INVISIBLE VENUE

Kimberlee Koym-Murteira

"99¢ Bubble" A site-specific project that combines installation, video, light, and fumes by Kimberlee Koym-Murteira

View by appointment April 6 - May 3, 2008 Email christian@invisiblevenue.com to make arrangements

In this site-specific collaboration with Invisible Venue, Kimberlee Koym-Murteira draws inspiration from the new 99¢ store down the street from the project space. Something of a phenomenon when it first opened to the public in 2007, this store is the only clean, well-lit market in the immediate area that offers local residents the opportunity to purchase inexpensive house wares, cleaning supplies, and basic staples, such as milk. Though the store offers a desirable alternative to the corner liquor stores that are outlying territory for drug dealers in West Oakland—lines formed around the block during the grand opening—the products themselves present a different set of concerns, such as the toxicity of their make-up to both the individuals who use them and the environment in general.

Kimberlee Koym-Murteira is largely concerned with every day rituals and domestic settings. In "99¢ Bubble" Koym-Murteira has combined various products purchased from the dollar store, such as a popular cleaning agent and scrubbing sponges, to create a dynamic mixed-media installation that visually implements bubbling liquids, streaming video, and vividly colored plastic house wares. Her larger body of work is variously rooted in new media, sculpture and installation through the combination of household objects with ephemera such as fumes, bubbles and light.

Click here to download a spec sheet for ingredients from the cleaning supplies used in "99¢ Bubble": Download 99_cent_ingredients.pdf

To view artist's portfolio, visit www.kimberleekoym-murteira.com

Victoria May

"Hub"
A site specific intervention combining  video, installation, and performance by Victoria May

View by appointment through March 1, 2008
Email christian@invisiblevenue.com to make arrangements

In this site-specific performance based project, Victoria May explores the various ways in which West Oakland functions has a hub for the conveyance of goods, information, and people via its geographic proximity to the International Port of Oakland, the Alameda County Postal Distribution Center, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit and AmTrack Train stations.  Through the physical act of sewing with a pedal operated vintage Singer-brand treadle sewing machine, circa the same time period as the Victorian-era building that houses Invisible Venue, May stitches together envelopes designed to hang from the picture rails original to the space and display the various collateral documentation relative to the local conveyances, such as train schedules and junk mail addressed to previous tenants.  A video projection, randomly presented during commuter hours and aimed at the window facing BART trains in passing, features two hands continuously attempting to unravel a severely tangled thread and provides a metaphor for May's attempts to organize elaborate information systems in a place with complicated histories.

Jonn Herschend

"The Man Who Disappeared Into His Own Clothes Pile"
A site-specific fiction by Jonn Herschend

View by appointment through January 5, 2008
Email christian@invisiblevenue.com to make arrangements

In this site-specific collaboration with Invisible Venue, Jonn Herschend investigates the disappearance of the man through interviews and reenactments with local residents and acquaintances.  A video documentary by Herschend provides key insights, though few answers, about the man’s disappearance.  The scene of his disappearance is open for public examination. The man's personal effects, his journal and intimate correspondence are accessible to visitors.  Everything is exactly as it was when he disappeared. 

Jonn Herschend has a long-standing preoccupation with themes of loneliness, heartbreak and longing.  His work across a variety of media—painting, drawing, installation, and video—regularly blurs distinctions between theatrical fiction and reality. As a child Herschend was raised on-site at a 1880s theme park and lived “in character” during much of his youth. His work has been exhibited extensively locally and internationally. He lives and works in San Francisco.

To view artist's portfolio, visit www.jonnherschend.com

Helena Keeffe

"Talking to Neighbors: Jim in West Oakland"
A telephone-based social sculpture by Helena Keeffe

Call to listen: 510-451-1489 (International calls dial 001-510-451-1489)
Accessible through January 15, 2008

In an unusual twist on the notion of site-specificity, Helena Keeffe interviewed longtime West Oakland resident and neighbor Jim Edgar about living in this neighborhood since 1939.  The interview is accessible by calling the landline telephone number registered to the Invisible Venue project space.  An extension of this collaboration with Invisible Venue was the reclamation of a disused telephone booth halfway between the house and the West Oakland Bart Station, on the edge of an undeveloped lot on Seventh Street. A notice about Jim Edgar's interview was placed where a telephone had previously hung after the booth was cleaned and freshly painted.

Helena Keeffe regularly investigates social engagement as a method of art production.  Rooted in the ephemeral, her work rarely takes form as an object but rather as personal interactions that are conveyed through documentation.  Keeffe is currently involved in a public art project for the City of San Jose and has previously been the recipient of grants from Josh Greene’s Service Works Grants and The San Francisco Art Commission.  She lives and works in West Oakland.

To view artist's portfolio and to listen to "Talking to Neighbors: Jim in West Oakland 2007," visit www.helenakeeffe.com

Aaron Stienstra

To view artist's portfolio, visit www.aaronstienstra.com

Andrew Austin Reilly

Andrew Austin Reilly's site-specific graphite drawing "Untitled (Missed Connection for West Oakland)" (2007) draws from a range of "missed connections" posted on craigslist.com. The full text begins behind the door of the project room and circles the perimeter of the room in a format that could be read continuously. Through the process of experiencing the work, visitors are presented with views of West Oakland, BART as it speeds by, and a closeted video installation. Executed with an austere formality, the drawing nonetheless conveys the hopeless romanticism evident in the gesture of posting a missed connection. Within the closet, "This Is What You Have Been Waiting For," a single-channel video installation, is paired with "Untitled" (both 2006), a pile of VHS tapes labeled in traditional typewriter font with the catch phrases of quotidian experiences, such as "your proudest moment," in a similar manner that one might have labeled the recording of a winning game or school performance. The sense of nostalgia evoked by the use of bygone media, such a typewriters and VHS tapes, is countered by the bitter repetition of the screenshots and the labels themselves as they challenge the viewer to account for these seemingly memorable moments--reflecting the initial optimism and peculiar trajectory of so many missed connections. (Works courtesy Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco.)

