Sunday, February 19, 2012

Left To Chance, San Francisco Center for the Book Opening


An estimated 300 people squeezed into the San Francisco Center for the Book on Friday for the opening of Left to Chance: In Search of the Accidental Book Art . The exhibition was curated by the luminous Hanna Regev, pictured below, center, bookended by SFCB Co-Founders Mary Austin and Kathleen Burch.


My new piece, Fugitive, was part of the exhibition. With the crowd, I could barely get close enough to take any pictures of it! The work was displayed with gloves so that viewers could handle and see the papers close-up.



The exhibition, which is on view till May 12, is inspired by the work of John Cage, and his use of chance operations. Some Bay Area folks, like Kathleen Burch, actually knew Cage and worked with him on projects. Cage, to me, has always been a distant figure, a colossus straddling visual art and music, influencing countless creatives of the past century until the present day. It's been so eye-opening to hear people who knew him talk about him as a person, someone who was sweet and full of life, with a quirky sense of humor. What I liked most was that people seemed to like him as a individual, not just as an Important Artist. The impression I get from them is encapsulated by the wall quote pictured below. If you can't read it - click on it for a larger image.


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