Reminder: Altnorthern - Canadian queer artists at The Lab @ Fri Feb 26 1pm - 6pm (Queer Things)

more details » Altnorthern - Canadian queer artists at The Lab The current group exhibition at The Lab, "Alternorthern," features the work of nine emerging Canadian artists who explore various themes around national and global identities. Among these is queer Canadian artist Vincent Chevalier, whose interdisciplinary work focuses on themes of disclosure, agency, labor, and identity. Central to his work are his own identity as a queer, HIV positive person and how that in part structures his daily existence. Also featured in "Alternorthern" is Zoë Yuristy, a queer Canadian artist whose work engages with the cultural production of images as a means of exploring identity. For example, Northern Afghanistan Fantasy Play-set (2009) consists of a series of small figurines of army men (approximately 500 sculptures) posed in sexual positions and spray-painted bright pink. "Alternorthern" runs through Saturday, March 6. Gallery hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 1:00 - 6:00 p.m. The Lab, 2948 Sixteenth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. http://www.thelab.org Vincent Chevalier and Zoë Yuristy in "Alternorthern" Vincent Chevalier ( http://www.vincentchevalier.ca/ ) is an interdisciplinary artist performing work around themes of disclosure, agency, labor, and identity. Chevalier uses video, performance, and installation to reveal hidden relationships of power between the body as subject and structures that dictate our everyday action. These actions range from the quotidian to the theatrical; they bring the personal to the public, and push the latent into view. Some of Chevalier's past actions include: walking on a piece of red carpet continuously for a whole week; giving public lectures about his drug addiction while serving beer; dressing up as Lisa Loeb and lip-syncing her debut album in a single video take; sanding pieces of plywood into dust; and, as part of an ongoing and relentless process, telling people that he is queer and HIV-positive. This disclosure informs Chevalier's aesthetic and methodological approaches. The artist considers the act to be a formal gesture around which his practice can be organized. Recently, Chevalier has been examining disclosure as an intersubjective process that produces physical, emotional, and social effects. He writes: "This holds personal as well as political significance. As an individual claiming a queer/fag and HIV-positive subject position, disclosing plays a significant role in structuring my everyday. My art practice attempts to insert this gesture into the everyday as an intervention." This exhibition showcases three separate works by Chevalier: So... when did you figure out that you had AIDS?, Full Disclosure: I have gingivitis, and Roundabout. So... when did you figure out that you had AIDS? consists of home video footage recorded when Chevalier was 13 years old in which the artist plays the role of "a man dying from AIDS." The video predates Chevalier's HIV diagnosis and performance career. Chevalier presents the performance as a foundational work within his art and identity histories highlighting themes of performativity and representation. Zoë Yuristy's (http://zoeyuristy.wordpress.com/) photography based work engages with the cultural production of images as a means of exploring identity. In doing so, Yuristy's work moves seamlessly through art historical conceptualism, pop cultural references, historical narratives, and personal confessions. Through juxtaposing sincere gestures and ironic distanciation, the artist is able to create a space where the real and the fantastical can co-exist. Yuristy is often concerned with subversively appropriating references to pop culture, the historical, and art historical narratives. For the artist, image-making is a multi-faceted process by which narratives about culture become sites for artistic production. In this way, Yuristy's approach to imagemaking is as unique to each work as the diversity of themes the artist addresses. "Alternorthern" includes three works by Zoë Yuristy: Northern Afghanistan Fantasy Playset, After William Notman Series, and Lost Boy and 5225 Figueroa Mountain Rd, Los Olivos, CA 93441 (Neverland Ranch). Northern Afghanistan Fantasy Play-set (2009) consists of a series of small figurines of army men (approximately 500 sculptures) posed in sexual positions and spray-painted bright pink that are available for purchase by gallery visitors. In this work, Yuristy uses humor to critically deconstruct heterosexist constructions of masculinity. In place of repressive structures and violent landscapes, she has created a queer utopia where army figurines can be used to imaginatively promote "love and peace," rather than hatred and violence. Lost Boy and 5225 Figueroa Mountain Rd, Los Olivos, CA 93441 (Neverland Ranch) (2008) is a photographic diptych conceived as a meditation on the contemporary anxieties we feel about images of children as well as a questioning of whether it is possible to produce images of children in this context. In Lost Boy, the artist occupies the role of the children's fiction character Peter Pan, a boy caught in a state of eternal youth. The figure, whose posture indicates his assurance and defiance, gazes defiantly out at the viewer. The character's body is read off against text from the play that speaks to the haptic nature of the photographic image. "No one must ever touch me," Peter declares. As the viewer's desire to touch - the image, the object/subject - is made palpable, it is revealed as problematic. The accompanying image, Neverland Ranch, contributes to the anxiety that is brought upon by looking. The image is constructed out of satellite photographs taken from the area in and around Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, the children's theme park where Jackson was alleged to have sexually assaulted young boys. The awesome beauty of this landscape seduces the viewer while it's real-world context keeps them at a distance. The Lab, a project of The art re grüp, Inc., is supported in part by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation; San Francisco Publicity and Advertising Fund's Hotel Tax/Grants for the Arts program; The San Francisco Foundation; The San Francisco Arts Commission¹s Cultural Equity Grants Program; Zellerbach Family Fund; and members and volunteers of The Lab. When Fri Feb 26 1pm – 6pm Pacific Time Calendar Queer Things Who • larrybob@gmail.com - creator

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