2 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Lay of the Land' at Root Division
'Lay of the Land' features 14 Bay Area-based artists making work about the environment. Co-curated by Naomi Alessandra Schultz, Julianna Heller and Eleanor Scholz O'Leary, the show includes painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, textiles, installation, collage and assemblage. The works on view seek to 're-engage nature and place through personal histories' with featured artists including Jeremiah Barber, Shao-Feng Hsu, Sun Park and Catherine Wang McMahon.
The exhibition is partly inspired by the philosophy of Finnish new media theorist and professor in digital aesthetics Jussi Parikka, who wrote '[Art practice benefits] from unfocusing; to train oneself to observe what appears out of sight … to cultivate an understanding of the structural complexity and agency of our environment.'
By employing methods akin to Parikka's idea of unfocused observing, each artist seeks to be attuned to the unseen in landscapes, and 'Lay of the Land' hopes to offer unique ways of experiencing environments through art.
