ART

I was unprepared -- as usual. I was heading to an art show curated by Taraneh Hemami but I was not sure where, even though I had received a dozen emails about it. I drove to her last show's location but there was no one there. Finally I asked someone on the street: Where's the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts? She said it was near the the Museum of Modern Art. Really?

When I finally got there I thought wow, Iranians have certainly arrived. This is a big deal! The Center is a large complex "designed to embrace and celebrate a diversity of arts, cultures, and audiences. Created on the model of the European Kunsthalles, with no permanent art collection, YBCA bridges the seemingly contradictory worlds of pop culture, contemporary art, and community aesthetics."

The throngs of people was mostly non-Iranian San Franciscans. In addition to Taraneh's show with Reza Aramesh, Gita Hashemi and Leila Pazooki,  Ala Ebtekar was featured separately in the main hall with American artists.

My favorite was this oddly beautiful... thing by American artists Donald Fortescue and Lawrence LaBianca called "Sounding". The non-Iranian portion of the exhibit starts from the 40th photo.

Oh, and speaking of being unprepared: when I got there, I discovered my camera battery was dead. Thanks to Mohsen for lending me his camera -- again!

Museum's note: "Theory of Survival (July 19-August 24, 2008), guest curated by Iranian-American artist Taraneh Hemami, is a continuation of the CrossConnections project that engages the Iranian and Iranian-American diaspora community in an intergenerational, creative dialogue about issues of cultural identity, preservation, and representation. For its incarnation at YBCA, Theory of Survival brings together a multi-generational and international group of artists of the Iranian Diaspora who have responded to a historical archive belonging to the Iranian Students Association of Northern California, which was active from 1964–1984. The collection, which has been acquired by the Library of Congress, includes theoretical discourse, original essays, political analysis, translations, as well as posters, newspapers, and documents reflecting both Iranian as well as Bay Area history throughout these critical years. The artists that guest curator Taraneh Hemami has chosen to work with collectively investigate the archives of the past while exploring notions of devotion, freedom, survival and loss.">>>

Artists website
leilapazooki.com
rezaaramesh.com
taranehhemami.info
strictlypersonal.net

and theoryofsurvival.com

ALSO:
* Special viewing of the exhibition at YBCA on Thursday July 31, 2008, when the galleries stay open (till 8 pm) prior to the screening of Half Moon by Bahman Ghobadi, at 7:30 PM.
* Another highlight of the line up at YBCA's performances is Kronos Quartet and Homayoun Sakhi's performance on August 1 and 2 at 8 pm.

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