Rob Craigie
dal 23/5/2002 al 29/6/2002
Segnalato da
23/5/2002
Rob Craigie
Haines Gallery, San Francisco
The Opposite of Scientist. The concept of experimentation, in a kind of 'pseudo-scientific' observation of this world that surrounds us, has always been a preoccupation of Craigie's. This new body of work pushes the limits of this observation by posing as an open-ended platform for investigation and classification of social and natural systems of organization.
Rob Craigie will be returning to the Gallery for his fourth solo show
with Haines Gallery.
The concept of experimentation, in a kind of ‘pseudo-scientific’
observation of this world that surrounds us, has always been a
preoccupation of Craigie’s. This new body of work pushes the limits of
this observation by posing as an open-ended platform for investigation
and classification of social and natural systems of organization.
Craigie approaches the work as a series of Categories. Composed of
‘sculptured events in time’, ‘experimental sculptures’, film as ‘drawing
with time’, and ‘projects’ - that is a compilation of video, photographic
stills, found object and drawings - there is a certain cadence in this
body of work that allows the visitor to the Gallery to explore visually
and mentally and to share in the process of internal questioning which
is key to any creative pursuit.
This body of work has been the result of two years of the artist’s
scientific/adventure travel to Russia, Papua New Guinea, the South
Pacific, and numerous other locations in the Caribbean and Malaysia,
collecting visual information, which Craigie has filtered and distilled
into his "Expanding-Possibility-of-Artshow-System" model. The
exhibition is set up as a kind of "information lab", where the viewer
can move through the space and engage in various forms of visual
stimuli. They may choose to sit at one of the various work benches, or
"research portals", where information can be downloaded mentally via
video, catalogues, notebooks.
Craigie speaks of the premise behind his work as being, "more fun to
have a question than to be given an answer". For this very reason his
exhibition is a random occurrence of components where the viewer
takes on the role of scientist or anthropologist. It is not about
describing an object, a process, or a place, but rather it is about the
unlimited possibilities of how things connect to one another. For
Craigie, the title of a drawing is the product of the drawing itself, or the
video becomes the container for information not the gallery space, and
the exhibition itself becomes a vessel purely to transmit a thought
process rather than a curated dialogue that is forced onto the work. It
is a test of confidence for both artist and viewer in not having to know
the answer, but to allow for the expansion of a mental process which
allows for all possibilities.
"In the eight years that I have worked with Rob, my eye is continually
reinvigorated by his fresh and facile use of a wide variety of media. His
honest yet humorous take on what the world presents to him, his
clarity of "seeing", and how that translates into his medium of choice,
is a continual inspiration and challenge to me in presenting the work",
Cheryl Haines - Director.
We look forward to having this body of work here and the experience
it will offer visitors to the Gallery. The work is not only conceptually
smart, but completely popularist in its allowance for discovery by the
viewer.
Haines Gallery
49 Geary Street Fifth Floor San Francisco, CA 94108
open Tuesday through Friday 10.30am - 5.30pm and on Saturday from 10.30am - 5.00pm. The Gallery also stay open late on the First Thursday of every month until 7.30pm.