'Sittings' is a solo exhibition of the work of Bay Area artist David Wilson on view May 1-July 31, 2021. Wilson began a four month artist-in-residency in February 2021, the House's first such long term residency.
Three mornings a week, Bay Area artist David Wilson climbs a hidden ladder through the attic of The David Ireland House at 500 Capp Street to the roof where he perches on the steep peak to draw the same eastward view of the surrounding neighborhood. Wilson, who creates observational drawings based on direct experiences with landscape and orchestrates site-based gatherings, is The David Ireland House's first long term artist-in-residence. Given free rein to investigate the House on his own as it remained closed due to the pandemic, Wilson was immediately drawn to the roof. For Wilson, it is a place to contemplate the vacillation between the interior and exterior, a way to heighten his sense of where he is, and a means of situating artist David Ireland's historic home turned work of art within the neighborhood.
This May 1 through July 31, 2021, the results of Wilson's 4-month exploration of the House, its archive, and the streets around it will be on display in a new exhibition entitled Sittings. The free exhibition encompasses an installation of his work within the rooms of the House, often in conversation with objects of interest from the Ireland archive, and the transformation of the House's garage into a street-accessible space where visitors can pick up maps to sites of neighborhood intervention where they are invited to sit, discover small artist-created offerings, and leave their own mark on the project.
In this way, Wilson offers a constellation of independent experiences that result in a shared intimacy--while remaining safely apart--as a unique opportunity to 'convene' in a time when gathering is discouraged.
On many levels, Wilson's art practice shares kinship with Ireland's. Informed by place and a process of discovery, Wilson engages in conceptual gestures and makes work to draw attention to everyday spaces and accidental places.
Particularly meaningful in the early days of his residency, which began February 1, was an encounter Wilson had with a small red notebook that Ireland titled David Ireland's House (1980). In it, Ireland writes about an epiphany he had after hearing an art history lecturer say of the work of architect Louis I. Kahn, "He wanted his buildings to look like they had not been designed." "There it was and those words stiffened me in my chair," Ireland wrote in the notebook. "I could test these words against everything that I had been thinking about in the past months. I could look at my work and ask myself if I had designed it or altered it from its existing perfection. Had I done more to it than simply give it fuel or a life of its own?"
"It was a perfect first encounter," says Wilson. "It's very personal and has stuck with me--this question of how you can reveal, excavate, and peel layers to pursue the intrinsic qualities of a thing. It's what I aim to do in my work."
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Three mornings a week, Bay Area artist David Wilson climbs a hidden ladder through the attic of The David Ireland House at 500 Capp Street to the roof where he perches on the steep peak to draw the same eastward view of the surrounding neighborhood. Wilson, who creates observational drawings based on direct experiences with landscape and orchestrates site-based gatherings, is The David Ireland House's first long term artist-in-residence. Given free rein to investigate the House on his own as it remained closed due to the pandemic, Wilson was immediately drawn to the roof. For Wilson, it is a place to contemplate the vacillation between the interior and exterior, a way to heighten his sense of where he is, and a means of situating artist David Ireland's historic home turned work of art within the neighborhood.
This May 1 through July 31, 2021, the results of Wilson's 4-month exploration of the House, its archive, and the streets around it will be on display in a new exhibition entitled Sittings. The free exhibition encompasses an installation of his work within the rooms of the House, often in conversation with objects of interest from the Ireland archive, and the transformation of the House's garage into a street-accessible space where visitors can pick up maps to sites of neighborhood intervention where they are invited to sit, discover small artist-created offerings, and leave their own mark on the project.
In this way, Wilson offers a constellation of independent experiences that result in a shared intimacy--while remaining safely apart--as a unique opportunity to 'convene' in a time when gathering is discouraged.
On many levels, Wilson's art practice shares kinship with Ireland's. Informed by place and a process of discovery, Wilson engages in conceptual gestures and makes work to draw attention to everyday spaces and accidental places.
Particularly meaningful in the early days of his residency, which began February 1, was an encounter Wilson had with a small red notebook that Ireland titled David Ireland's House (1980). In it, Ireland writes about an epiphany he had after hearing an art history lecturer say of the work of architect Louis I. Kahn, "He wanted his buildings to look like they had not been designed." "There it was and those words stiffened me in my chair," Ireland wrote in the notebook. "I could test these words against everything that I had been thinking about in the past months. I could look at my work and ask myself if I had designed it or altered it from its existing perfection. Had I done more to it than simply give it fuel or a life of its own?"
"It was a perfect first encounter," says Wilson. "It's very personal and has stuck with me--this question of how you can reveal, excavate, and peel layers to pursue the intrinsic qualities of a thing. It's what I aim to do in my work."
