Mexican Modernity: Vintage Postcards from the 1920’s

Mexican Modernity: Vintage Postcards from the 1920’s

Exhibit: Monday, April 29th – Monday, May 20th

Reception: Thursday, May 2nd, 5-8 pm

During the 1920s, a decade that ended with a worldwide economic crash, Mexico was a country reaching for modernity, the elusive concept of the modern age. It was a reach towards a time of rapid transit, a time of trains, airplanes, and first skyscrapers, a time of activity literally scratching the firmament above urban centers such as Mexico City. But for Mexico there has always been a clash between the ideal and the reality, between the dream and the concrete. This exhibit explores the intrepid photography from a company known mostly by its initials CIF. With their photographic contributions Compania Industrial Fotografica captured the wide breadth of what was, is and has always been Mexico.
The collection of postcards on display reveals a Mexico in conflict with its rigid, catholic sensibilities, a country tied to their past, but that dreams of a modern, idealized future. The Mexican Revolution, a conflict from 1910-1920, had just ended and the nation was liberated in mind and body from a decade of struggle and repression. These postcards revealed another face of Mexico: the wild extravagant expression of a generation peering over the edge at the abyss of modernity.

Curators:  Alejandro Murguia* and Carolyn Ho

Assistant Curator: Anna Elizabeth Escobedo

Photo Editor: Brenda Lopez

Sponsored by:  Raza Faculty Staff Association, Richard Oakes Multicultural Center, Cesar Chavez Student Center – Special Events, SFSU College of Ethnic Studies, The San Francisco Mexican Consulate, Archivo General de la Nacion Mexico D.F., and SFSU Campus Copy Center

*Postcard and images generously on loan through the private collection of Alejandro Murguia

UpCycling: Transforming Old into New through Apparel and Furniture Design

UpCycling: Transforming Old into New through Apparel and Furniture Design

Exhibition: Tuesday, April 2nd – Monday, April 22nd, 2013 (Earth Day)

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 4th, 5 – 8 pm

Upcycling is a process of converting discarded materials (‘waste’) into new products, resulting in a decreased use of raw materials. Upcycling extends the life of a product and the salvaged item gains renewed value. The damaging impact of waste on the environment is reduced simply through strategic collaboration of people working together, especially in businesses and through community organizations. Together we can avoid an endless production and disposal of items which ultimately crowd our landfills. Efforts in our community to collect and redistribute, repurpose, repair and if needed- recycle (to breakdown objects into their base materials), and to refashion all used goods to avoid waste, is an urgent philosophical adjustment to our mainstream culture. This exhibit hopes to alter the perspective of old clothing, used tablecloths, plastic bags, cardboard, found lumber, wire hangers and most everyday materials, as still necessary items that when recovered and upcycled contribute to a more sustainable world.

The exhibit displays innovative examples of reuse to encourage awareness. Items considered ‘trash’ are transformed into garments, accessories and furniture. All pieces are created by SFSU Apparel Design & Merchandising and Interior Design students and affirms the viability and need for upcycling in our society.

A FEW FACTS:

-For every ton of textile products diverted from landfill and re-used, an estimated 20 tons of CO2 is saved.

-Americans discard an estimated 68 pounds of textile products, per person a year.

-Over 70% of the world’s population uses secondhand clothes, so your old clothes can be used to help people in need.

-Americans discard an estimated 1,609 pounds of trash, per person, each year.

-The average time it takes for plastic bottles in landfill to decompose is 700 years.

-Styrofoam products such as foam core, coffee cups, and packing materials may take over 500 years to decompose.

-San Francisco diverts 80% of all waste generated in the City away from landfill, however we still send 440,000 tons of materials to landfill yearly, enough to fill the Transamerica Building nine times.

-Waste sent to landfill produces methane, a greenhouse gas 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

EXHIBIT ACTIVITIES:

Swap Rack – A Clothing Swap

Come by and swap something old you absolutely hate for something new you utterly love. Bring any clothing or accessory item still in usable condition.

Bit by Bit – A Collective and Participatory Art Installation and Experiment

Visitors are asked to contribute in creating a garment on a single mannequin. Old fabric and embellishments, as well sewing materials provided. The community project will stay up throughout the exhibit, and the final product/garment will be photographed and cataloged as part of our show.

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Curators: Constance Ulasewicz and Carolyn Ho

Student Instructors: Gus Vouchilas, Adrian Leong, Gail Baugh

Co-sponsored by the San Francisco State University Department:

Consumer & Family Studies/ Dietetics Department – Apparel Design &

Merchandising and Interior Design Programs

A to B: Art in Transit

Come check out The Art Gallery’s latest show A to B: Art From Transit, open February 25- March 14, 2013. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 28^th from 5-8pm.

For over a century and half, many San Franciscans have used public transit as their primary means of transportation to commute across the city.  Today, over 200 million people a year use municipal transportation to reach destinations.  Speeding along the streets of San Francisco, strangers with their own lives and their own agendas all rely on public transit for one purpose: to get them from point A to B.

