A free shuttle to Headlands, departing from 500 Capp Street in San Francisco, will be available by reservation. This shuttle is intended to serve those without access to individual transportation.
In collaboration with 500 Capp Street’s Shifting Possessions, join us for a spiritual drag show (of sorts): an elegantly bombastic remix of the traditional high-energy, high-stakes, centuries-old hầu bóng Mother Goddess ceremony, followed by a panel discussion with Headlands Bay Area Fellow Việt Lê; traditional lên đồng musicians musicians Anh-Tấn and Hồ Nga Cao (Hà Nội); dancers Jay Carlon (LA), Megan Lowe (East Bay), Johnny Huy Nguyễn (SF); and Janet Hoskins, Professor of Anthropology and Religion at University of Southern California. They are our special-secret-surprise world-renowned guests, dance, and music collaborators—our secret sauce. Putting the “trans” in “transcendence,” and making it rain (like in da club), this evening’s event will center queer ritual in Southeast Asia, its diasporas, and worlds beyond.
As part of this special evening—and speaking of secret sauciness—audiences will convene for a dinner in the Mess Hall featuring a menu conceived by Lê and Headlands Chef Damon Little.
A free shuttle from San Francisco to Headlands will be available by reservation. The shuttle will depart from 500 Capp Street at 4pm, and will return to 500 Capp Street following the conclusion of the event at 8pm. This shuttle is intended to serve those without access to individual transportation.
*For accessibility questions or requests please contact info@headlands.org.
This evening is co-presented by Headlands Center for the Arts as a part of 500 Capp Street’s Shifting Possessions salon series and trầnsfiguration, an exhibition curated by Việt Lê at Slash.
Shifting Possessions is a salon series that feature dialogs and programming on queer(y)ing object collections, remediation strategies, geopolitical connections, historical trauma and healing. 500 Capp Street’s Shifting Possessions is made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional support from Teiger Foundation.
No One Turned Away For Lack of Funds, for special accommodations, email visit@500cappstreet.org
Straddling artistic mediums and mediumship, these three artists transmute physical and socio-political landscapes, mass media and the mundane. Afrofuturism, Asian indigenous shamanism, and European avant-garde frameworks shift as these artists ask, What does possession mean? There is no death nor dyads: displaced, replaced; ready to wear and readymade. Nhung Đinh is an independent artist, curator, and filmmaker working with queer communities in several countries. Corey Picket’s practice examines the relationships of fear, race, and social systems, which are informed by his upbringing in the Golden Isles of Georgia. Nhật Minh ‘s practice encompasses collaboration and distillation of his connections in Paris, Biên Hoà and in between. Together, their interdisciplinary practice of intimacies intimate between the body and the body politic, the only way out is in. Art talk moderated by Việt Lê as part of 500 Capp Street’s salon series, “Shifting Possessions.”
Corey Pickett is an interdisciplinary artist living in New Mexico. His practice examines the relationships of fear, race, and social systems, which are informed by his upbringing in the Golden Isles of Georgia. In addition to being a working artist, Pickett is the founder and Director of The Jaye Rock Cultural Center in Clovis, NM. He received his Master of Education in 2008 and his MFA in 2017 from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He has exhibited his work in cities throughout the US and is a recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s 2017 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.
Nhung Đinh is an independent artist, curator, and filmmaker working with queer communities in several countries. Most of her projects are collective works that are rooted in her approach to participatory and relational aesthetics in which her roles as facilitator, artist, curator, and organizer are overlapping. She is the founder of Bàn Lộn-Vagina Talks- a public art and education project in Hà Nội, Việt Nam, that consists of performances, workshops, and exhibitions.
Nhật Minh (neé Frédéric Dialynas Sanchez) is a French artist born in 1983. His first solo show took place in Hanoi (2006), where he often travels to develop his researches. Grounded in abstraction field, his work has been shown in the exhibitions «Portrait de l’artiste en motocycliste» and «The artist as a collector» which took place at CNAC of Grenoble (“Le magasin”, 2009), at the museum of fine arts of La Chaux de Fond (2010) at Museum of Contemporary arts of Tucson (MOCA) in Arizona (2010/2011). He took part in exhibitions about globalization and tourism like “Cosmotopia” at “Le Commun” in Geneva (2012) which was for him an opportunity to show other aspects of his work as sculptures related to vietnamese culture or a collection of popular objects found in Vietnamese streets. Curation is also a part of his art process and he created the nomad gallery called “L’Éclair” to propose collective projects (www.l-eclair.fr). His recent solo exhibit was held at VinFast in Paris, as well a two-person exhibit with Joe Fyfe.
