MEDIA: KQED ON THE DISSIDENTS, THE DISPLACED, AND THE OUTLIERS

Emily K. Holmes has written a review of The Dissidents, The Displaced, and The Outliers for San Francisco's KQED. 

Below in an excerpt:

At Random Parts, COLL.EO’s City Blocks (2014) mimic children’s building blocks, yet depict images of people sleeping on sidewalks and urinating in public. These potentially invasive photographs are complicated at times by the shadow of a Google Street View car and the marks of a browser’s interface, virtual directional arrows and location stamps. Left implicit is the suggestion that homelessness is a possible consequence of the very technology capturing its likeness. [...]

The Dissidents is more than a collection of facts to learn. These local artists, addressing issues of pressing local concern with some of the most interesting practices in the Bay Area, are proof that dissent is alive and well. The exhibition itself stays complicated; artworks overlap and interlock and it takes some work to figure out how everything fits together. When examining how power shifts across economies during times of change, simple answers don’t necessarily exist. The Dissidents attests to this challenge. Whatever direction the Bay Area heads, these artworks are evidence of a population that won’t be silenced.

LINK: Emily K. Holmes (KQED) on The Dissidents, The Displaced, and The Outliers 

LINK: Kimberly Chun (The San Francisco Chronicle) on The Dissidents, The Displaced, and The Outliers.

HONESTEE

We are pleased to announce that our new project, Honestee, is now online and on view at MIRAGE, a collateral event of the Havana Biennial in Cuba taking place at Casa De Cultura De Guanabacoa. 

COLL.EO, Honestee, Digital print on canvas, 12 x 16 in, 2015

COLL.EO, Honestee, Digital print on canvas, 12 x 16 in, 2015

Honestee consists of several digital prints on canvas, each measuring 12 x 16, wrapped in cellophane and displayed in a grid. 

Each image depicts a male or female model wearing a t-shirt. 

The models have been appropriated from an online website. 

Each t-shirt has been customized with remarkable doses of sincerity and contagious creativity by COLL.EO using a text & style editor. 

The following typefaces have been used: SUPERSTAR 54 and FUTURA MEDIUM. 

Honestee is what America is really about.


MIRAGE

Casa De Cultura De Guanabacoa, Cuba

Collateral exhibition to the 12th Havana Biennial

May 26 – June 22, 2015

Opening reception: Tuesday, May 26, 6:00 – 10:00 pm

Artists

Brigada Roja/Nelson Enriquez & Rebekah Olstad

Bernardo Palau

Carlo Ricafort

COLL.EO

Juan Carlos Quintana

English

There are nebulous horizons playing tricks on us by promising the illusion of change while simultaneously defending the interest of the status quo. There is no sea or land that separate or unite us; there are only desires. We are all in a mirage longing for something tangible which becomes intangible when viewed upon the prism of expectations. The unlikelihood of possible alternatives will become clear as subversive practices are recognized for what they really are: hegemonic lollipops - as harmless as tooth decay and bad breath - yet can lead to heart failure.

Español

A tientas, como perdidos en la niebla vamos engañándonos a nosotros mismos. Por la ilusión, por ese posible cambio venidero que al mismo tiempo nos deja perdidos en la ensoñación (y el estatus quo). Realmente ni los mares, ni las fronteras nos unen o separan; el deseo es lo único que existe. Todos estamos inmersos en un espejismo, deseando, esperando por algo tangible que al mismo tiempo se vuelve inasible cuando lo vemos a través del cristal de las expectativas. La improbabilidad de cualquier otra alternativa se pone de manifiesto cuando reconocemos el verdadero valor de cualquier "acto subversivo"; al final solo parecen caramelos hegemónicos tan innocuos como un dolor de muelas.  

LINK: Honestee



WHAC-A-MOLE

We are delighted to unveil our latest work: Whac-A-Mole. 

