The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers

Small Talk #22 - Claire Fontaine

When
Tue Jun 2, 2009
Where
California College of the Arts - San Francisco Campus
Time
7-8 p.m.
Tags
Arts, Galleries, Mixed Media, Artists

Description

French artist Claire Fontaine’s practice responds to a feeling of political impotency in contemporary culture and is motivated by the history of radical protest, particularly the Paris student uprisings of May 1968. However Fontaine’s work does not only directly relate to the politics of the late 1960s, she also consciously references artwork from the same period. Situating her practice in this way functions less as nostalgia for a specific historical moment, and more as a reminder of a time when art carried an urgent political message. Equivalent VIII (2007) is composed of bricks wrapped in book covers from texts of radical literature. Referencing the bricks thrown by the 1968 Paris protesters, these texts are symbolically and literally, turned into a device of dissent. An homage to Carl Andre’s Equivalent VIII (1966), this work also merges political activism with a formal minimalist statement. Fontaine is similarly influenced by the social anarchist idea that ownership is theft.

More Info

Link
http://wattis.org
Call
415.551.9210
Email
Contact Form (account required)

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