Việt Lê is a queer, disabled artist, writer, and curator whose work centers global south sexualities and spiritualities. Lê is the author of Return Engagements (Duke University Press, 2021). The art book White Gaze is a collaboration with Latipa (Sming Sming Books, Candor Arts 2019). Lê has presented their work at Civitella Ranieri, the Shanghai Biennale, among other venues. They co-curated transPOP: Korea Việt Nam Remix (with Yong Soon Min: ARKO, Galerie Quynh, UC Irvine Gallery; YBCA, 2008-09) and the 2012 Kuandu Biennale (Taipei). A 2022-24 Headlands Bay Area Arts Fellow, Lê is an Associate Professor and Chair of Visual & Critical Studies(VCS) at California College of the Arts.
“Shifting Possessions” is an ongoing Salon Series of 500 Capp Street with artist and academic Việt Lê having dialogues and programming on queer(y)ing object collections, geopolitical connections and remediation strategies.Supported by California Humanities and Tieger Foundation.
Cafe Porno is a dessert pop up collaboration between Marcel Pardo Ariza and Artist-Chef Salimatu Amabebe. All proceeds from the event will go to the Naughty Nurse Mobile, a van that supports sex workers during late nights in the Mission District.
Join us in celebrating the launch of the book Trans Hirstory in 99 Objectsfrom the Museum of Trans Hirstory & Art (MOTHA) in San Francisco. The book features a series of commissioned photographs by Marcel Pardo Ariza, and the editors are thrilled to present a pop-up book launch event as part of Marcel’s fabulous Orquídeas installation and program series at 500 Capp St. Marcel will discuss Orquídeas as the project nears the end of its residency, and the book’s co-editors, David Evans Frantz, Christina Linden, and Chris E. Vargas, will talk about the book while everyone enjoys snacks and drinks provided by 500 Capp St. Books will be available for purchase and signing as long as supplies last!
Surveying over three centuries of trans life, this volume brings together a capacious selection of artworks, archival documents, publications, and artifacts. The book is a continuation of artist Chris E. Vargas’s MOTHA, a museum forever “under construction” that exists as a creative and critical exploration of LGBTQ archives, asking audiences to think critically about how a visual history of transgender life could and should look.
About the speakers: Chris E. Vargas is a video maker & interdisciplinary artist, an artist, the founder of the Museum of Trans Hirstory and Art, and co-editor of Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects. His work deploys humor and performance to explore the complex ways that queer and trans people negotiate spaces for themselves within historical and institutional memory and popular culture. He is a recipient of a 2016 Creative Capital award and a 2020 John S. Guggenheim fellowship.
David Evans Frantz is a curator based in Los Angeles, and co-editor of Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects. He began his curatorial career at ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, where he first worked with Chris E. Vargas and MOTHA. He also co-edited the catalog for Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. He curated the accompanying exhibition as well as the exhibition Teddy Sandoval And The Butch Gardens School Of Art, currently on view at the Vincent Price Art Museum, with C. Ondine Chavoya.
Christina Linden met Chris E. Vargas through friends. She met David Evans Frantz while conducting research for the exhibition Queer California: Untold Stories, which she curated at the Oakland Museum of California, and in which MOTHA had an installation. She is the Director of Academic and Public Programs at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.
Marcel Pardo Ariza is the featured artist of 500 Capp Street’s recent exhibition, Orquídeas. They are a trans, nonbinary visual artist, curator, and cultural worker whose work explores the relationship of representation, intergenerational kinship, and queerness through constructed photographs and site-specific installations. Through staging and collaboration, Ariza deploys sets as a site of possibility for (re)building a story and materializing alternative and attainable present and future narratives. Ariza enjoys playing with the arbitrary rigidity that is often present in the photographic medium and the work is invested in creating long-term interdisciplinary collaborations and opportunities that are nonhierarchical and equitable. Marcel is the current recipient of the SECA Art Award.
The week starting March 28th saw the inaugural Spring Break Intensive for youth aged 13-18 at the David Ireland House. In this interview, participating artist Georgia Horgan talks to SFAI City Studio Director Amy Berk about why 500 Capp Street is such a rich resource for youth and artists alike.
