Peter Coffin
dal 6/4/2009 al 1/5/2009
Segnalato da
6/4/2009
Peter Coffin
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco
This exhibition is part of the cicle "Formerly Known as Passengers", a constantly transforming show featuring emerging international contemporary artists. The three pieces by New York-based artist included continue his study of behavior, through examining instincts and environments from the world around us. In his work, Coffin frequently uses strategies of displacement to make the natural seem highly unnatural.
The three pieces by New York-based artist Peter Coffin included in Passengers continue his study of behavior, through examining instincts and environments from the world around us. In his work, Coffin frequently uses strategies of displacement to make the natural seem highly unnatural.
Untitled (Gallery Soundtrack, 415-551-9206), from 2008, can be experienced remotely by calling the main Wattis Institute gallery phone number. The artist has created a series of imagined environments through the use of sounds—such as a babbling brook, playground noises, and birdcalls—that can be heard in the background of the phone line, situating callers into an environment that is highly removed from the one they assume to be dialing.
Coffin's mesmerizing video Untitled (One Minute Breach), from 2007, documents a whale breaking the surface of the ocean in one continuous circle. The artist highlights the extraordinary trait of breaching by isolating the whale's momentous leap.
Inspired by a definition of the term aesthetics as "an idea that sets humankind apart from other animal species," Untitled (2008) is based on the artist's quest for an animal that does have an aesthetic sensibility. Coffin discovered that the Satin Bower bird exhibits this sense of aesthetics in seeking out blue objects for building its nest. Using a collection of blue flowers, egg shells, and more typically trash and man-made blue items, the bird's impressive display is meant to attract mates. Visitors to Passengers are invited to participate in building a Satin Bower bird nest on a human-scale by contributing blue objects to the work, encouraging the viewer to be taken temporarily out of his own aesthetic element to adopt the bird's visual preference.
Image: Untitled, 2007. Conveyor system, release mechanism and balloon, 11.9 x 33.7 x 15.3 feet, Installation View: Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, Courtesy the artist and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
Launched in September 2007, the exhibition Passengers aimed to overcome the often-restrictive programming schedule of a typical art institution by implementing a format that was constantly transforming and self-perpetuating. At the beginning of every month, one of the artists from the group portion of the show would move into the central cube to present a solo show, and then at the end of the month he or she would leave the exhibition completely and a brand-new artist would enter the group show, thus constantly repopulating the display.
A new presentation opens to the public on the first Tuesday of every month, with a short artist talk at 7 p.m. followed by a reception.
Press Contacts
Brenda Tucker Director of Public Relations tel 415.703.9548 btucker@cca.edu
Reception: Tues., Apr. 7, 7 p.m.
CCA Wattis Institute
San Francisco campus
1111 Eighth Street, Wattis Institute
Hours: Tues. and Thur., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Wed., Fri., and Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Free and open to the public