Aftershock – lecture about the Art Hotel with organizers and artists

Art Hotel organizers speaking at the lecture. Photo: Frida Berntson, 042016

Some of you might remember the blog post I did a while back about the ”Art Hotel” in downtown Sacramento. This fantastic happening was probably the strongest art experience I’ve ever had, and I don’t think I’m the only one feeling that. With 13,000 visitors and 20,000 wanting to get in but couldn’t, I think it is safe to say that the Art Hotel was an incredible success! I’m not from Sacramento and not even from the US, but I think I’m on the right track when I think the Art Hotel was probably the most influential art show in Sacramento in years. It has already become legendary. On April 20th Art Hotel organizers Seumas Coutts, Ph.D. and Shaun Burner as well as a few Art Hotel-artists had a lecture at Sac State about the Art Hotel and its impact on Sacramento.

The underlying message during the lecture was how the organizers wanted art to be experienced, they wanted and had free admission; they wanted to achieve total inclusivity, and they wanted the art experience and community to be most important. The Art Hotel created a space where people just experienced art; it wasn’t held in a big institution that could influence the experience, and there wasn’t a “right way” to display the art at the Art Hotel, art was everywhere, unlabeled and raw. This made it feel genuine and artist-to-viewer centered; it turned into a dialogue where the art could speak for itself.

The Art Hotel was also about the major “high culture” institutions versus grassroot organizations. Something Seumas Coutts mentioned a few times is how art is always stressed to be good for the economy, and therefore is accepted to get funded, but what about the thought that art might be good for people, the city? This thought was one of the key elements in the organization of the Art Hotel. They were funded by a kickstarter campaign, and all of the about 130 artists that participated knew that they wouldn’t get any other payment, but they believed in the project and worked together. There was a financial risk, and a risk of failure that everyone was aware of, but every single artist and organizer worked hard to make this happen and to get the word out. The Art Hotel turned into an art community, an art community that almost every artist at the lecture thought was really needed in Sacramento. Many of them mentioned how the art community and the different institutions are competing with each other more than collaborating, and the need to change that.

A moving story that one of the artists told us about was how a single-mother with three kids came to see the show from Folsom (suburb of Sacramento), and that with a possible admission fee, she would probably not have been able to attend the show. This was something that the organizers were very passionate about. Art should be accessible to everyone, no matter what situation or occupation you might have. This is a discussion we have had in Sweden for a long time. It is generally very cheap to visit museums in Sweden, but the fees has gone up in recent years, and I think this can function as a reminder for us to stick with our values and keep the museums accessible for everyone! Right now museums in Gothenburg are free until you’re 25 years old, everyone else can buy a ticket for $5 that is valid for a year and you get free access to all public museums in Gothenburg.

The group responsible for the Art Hotel; M5 Arts, is now planning their next project which is going to be a lot bigger. According to Seumas Coutts they will open the first Sacramento Biennale in 2017. I will probably not be here then, which makes me very sad. But I will take the incredible inspiration with me back to Gothenburg, and I think that something like the Art Hotel could absolutely be made in Gothenburg. Gothenburgians; what do you think?

Lecture at Sac State with curator Kendall H. Brown about Bidou Yamaguchi's Noh Masks

Traditional Noh masks by Bidou Yamaguchi. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-13-16 

The Japanese Noh theater is a traditional theater in Japanese culture heavy with poem, includes music and dance and the stories are mainly about people seeing and dealing with ghosts from the past. Noh theater has been performed since the 14^th century. Traditional costumes are worn by the actors as well as masks; specific masks that have a special look to them. Bidou Yamaguchi is one of few contemporary masters of mask carving in Japan, and he is also a pioneer since he is the first artist to go beyond the traditional norm and create non-traditional Noh masks. His masks are currently on display in the Sac State Library Gallery in the exhibition “Traditions Transfigured – The Noh Masks of Bidou Yamaguchi”, and on April 13 a lecture was held there with the curator Prof. Kendall H. Brown of California State University Long Beach.

Kendall H. Brown speaking, beside him the mask of Mona Lisa. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-13-16

The curator started the lecture by telling the story of how the exhibition was made, which I thought was interesting. The exhibition was made in collaboration with graduate students at Cal State Long Beach, and the show was specifically done for universities. The exhibition had a lot of different elements like video, sound and an interactive part which the curator explained was the student’s idea. The interactive part consisted of a mirror and “toy” Noh masks that you could handle yourself and maybe take a “selfie”, which the curator thought was very amusing but also a great idea.

Mask depicting Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring by Bidou Yamaguchi. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-13-16

Mask depicting Munch's Madonna by Bidou Yamaguchi. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-13-16

The exhibition was done in three parts; the first part with traditional masks and the art that inspired them, the second part with the new non-traditional masks, and the last and third part about the making of the masks. The first part is Yamaguchi’s day job, Brown explained. For several hundred years no new masks were made in Japan, the actors just kept using the traditional old ones. But of course that wasn’t sustainable, so new masks started to be made, and the new carvers copied the old masks. This can seem uncreative and boring to westerners, but Asia has a tradition of copying old masters, as in Chinese landscape painting for example, everyone copying make subtle changes which lead to new ideas. So the new mask artists learned how to age the masks; add little cracks all over the paint and make it look worn where the actors would hold it. So Noh mask carvers are also masters in aging techniques. One important thing that the curator pointed out is that Noh mask makers are not only carvers but also painters, they carve and paint their objects, so it is a truly dynamic work.

