Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty
June 18–September 20, 2015
Complete Wall Text
Intro Text
The title of this exhibition, Night Begins the Day, is taken from the Jewish tradition in which a
new day begins at erev or “evening.” In the Torah, it is stated in Genesis 1:5, “And God
called the light day, and the darkness He called night, and it was evening and it was morning,
one day.” This minor reconceptualization of the structure of a day—commonly accepted as
a given in Western thought—allows a poetic rethinking of other received ideas.
Throughout most of human history, our experience of time has changed very little: duration
has been measured in days, weeks, and months. Now, we can launch satellites that will
literally travel forever, or send messages to the other side of the planet in an instant.
Artworks in this exhibition consider this simultaneous compression and expansion as a
reminder that time is a wholly human construction. Our minds must also grapple with the
knowledge that the space of the universe is expanding infinitely and, linked to time, is
ultimately incomprehensible and unknowable. At the same time we explore quantum
mechanics—the behavior of subatomic particles that make up the physical world.
In the eighteenth century, the concept of the Sublime became very influential among
painters and poets due to an increasing interest in the aesthetics of science. Expanding global
exploration made people astutely aware of the enormous scale and splendor of the stillbeing-surveyed earthly wilderness, and the staggering immensity of the universe was being
revealed by astronomy. The result was a combination of awe and fear—awe at the majesty
and beauty of creation, linked with the fear of human frailty, mortality, and insignificance in
the light of the vastness of the cosmos. Furthermore, this response itself became a point of
interest: how do we existentially resolve our psychology and spirituality with this new
information?
There are corresponding considerations of these concerns in Judaism, for example in the
concept of yir’ah, or the fear of God as something bigger than oneself, and observance of the
Ten Days of Penitence (between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) in which time between
creation and death is metaphorically compressed into a ten-day period.
In Night Begins the Day, beauty is approached as a medium or tool through which to
contemplate ideas, such as space and time. Beauty becomes most apt and powerful when
used to approach topics of unknowing, illusion, or feelings of the Sublime. The artists
presented in this exhibition address concepts of space, time, and beauty and ask their viewers
to suspend disbelief with them in order to approach new ways of thinking alternatively on
these topics.
Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty
June 18–September 20, 2015
Complete Wall Text
Peter Alexander
b. 1939, Los Angeles; based in Los Angeles
PA and PE, 1990
Acrylic and oil on canvas
On loan from Pacific Enterprises, an affiliate of Sempra Energy
Lisa K. Blatt
b. St. Louis; based in San Francisco
clearest lake in the world, 2012
Video
1:36 min looped
Courtesy of the artist
Blatt is an artist whose specialty is traveling to remote places—putting herself through
rigorous, even dangerous travails—to derive her photographs. Often these images do not
easily explain their origins; it is as though Blatt wants the viewer to have to work as hard as
she did in order to “get” the picture. In clearest lake in the world, Blatt went to Patagonia, in
southern Argentina, which is one of the last great wilderness spaces in the world. She
discovered a lake that she was told was indeed, completely unpolluted. In the middle of the
night—also without light pollution—she recorded this brief video of the Milky Way spread
above her. Her secret is that she shot the starry scene as it was reflected in the lake water,
which is why the image wiggles: a slight breeze has rippled the surface. This image of nature
untouched by humankind is juxtaposed with the image of water as utterly controlled in the
neighboring work by Masood Kamandy.
Daniel Crooks
b. 1973, Hastings, New Zealand; based in Melbourne, Australia
A Garden of Parallel Paths, 2012
Single-channel high definition video, color, and sound
16:09 min
Courtesy of the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Australia
Peter Dreher
b. 1932, Mannheim, Germany; based in Wittnau, Germany
Tag Um Tag Ist Guter Tag (Day by Day, Good Day), 1974–2015
Oil on canvas
Koenig & Clinton
Dreher has been working on this series of paintings continuously since 1972. Each day, he
paints the same water glass on the same white background from the same vantage point.
Each painting is numbered sequentially according to whether it is a daytime or nighttime
rendition. To date, the artist has painted around 5,000 images of this same glass; each one is
different. Each is about the moment of its creation, marking the passing of time only
Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty
June 18–September 20, 2015
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through the specificity of an instance. The paintings are done with such care and attention to
detail that the artist’s surroundings are reflected on the surface of the glass. The seriality of
the paintings hung in concert serves to mark the passing of time, the additive effect of these
single moments.
Often compared to On Kawara, the Japanese conceptual artist who is known for his Today
series (1966-2013) in which he painted the day’s date in large white block letters on
monochromatic backgrounds, Dreher’s work is less about memorializing a day than
suggesting the suspension of time by a focus on the ordinary.
