Archive for 2011
Image, Contemporary Arts Center Entrance

The Claire Trevor School of the Arts recently celebrated the ribbon and official grand opening celebratration of this 59,000-sq.-ft. LEED-certified, technologically advanced building that is destined to become the hub of student and School activity.

 

Inside the CAC, a variety of new spaces beckon, from the CAC Gallery to the Experimental Media Performance Lab, a 2,000-sq.-ft. Performance Capture Studio, and a fully equipped recording studio, to an enormous costume design studio, computer labs, meeting spaces, offices, artists' studios, and more!
 

The building was designed to meet the needs of the School and the environment - the four-story eco-friendly building was constructed primarily using locally sourced materials to reduce the School's carbon footprint....


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The Radicalization of a '50s Housewife
A Solo Project by Barbara T. Smith, Curated by Juli Carson
Oct 05, 2011 to Dec 04, 2011
Image, The Radicalization of a '50s Housewife, Barbara T. Smith

The Radicalization of a 50s Housewife revisits Barbara T. Smith's transgressive artwork Birthdaze, produced in 1980 and later performed on the occasion of the artist's 50th Birthday.  Combining elements of Catholic hagiography with Eastern Tantric ritual, the performance symbolized Smith's journey away from 50s society life towards 60s feminism, avant-garde culture and beyond.  In addition to the original artwork, this exhibition features archival material documenting Birthdaze's making, illuminating Smith's political and aesthetic intentionality for the first time.  The Radicalization of a 50s Housewife further positions Birthdaze as the result of Smith's life's work – both as a feminist and an artist – beginning in the conservative post-war...


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Sight of Place: Landscape In Experimental Film and Video
Curated by David Burns
Oct 05, 2011 to Dec 04, 2011
Support for this series comes from Video Data Bank

Images of landscapes in film and video never truly seem to represent the wilderness that they portray.  Sometimes the landscape is a pause in the narrative - a moment of reflection or a meditation on what is not overtly part of the "story."  There are other instances when landscape, or an image of the natural world, functions as an allegory or metaphor not really intended to replace meaning, but to relay an understanding to the viewer (or to the character in proxy of the viewer).  However, it seems that in all cases the role of landscape in experimental and traditional film has functioned as a means to reflect what we are not: we are not the wild, we are not free from context, and we are not always part of the landscape on screen.  Consequently, the camera and artist/director is placed...


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...and Europe will be stunned
A Film Trilogy by Yael Bartana
Oct 05, 2011 to Mar 10, 2012
Image, ...and Europe will be stunned, Yael Bartana

The UAG is proud to present the US premiere of Yael Bartana’s ... and Europe will be stunned.   This exhibition was the official Polish participation at the 54th International Art Exhibition in Venice.  It is also the inaugural event to be held in the Contemporary Arts Center Gallery at UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts.  Bartana’s trilogy aesthetically references propaganda films of the 1930s, which, when presented as a gallery installation, collectively deconstruct a group of ideological positions that contributed to the founding of Israel – European anti-Semitism, Colonialism, Socialism, and Zionism.  In so doing, the historical origin and development of Zionism, vis-à-vis Israel’s contemporary political stance toward the Palestinians, is scrutinized.  Key to the...


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Cult of the Ruin: Strategies of Accumulation
A Critical, Curatorial Concentration Exhibition
Jan 06, 2011 to Feb 05, 2011
Image, Cult of the Ruin, Video still

Cult of the Ruin: Strategies of Accumulation features 12 emerging artists from the U.S. and Europe working in video, performance, sculpture, installation, watercolor and food.  What binds these disparate projects is the persistence of appropriation, re-enactment, material accretion – as strategies – to address the perceived gap between records of the past and our present experiences.  Over 20 years have passed since critic Craig Owens posited this gap as a site for allegory.  In doing so, Owens defined a branch of postmodern art practice by the artist’s allegorical “impulse” to return to outmoded forms and systems – or ruins – to reinvigorate their contemporary value.  Taken together, the works in this exhibition evince contemporary deviations from his original theory.  And yet...


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