Every bus, train, and streetcar is a vehicle delivering these strangers in separate directions while simultaneously bringing them together for a brief moment in an otherwise hectic life. Unpredictable events, funny stories, poems, songs, photographs, and videos are all experienced or created while sharing a ride.  Everyone who has used public transportation can relate to stories and events that take place on these urban vehicles. Through this common experience, public transit becomes not only the vehicle but also the bridge that connects us all together.

This exhibition attempts to bring together several mediums that were either created or experienced while using San Francisco’s public transportation system.  Though everyone can relate to the overall experience of riding Muni, the interpretation or conception of an event, moment, or idea resides in the individual.  We invite you to explore these unique pieces created with the personal inspiration from a common necessity.

Tanka after the Tsunami

January 28^th – February 14^th, 2013

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 31^st, 5-8pm

You’re invited to the opening reception of, Voices from Japan: Tanka After the Tsunami.  The exhibition features a collection of translated Tanka poems, calligraphy, photographs, and video reflecting the loss and hope of the survivors of the tsunami that devastated Japan last year. The reception features a live calligraphy and a story telling performance.  Light refreshments and food will be served.

Each week in Japan, new poems appear in newspapers. Following the disaster of March 11, 2011, thousands of readers submitted tanka poems to Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest daily newspapers. The poets: fisherman, housewives and loved ones testified to the physical and emotional damage left in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The earthquake measured magnitude 9.0, the most powerful ever to hit Japan. The resulting waves reached up 10 stories before rushing six miles inland, collapsing homes, shops, schools and temples. The Fukushima nuclear power plant was devastated. This exhibition seeks to remember the over 15,000 lives lost and to recognize the recovery and healing that continues today. More than a year after the devastating events, Isao Tsujimoto, director of Studio for Cultural Exchange, assembled and selected a collection of 75 poems, 29 of which are on display, along with photo collages and Japanese calligraphy from Voices from Japan: Despair and Hope from Disaster, in New York. These works convey the resiliency of the Japanese people and are being paired with photographs, live calligraphy, video, cultural literary exchange, and a storytelling performance.

Produced by Dilena Takeyama Center for the Study of Japan and Japanese Culture and The Cesar Chavez Student Center Art Gallery at San Francisco State University. Presented in cooperation with Voices from Japan: Despair and Hope from Disaster, an exhibition and cultural exchange, curated by Isao Tsujimoto of Studio for Cultural Exchange in Tokyo, and first presented in New York, June of 2012.

EVENTS:

Thursday, January 31^st, 3:00 – 5:00 pm

“Reconnecting with Tohoku: A Community Roundtable Discussion”

(by invitation, for more information please email ccscartgallery@gmail.com)

Thursday, January 31^st, 5:00 – 8:00 pm   

Reception to Exhibit

            5:30 pm  “When the Catfish Dances” performed by Brenda Wong Aoki.

            6:30 pm    A live calligraphy demonstration by Aoi Yamaguchi.

Tuesday, February 5^th, 4:30 – 6:00 pm

“Fukushima/Tanka/San Francisco: The Voice of NOW”, a student poetry reading and exchange, organized by The Poetry Center and Foreign Languages and Literature Department at SFSU.

Art In Transit – Call For Entries

The Art Gallery is currently accepting artwork and writings in any form that relate to or are inspired by the use of public transportation. Our upcoming exhibit “Art In Transit” is open to all artists working in any medium including: sculpture, painting, photography, video, animation, sketches, poetry, found objects, etc. NOTE: Artists that submit work will be entered into a raffle for a gift card prize to be awarded at the opening reception. Electronic submissions are due Friday, Feb. 1st, 2013, so SUBMIT NOW!

AMAH: A Celebration of California Native Dance

Amah, the native word in Rumsen Ohlone (a tribe who’s territory includes SFSU) for “the people” expresses a shared commonality among native dance traditions. Mainly occurring in the spring and summer, native spiritual dances are a means to communicate with the environment and to express gratitude. Though dance customs are considered to be fluid, ever-evolving and represent the changing aspects of their culture, the fundamental movements, the rhythmic footwork of the dance itself has not changed. The hand-creation of the regalia through raw materials such as buckskin or shells, and the practice of these choreographed dance pieces which are accompanied by drums and song, is a spiritual right of passage, a tradition that has been passed down since the beginning of Native American culture.

Photographers Gilberto Ramirez and Rafael Moreno have captured Native dance culture for the past several years for other projects, and honor Native indigeneity through shooting proper representations of dancers in their traditional regalia and encouraging visibility and education through their artwork in their communities.

Maker’s Market

The Art Gallery in the Cesar Chavez Student Center at SF State University is having a Markers Market that will coincide with the historic Crafts Fair and Jazz Festival occurring annually downstairs on the Plaza level of our building.  We expect high traffic due to both fairs occurring simultaneously. Our two-day Makers Market Fair will consist of SFSU alum and students who are local artists, art collectives and organizations selling their handmade wares to the public.

The Makers Market will run from Wednesday December 5th (11-4pm) and Thursday December 6th, 2012 (4-8pm) and will take place in The Art Gallery and surrounding Terrace level, 3rd floor of the Cesar Chavez Student Center.