'Sittings' is a solo exhibition of the work of Bay Area artist David Wilson on view May 1-July 31, 2021. Wilson began a four month artist-in-residency in February 2021, the House's first such long term residency.
Three mornings a week, Bay Area artist David Wilson climbs a hidden ladder through the attic of The David Ireland House at 500 Capp Street to the roof where he perches on the steep peak to draw the same eastward view of the surrounding neighborhood. Wilson, who creates observational drawings based on direct experiences with landscape and orchestrates site-based gatherings, is The David Ireland House's first long term artist-in-residence. Given free rein to investigate the House on his own as it remained closed due to the pandemic, Wilson was immediately drawn to the roof. For Wilson, it is a place to contemplate the vacillation between the interior and exterior, a way to heighten his sense of where he is, and a means of situating artist David Ireland's historic home turned work of art within the neighborhood.
This May 1 through July 31, 2021, the results of Wilson's 4-month exploration of the House, its archive, and the streets around it will be on display in a new exhibition entitled Sittings. The free exhibition encompasses an installation of his work within the rooms of the House, often in conversation with objects of interest from the Ireland archive, and the transformation of the House's garage into a street-accessible space where visitors can pick up maps to sites of neighborhood intervention where they are invited to sit, discover small artist-created offerings, and leave their own mark on the project.
In this way, Wilson offers a constellation of independent experiences that result in a shared intimacy--while remaining safely apart--as a unique opportunity to 'convene' in a time when gathering is discouraged.
On many levels, Wilson's art practice shares kinship with Ireland's. Informed by place and a process of discovery, Wilson engages in conceptual gestures and makes work to draw attention to everyday spaces and accidental places.
Particularly meaningful in the early days of his residency, which began February 1, was an encounter Wilson had with a small red notebook that Ireland titled David Ireland's House (1980). In it, Ireland writes about an epiphany he had after hearing an art history lecturer say of the work of architect Louis I. Kahn, "He wanted his buildings to look like they had not been designed." "There it was and those words stiffened me in my chair," Ireland wrote in the notebook. "I could test these words against everything that I had been thinking about in the past months. I could look at my work and ask myself if I had designed it or altered it from its existing perfection. Had I done more to it than simply give it fuel or a life of its own?"
"It was a perfect first encounter," says Wilson. "It's very personal and has stuck with me--this question of how you can reveal, excavate, and peel layers to pursue the intrinsic qualities of a thing. It's what I aim to do in my work."
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Three mornings a week, Bay Area artist David Wilson climbs a hidden ladder through the attic of The David Ireland House at 500 Capp Street to the roof where he perches on the steep peak to draw the same eastward view of the surrounding neighborhood. Wilson, who creates observational drawings based on direct experiences with landscape and orchestrates site-based gatherings, is The David Ireland House's first long term artist-in-residence. Given free rein to investigate the House on his own as it remained closed due to the pandemic, Wilson was immediately drawn to the roof. For Wilson, it is a place to contemplate the vacillation between the interior and exterior, a way to heighten his sense of where he is, and a means of situating artist David Ireland's historic home turned work of art within the neighborhood.
This May 1 through July 31, 2021, the results of Wilson's 4-month exploration of the House, its archive, and the streets around it will be on display in a new exhibition entitled Sittings. The free exhibition encompasses an installation of his work within the rooms of the House, often in conversation with objects of interest from the Ireland archive, and the transformation of the House's garage into a street-accessible space where visitors can pick up maps to sites of neighborhood intervention where they are invited to sit, discover small artist-created offerings, and leave their own mark on the project.
In this way, Wilson offers a constellation of independent experiences that result in a shared intimacy--while remaining safely apart--as a unique opportunity to 'convene' in a time when gathering is discouraged.
On many levels, Wilson's art practice shares kinship with Ireland's. Informed by place and a process of discovery, Wilson engages in conceptual gestures and makes work to draw attention to everyday spaces and accidental places.
Particularly meaningful in the early days of his residency, which began February 1, was an encounter Wilson had with a small red notebook that Ireland titled David Ireland's House (1980). In it, Ireland writes about an epiphany he had after hearing an art history lecturer say of the work of architect Louis I. Kahn, "He wanted his buildings to look like they had not been designed." "There it was and those words stiffened me in my chair," Ireland wrote in the notebook. "I could test these words against everything that I had been thinking about in the past months. I could look at my work and ask myself if I had designed it or altered it from its existing perfection. Had I done more to it than simply give it fuel or a life of its own?"
"It was a perfect first encounter," says Wilson. "It's very personal and has stuck with me--this question of how you can reveal, excavate, and peel layers to pursue the intrinsic qualities of a thing. It's what I aim to do in my work."
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500 Capp Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
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