Amy Berk pictured here with teens in the dining room of the house. Image courtesy of Christian Casillas.
Georgia Horgan: From your perspective as an educator, why do a program aimed at teenagers at the David Ireland House?
Amy Berk: Thank you for that question Georgia!
GH: It’s big isn’t it…
AB: It is a big question, but it’s one I feel really passionate about. When I walked into that house for the first time I thought it was magical; it offers a counterpoint to the rigidity that many teens and tweens experience at school or in day-to-day life. They often exist in environments where there is a right answer or a wrong answer. There’s no answer in the house. It’s extraordinary in its ordinariness and that’s why it offers a portal to really think about what art can be.
GH: And I think this offers a path to question everything, right?
AB: Absolutely. It opens up a path to criticality in general, giving them the tools to question the status quo. It’s not necessarily about art-making, it’s about thinking differently. And that’s my whole ethos with City Studio. I’m not out to make artists. I want thinkers.
GH: I completely agree. My own practice is based on how we know things, how we learn, the methods through which this is achieved, and how, in turn, this impacts society. Art offers new approaches to these questions; from its very foundation in language to how we interpret popular culture or apply teaching methods. I think the house is an amazing resource to prompt these questions. This leads me to ask: why do you think David Ireland offers this gateway versus any of his contemporaries in the Conceptual art movement?
AB: I think it’s the house itself. It’s a really intimate space, a space that everyone can connect to. Everybody has a home, or we hope so, at least. This extraordinary ordinariness makes the house very approachable. A lot of Conceptual art is pretty austere whereas, David Ireland’s work has a warmth. Even literally speaking, the golden color of the walls has warmth in a way that embraces you rather than pushes you away. There is often something tomb-like about the environment other Conceptual practices are shown in; the David Ireland House is almost womb-like.
GH: Right! I think that’s a really interesting observation. Many of the artworks from this era are presented in institutional settings on epic scales. They’re edifices, whereas the domesticity of David Ireland is part of what makes his work so approachable. I think this is the case from multiple perspectives. From my own observation of youth education projects, there tends to be a bit of a pervasive attitude that only certain types of art practice lend themselves to education programs. I think we’ve established that David Ireland’s practice indeed does, but it’s so multilayered that there are many ways to enter the work. I think this creates a nice opportunity for artists that maybe aren’t such obvious choices for youth projects to come in and do something, using David Ireland’s work as a lens.
AB: I love that! And I know that the David Ireland team has worked really hard to facilitate that. David Ireland is very multifaceted, so you can access his work in a lot of different ways, be it through different media, perspectives, or capacities. It’s a challenge for artists and educators to create workshops that represent their work and David Ireland’s, kind of honoring him rather than copying him. I think that’s when teens can see that they’re being given the agency to form their own interpretations, as opposed to being told what’s right or wrong.
GH: Right, and ultimately, I think this further exposes them to different ways of making art, to different ways of thinking, encouraging this criticality that we already identified as key.
AB: Exactly. It’s empowering them to think differently.
GH: Before we wrap up, anything else you’d like to add?
AB: Yes – it was really great to see institutional support, not just from the David Ireland House, but from the new partner Park and Rec. It’s a pretty out-there collaboration from a city department, so it’s amazing to have them on board. It bodes well for the future of San Francisco, at least in regards to art education.
Image courtesy of Stephanie Dolores Rose
Amy Berk is an artist and educator based in San Francisco. She is the Director of City Studio, SFAI’s program to engage underserved youth in their own neighborhoods through art classes that are both rigorous and joyous.
Georgia Horgan is a British artist based in Mexico City. She makes videos, textiles, and texts that explore feminist methods of writing history.
On May 18th, 2022, join us for a conversation on the protocols used to organize and catalyze collective living projects. Protocols encapsulate the often invisible forces that underlie collective living projects—from land acquisition and tenure models, to economics and resource allocation—these protocols form the critical foundations for commoning practices. During this conversation, voices from residents in collective living communities will be joined by Zarinah Agnew from District Commons, Sunny Angulo from the City of San Francisco, Saki Bailey from the San Francisco Community Land Trust, and Kate Conner from San Francisco Planning. This event is supported by the CCA Architecture Division and organized by The Urban Works Agency, and is presented in association with the House of Commons exhibition at The David Ireland House that is on view through May 31.
Please note that this event will be taking place outside on the terrace. Doors open at 6pm, program begins at 6:30pm.
