June 28, 2009
Learn more about the Long View Project in my post-Ice Q & A with The Antarctic Sun,
the official online news site for the United States Antarctic Program. The site provides
news articles and features about polar science and life in Antarctica, and is edited by
Peter Rejcek who conducted the interview.
June 27, 2009
This is the second of a series of small pieces serving as studies for my full-size Long View Project panels to come. It was created with Antarctica’s continuous summer daylight (and
its disorienting effects) in mind.
Like the first study, it was created in cut paper and graphite on paper mounted on a
5″ x 5″ x 1.5″ wood panel.
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June 3, 2009
In 2007 our crew at the Imprint of the San Francisco Center for the Book had the pleasure
of publishing Nigel Poor‘s artist book edition titled The Relative Value of Things. The edition, produced during her SFCB artist residency, now lends its title and concept to a full-scale exhibition at Haines Gallery in downtown San Francisco.
The show continues Nigel’s investigations into the joys, follies and contradictions of collect-ing, desire and valorization. It features encapsulated hair and lint donated by a multitude of individuals (public participation is often central to Nigel’s projects), color images and letterpress-printed lists documenting personal possessions discarded by the artist over time, and meticulously drawn text that addresses the struggle to find reassurance and meaning amidst life’s mysteries and uncertainties.
The exhibition also includes a cell phone tour and an interactive website that elaborates on her philosophy of discarded items and invites audience participation.
This is Nigel’s fourth solo show at Haines Gallery. Her work has been exhibited in various national venues and can be found in the collections of the SFMOMA, the M.H. deYoung Museum, the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. She has received several nationally recognized awards including an SF Arts Council Grant and a Polaroid Artist Support Grant. She received her BA from Bennington College in Vermont and her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and is currently an associate professor of photography at California State University, Sacramento.
Congratulations on this fascinating project Nigel. You’re a joy to work with and a wonderful friend.
The Relative Value of Things is on view through August 1. Haines Gallery is at 49 Geary Street, Suite 540, San Francisco CA 94108. Tel. (415) 397-8114. Hours: Tuesday to Friday 10:30 A.M. – 5:30 P.M., Saturday 10:30 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
June 2, 2009
New sketchbook pages are on the way. In the meanwhile, I’ve determined the size of the hundred base panels and their combined length to make the final Long View artwork.
See the numbers and photos of work in progress on my Antarctic blog hosted by the California Academy of Sciences.
June 1, 2009
It was a year ago this month that my fellow ’08-’09 Antarctic Artist and Writer grantees and I first met. We spent only a day in Denver but our group of eight connected well.
We’ve since kept in touch and followed each others’ projects via email, tweets, project blogs, online social networks, and even meetings in person, since three of us live here in San Francisco.
Cheryl E. Leonard accompanied by Cliff Neighbors and Felix Macnee (out of frame) at the Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco.
I recently got to see Cheryl E. Leonard perform some of her Antarctic works-in-progress at the Luggage Store Gallery. Cheryl is a local composer, improviser and instrument builder who spent January at Palmer Station recording sound and images and collecting natural materials to create her musical compositions with. Her sounds are as unique as the material she uses, which include stones, limpet shells and penguin bones.
Cheryl E. Leonard and Cliff Neighbors.
The concert featured Cheryl as a winner of the Sounding Out California award, a state-wide competition presented by NEXMAP, an organization supporting contemporary, experimental art. Congratulations on the honor Cheryl!
Over on the East Coast, grantee Scott Sternbach just concluded his first exhibition of Antarctic photographs at the City University of New York in Long Island City where he directs LaGuardia Community College’s photography department. The show, titled Antarctic Souls, featured his large-scale format black and white portraits and color images taken at Palmer Station and on the United States Antarctic Program’s L.M. Gould Research Vessel.
Photographed by Scott Sternbach on the Antarctic Peninsula.
Nice work, Scott! I love this photo by the way; it so reminds me of that memorable part of Encounters at the End of the World where the debatably crazy penguin wanders off in the wrong direction to its certain demise. I can practically hear Werner Herzog narrating that segment when looking at this picture. And that’s a compliment.