COLL.EO, Whac-A-Mole, 2015. Installation view, Incline Gallery, San Francisco

COLL.EO, Whac-A-Mole, 2015. Installation view, Incline Gallery, San Francisco

The installation comprises the following elements:

  • Whac-A-Mole (five ceramic figurines - 5 in tall each -, one wooden mallet 10 x 4 in and a wood pedestal, measuring 42  x 16 x 16 inches (H x W x L);
  • Homeless in SimCity (after dmex) (framed digital print, 11 x 17 inches);
  • SimHomeless, fifteen ceramic sculptures, measuring 5 inches (H).

The piece is accompanied by “The Cure for Homeless… Details inside ;-)” (digital video, color, stereo, 15’, in loop, with English subtitles, 2015) by Matteo Bittanti.

In “The Cure for Homeless… Details inside ;-)” a robo-voice performs a thread (i.e. chapter) from Matteo Bittanti’s How to get rid of homeless (Concrete Press, 2015).

This new work is currenty on display at Incline Gallery in San Francisco as part of The Dissidents, The Displaced, and The Outliers exhibition, from May 16 till June 19, 2015.

In The Dissidents, the Displaced, and the Outliers, Bay Area artists Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, Eliza Barrios, COLL.EO, Leslie Dreyer, Tom Loughlin, and Elizabeth Travelslight present work focusing on the convergence of privacy and gentrification unique to the Bay Area, in particular the impact of surveillance technology and the digital economy on housing security, wealth inequality, and discrimination. Organized by the Bay Area Society for Art & Activism in partnership with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and staged at Random Parts, and Incline Gallery, The Dissidents, the Displaced, and the Outliers, is a transbay visual art exhibition curated by Dorothy R. Santos.

Incline Gallery is located at 766 Valencia St, San Francisco, California, 94110.

The opening reception is scheduled for Saturday May 16, 2015, between 5-9 pm.

 

Artwork below:

COLL.EO, Homeless in SimCity (after dmex), 2015, framed digital print, 11 x 17 inches.

COLL.EO, Homeless in SimCity (after dmex), 2015, framed digital print, 11 x 17 inches.

COLL.EO, SimHomeless, 2015, fifteen ceramic sculptures, measuring 5 inches (H).

COLL.EO, SimHomeless, 2015, fifteen ceramic sculptures, measuring 5 inches (H).

COLL.EO, A New American Dream, 2014, digital image, 11 x 17 inches.

COLL.EO, A New American Dream, 2014, digital image, 11 x 17 inches.

SHOW: THE DISSIDENTS, THE DISPLACED, AND THE OUTLIERS

Below are a few snapshots from The Dissidents, The Displaced, and the Outliers, an exhibition curated by Dorothy Santos and organized by the Bay Area Society for Art and Activism featuring artworks by several Bay Area-based artists, including Eliza Barrios, Leslie Dreyer, Tom Loughlin, Elizabeth Travelsight, and COLL.EO. The show opened on Saturday May 2. We are showing two works: A NEW AMERICAN DREAM and CITY BLOCKS.

THE DISSIDENTS, THE DISPLACED, AND THE OUTLIERS at Random Parts, Oakland, California

THE DISSIDENTS, THE DISPLACED, AND THE OUTLIERS at Random Parts, Oakland, California

COLL.EO’s City Blocks, six wooden blocks with images measuring 6 x 6 x 6 inches, arranged on an IKEA’s LÄTT children wooden table and two wooden chairs. Table size: 24 ¾ (L) x 18 ⅞ (W) x 17 ¾ (H). Chair size: 11 (L) x 11 (D) x 11 (H).

COLL.EO’s City Blocks, six wooden blocks with images measuring 6 x 6 x 6 inches, arranged on an IKEA’s LÄTT children wooden table and two wooden chairs. Table size: 24 ¾ (L) x 18 ⅞ (W) x 17 ¾ (H). Chair size: 11 (L) x 11 (D) x 11 (H).

COLL.EO, A New American Dream, 2014. Six framed digital prints measuring 11 x 17 inches each from the ongoing series A New American Dream (2014-) hung on the wall in a grid (3 x 2). 

COLL.EO, A New American Dream, 2014. Six framed digital prints measuring 11 x 17 inches each from the ongoing series A New American Dream (2014-) hung on the wall in a grid (3 x 2).