The second part of the exhibition was the most exciting with the new non-traditional masks; Bidou Yamaguchi started a series with famous European portraits of women. Masks of Mona Lisa, Botticelli’s Venus, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and Munch’s Madonna were displayed at the exhibition to name a few. When asked why the artist chose this subject the explanation was that he was simply drawn to their faces. These masks are however not simple appropriations; since the Noh play is about ghosts, the masks are considered to express the ghosts of the women, their spirits and their persona. Yamaguchi even re-created all the little oil paint-cracks that most of these paintings have, and according to the curator it took somewhere between eight to nine hours to create! All masks have the sophistication of the traditional ones, and the artist has expertly re-imagined legendary women of art history from 2D to 3D magic.

The process of carving a Noh mask, by Bidou Yamaguchi. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-13-16

The third and last part of the exhibition was about the making of the masks and also about how the masks appear in different angles and light. Brown explained that the traditional mask “young lady” actually appears to change its expression in different angles and light. There was a video showing this where a robot turned the mask in different ways, and we could all see how the mask turned slightly sad, a little angry, or happy when the smile was accentuated.

The lecture was a very positive experience, the audience walked around in the exhibition and the curator talked about the different parts as we walked through it which is a different format than just sitting down before a slideshow. It is a very good format, it keeps your interest up and you are engaged in the art at the same time you learn everything about it.

The exhibition is on display at Sac State until May 21, 2016.

A video showing the masks from the Sac State Youtube channel.

Art at Elliott Fouts Gallery

Sacramento has a large number of art galleries across the city, and many of them reside in the lively area of Midtown. Next to downtown, Midtown with its many restaurants, bars and graffiti murals amongst charming wooden houses and lots of trees is a dynamic and interesting neighborhood. No doubt galleries find this area exciting. Elliott Fouts Gallery, one of the galleries in Midtown, opened in 1999 but moved to Midtown in 2012. The gallery specializes in representational landscape and still life painting and has an exhibition space with monthly shows as well as a bigger area for the regular works for sale. Since the gallery was in the midst of changing exhibitions I saw a small portion of Timothy Mulligan’s work that was up in one part of the gallery, and the brand new exhibition of paintings by Lauren Pretorius in the main exhibition space.

Me in front of Timothy Mulligans art. Photo: Virginie, 04-02-16

Timothy Mulligan, Coastal Cliff View, Northern CA, 2015, acrylic on canvas. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-02-16

Timothy Mulligan, Lake Boats, Tahoe, 2015, acrylic on canvas. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-02-16

Detail from Timothy Mulligan, Lake Boats, Tahoe, 2015, acrylic on canvas. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-02-16

Timothy Mulligan, Tiscornia Park, Sacramento, 2015, acrylic on canvas. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-02-16

Timothy Mulligan’s work is essentially inspired by the French Impressionist movement but with elements of a more expressive style with simplified forms and clear, crisp colors. At first glance Mulligan’s art comes across as very colorful but maybe a little lifeless and overly structured with diagonals and lines crossing perfectly on the canvas. But as you look closely his paintings express a sharp texture that suits very well with the overall style, and the use of different techniques as etching into the wet paint and the absence of visible brushstrokes makes the paintings come together as a whole. Mulligan is a local artist educated at Sacramento State, and his motifs are landscapes around Sacramento and the Bay Area. In Sweden artists paint local landscapes in a very specific way to express the clear and kind of cold Scandinavian light, and to compare that to Mulligan’s warm toned Californian landscape was very interesting.

Lauren Pretorius's exhibition at Elloitt Fouts Gallery. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-02-16

Lauren Pretorius, Cracked Egg, oil on panel. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-02-16

Detail of Lauren Pretorius, PB&J Sandwich, oil on panel. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-02-16

Lauren Pretorius, Spoonful of Honey, oil on panel. Photo: Frida Berntson, 04-02-16

Lauren Pretorius, Fresh Lemonade, oil on panel. Photo; Frida Berntson, 04-02-16

Lauren Pretorius’s show in the exhibition space was very different from Timothy Mulligan’s art. Pretorius’s work is in the still life tradition but with a modern twist with smaller square or rectangular canvases with different objects from everyday life; chopped vegetables, a cracked egg, a glass of lemonade, an onion, an avocado and my favorite – a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The objects are beautifully modeled in a realistic manner in light and shadow. My initial thoughts from Pretorius’s art was that it is kind of dissecting the mundane in our lives and analyzing the objects we are so familiar with that we don’t notice them. For me as a foreigner some of the paintings made me think of the typical American daily life; especially the paintings with the lemonade, the honey bear, and the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But for Americans it is probably just a depiction of mundane things.

It is interesting comparing galleries and museums; museums often have an admission fee, but you feel almost always welcome there, at this particular gallery you did not feel welcome at all, even though you didn’t have to pay to see the art. Maybe you could describe this situation as what type of space is welcoming you, a public space or private?