Susan O'Malley

Susan O'Malley's site-specifc installation "Hey Cupcake" is at once emphemeral and lasting. Her day-long installation of 100 decadently frosted pink cupcakes in the Invisible Venue office drew references to the candy spills of the late Felix Gonzalez Torres and presented visitors with the option to either admire the simple aesthetic beauty of the installation or to consume the artworks. (The artist's preference was for the latter.) An installation of pink felt letters, spelling out "Hey Cupcake," continues to greet guests on the landing--a series of smaller, framed endearments ("You are the sweetest cupcake, cupcake") are scattered throughout the domestic space, confusing the untouchable notions of fine art and daily life. At the conclusion of the private view, the remaining cupcakes were delivered to neighboring homes--further inverting the semi-private, semi-public space of IV while spreading the "sweet nothings" that people still remember with affection.

Steve Lambert

To view artist's portfolio, visit www.visitsteve.com

Charles Gute

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"The HUO Drawings" A web-based project by Charles Gute
Online from October 1, 2006

Click individual thumbnails to view larger.

Charles Gute has worked as an editor for numerous contemporary art books, alongside the likes of Hans Ulrich Obrist, Douglas Gordon, Vito Acconci, and Kiki Smith, among others. As an expansion of this experience, his artistic practice explores his role in the wider contemporary art scene and conjures a feeling for the fabricator’s sense of place within the hierarchy of the art world. As an editor, Gute negotiates for cohesion between what is written and what the author intends.  Met with his artistic preoccupation with text as form, the imperative to catch mistakes in the author’s name in print has extended into drawings that imbue these examples with typographic character, as with Interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist. The resulting drawings beg larger questions about the structure of the current art market and the elevated role of the curator as an arbiter of importance, with Hans Ulrich Obrist being perhaps the most universally influential curator of recent times.  There is a curious significance to Obrist’s ability to achieve cult status in a world where such reverence has been regularly reserved for art stars. It has arisen to a self-reflective wind change in which the role of the curator, or rather producer, has superceded that of the artist in contemporary practice.  In many ways, Obrist begs comparison with Andy Warhol in his Factory-like ability to produce curatorial endeavors—from biennials to books to video compilations to the maintenance of multiple esteemed positions in geographically remote institutions to speaking engagements and posing for über hip magazine covers. His ubiquitous presence implies both power and the presence of an extensive support staff in multiple locations around the world, sustained by Blackberry messages.  And yet, as much as these observations could be limited to Obrist, there are numerous other examples of curators who balance the same capacity for production—Matthew Higgs, Ralph Rugoff, Jens Hoffman, to name a few, are all prolific in their work and border on magical in their ability to balance copious projects simultaneously.

To view artist's portfolio, visit www.charlesgute.com

Frock, Christian L. "From (Starry Eyed) Vision to Nail." Fillip Review, Spring 2007. Download Gute_CLFrock_fillip5_Spring2007.pdf

You Don't Know San Francisco

 

Introducing www.invisiblevenue.com. Invisible Venue (IV) is an online exhibition venue and forum for exchange between artists, curators and a far-reaching public. IV develops collaborative relationships to exhibit new media artwork online for live presentation and discussion in remote locations.

Invisible Venue’s first online exhibition “You Don’t Know San Francisco” presents the work of San Francisco Bay Area artists Tommy Becker, Nathan Burazer, Yin-Ju Chen, Catherine Czacki, Melissa Day, Anthony Discenza, Rachael Jablo, Skyler Thomas, Tim Sullivan, Sieglinde Van Damme, and Heidi Zumbrun. IV aims to facilitate a broader understanding of artists from various locales. Specifically the first exhibition presents a group of artists whose creative practices jar with broadly accepted notions about San Francisco Bay Area art and the ubiquitous brand of graffiti artists from the widely recognized Mission School.

The launch of Invisible Venue and the first online exhibition “You Don’t Know San Francisco” will be promoted in San Francisco, New York and London during October 2005—a public screening will coincide with the third annual Frieze Art Fair in London.

PUBLIC SCREENING Invisible Venue presents “You Don’t Know San Francisco” Friday, 21 October, 7pm

315 Cardamom Building 31 Shad Thames London SE 1 2YR

London Underground: London Bridge or Tower Hill

With thanks to Aaron Stienstra, Dai Nakabayashi, Catharine Clark, Sophie von Olfers and Beltran Obregon.

Click .mov files to download videos: Tommy Becker "Pulling Down the Sky to Give You the Sun" Downloadpulling320x240.mov Nathan Burazer "Outburst" Download outburst.mov Yin Ju Chen "Untitled 3" Download untitled3.mov Catherine Czacki "Centurion" Download centurion.mov Melissa Day "How Great Thou Art" Download howgreat.mov  Anthony Discenza "Controlled Release" Download release.mov R L Jablo "My name is..." Download myname.mov Tim Sullivan "Box Drag" Download boxdrag.mov Skyler Thomas "Inconvenient" Download inconvenient.mov Sieglinde Van Damme "Prayer" Download prayer.mov Heidi Zumbrun "Untitled" Download whitei.mov