gaze serenely and pose effortlessly. They have no need to blurt out curses; their very existence rattles the ideological scaffolding that is signed all around them, into the stained glass of the convent and into the city itself. This blasphemy is queer, anti-racist, liberatory, and sensual. This blasphemy does not simply negate; it offers new imaginaries, ones that are especially vital in a city so dense with techno-futures being dreamed up by white people.
Manny Robertson (b. 1992, Brownsville, OR) received their MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2017. Working in photography, digital collage, ceramic, fiber, and GIFs, Robertson’s practice draws on visual tropes of science fiction to trace intersections of spiritual-mysticism, QPOC identity, and “technology.” Robertson is a recipient of the Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Arts Award (2016). The artist lives and works in Berkeley.
Blasphemies is co-curated by Natasha Matteson and Ariella Robinson.
Conventional Projects is a trans-disciplinarian inter-media discourse aimed at creating spaces for voices marginalized by the industrial-gallery complex. It is currently based out of The Convent Arts Collective, a 24 person live-work space located in a disused nunnery.
read more
To blaspheme is to curse, to desecrate with words. Or, rather, to blaspheme is to show a lack of reverence for God, to take lightly that which is sacred. (Just joshin’, God, don’t fret!) The intent is more important than the activity itself—or, rather, that depends on who is interpreting the activity. Blasphemy is always indexed to a defiled “sacred,” and also always to the era and system delimiting that “sacred.” We find ourselves in a moment when irreverence, “free speech,” and hate speech are ugly bedfellows.
This exhibition, which takes place in the chapel of a former nunnery, features Robertson’s Droids, enormous gilded icons, alongside new site-responsive installations. The immaculate, genderfuck, racially indecipherable divinities gaze serenely and pose effortlessly. They have no need to blurt out curses; their very existence rattles the ideological scaffolding that is signed all around them, into the stained glass of the convent and into the city itself. This blasphemy is queer, anti-racist, liberatory, and sensual. This blasphemy does not simply negate; it offers new imaginaries, ones that are especially vital in a city so dense with techno-futures being dreamed up by white people.
Manny Robertson (b. 1992, Brownsville, OR) received their MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2017. Working in photography, digital collage, ceramic, fiber, and GIFs, Robertson’s practice draws on visual tropes of science fiction to trace intersections of spiritual-mysticism, QPOC identity, and “technology.” Robertson is a recipient of the Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Arts Award (2016). The artist lives and works in Berkeley.
Blasphemies is co-curated by Natasha Matteson and Ariella Robinson.
Conventional Projects is a trans-disciplinarian inter-media discourse aimed at creating spaces for voices marginalized by the industrial-gallery complex. It is currently based out of The Convent Arts Collective, a 24 person live-work space located in a disused nunnery.
show less
Date/Times:
The Convent Arts Collective
660 Oak St., San Francisco, CA 94117
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