Moira Dryer
b. 1957, Toronto; d. 1992, New York
The Wall of Fear, 1990
Acrylic on wood, grommets
84 x 95 3/4 x 2 1/8 in.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, gift of the Estate of Moira Dryer
Laurent Grasso
b. 1972, Mulhouse, France; based in Paris and New York
Soleil Noir, 2014
16mm film, loop
11:40 min
Courtesy of Galerie Perrotin
David Horvitz
b. 1982, Los Angeles; based in Brooklyn, New York
somewhere in between the jurisdiction of time, 2014
32 unique glass vessels carrying seawater collected in the Pacific Ocean at longitude line
127.5° west of Greenwich placed north to south in a line
Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
Institute For Figuring
Founded in 2003; based in Los Angeles
Christine Wertheim: b. 1958, Brisbane, Australia; based in Los Angeles
Margaret Wertheim: b. 1958, Brisbane, Australia; based in Los Angeles
Bleached Reef, 2007–2015
Wool, cotton, silk, string, acrylic, wire, doilies, artificial flower stamens, baskets, felt, sand
Reef design by Margaret and Christine Wertheim. Installation construction by Anna Mayer,
Christina Simons, and Marcos Siref. Crochet pieces by Margaret and Christine Wertheim
(CA/Australia), Marianne Midelburg (Australia), Nancy Lewis (VT), Helle Jorgensen
(Australia), Sarah Simons (CA), Evelyn Hardin (TX), Arlene Mintzer (NY), Jill Schrier, (NY),
Pamela Stiles (NY), Dagma Frinta (NY), Christina Simons (CA). With vintage doilies by
Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty
June 18–September 20, 2015
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unknown makers; and miniature beaded-coral towers (crocheted around small plastic bottles
scavenged from beaches) by Nadia Severns (NY).
Courtesy of the artists
Started in 2005 by sisters Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring, the
Crochet Coral Reef project resides at the intersection of mathematics, marine biology,
handicraft, and community art practice. Through a process of collective creativity, the
project responds to the environmental crisis of global warming and the escalating problem
of oceanic plastic trash by highlighting not only the damage humans do to the earth’s
ecology, but also our power for positive action. The Crochet Coral Reef collection has been
exhibited in art and science museums worldwide, including the Andy Warhol Museum
(Pittsburgh), the Hayward Gallery (London), the Science Gallery (Dublin), and the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC) The project’s Satellite
Reef program has engaged thousands of people from all walks of life in more than a dozen
countries. The Crochet Coral Reef is one of the largest participatory science + art projects in
the world.
The Institute For Figuring is a non-profit, Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the
poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science and mathematics. Co-founded by science writer
Margaret Wertheim and her sister Christine Wertheim, a member of the Critical Studies
faculty at California Institute of the Arts, the IFF specializes in creating participatory projects
in which communities build large-scale artworks inspired by discoveries and techniques
stemming from scientific and mathematical research.
Masood Kamandy
b. 1981, Fort Collins, Colorado; based in Los Angeles
Pools, 2011
High definition video
6 min looped
Courtesy of the artist and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
One of contemporary life’s most moving experiences can be looking out the window as one
flies over a city at night. Observing the structure of urban life from four miles above affords
us a rare distance and insight into how we organize our lives. Being alone in the vast
darkness has a certain melancholic theatricality that reinforces our isolation and our
vulnerability. The city’s emergence from great fields of blackness reminds us of the way
galaxies spin surrounded by the empty vacuum of space. Kamandy utilizes the inherent
emotionality of such visions in Pools. He uses low-altitude footage taken over a suburb that
spreads to the horizon; using digital techniques he severely darkens the houses, the streets,
and any details like cars or people. At the same time he increases the brightness of the
dozens of backyard swimming pools that are revealed. The result is a kind of abstracted,
dotted field that mirrors the stars and galaxies in the unseen sky above. The basic element of
Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty
June 18–September 20, 2015
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water in the swimming pools has been tamed, contained, purified, and industrialized, in
contrast to Lisa K. Blatt’s water-related piece in this exhibition.
Robert Kooima
based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Total Perspective Vortex, 2005
Electro application capable of rendering a database of 2,533,774 stars in real time
Courtesy of Robert Kooima
Alicja Kwade
b. 1979, Katowice, Poland; based in Berlin
Future in the Past, 2012
Eight pocket watches, amplifier, eight speakers, eight gold- and silver-coated chains
Courtesy of Johann König, Berlin
Michael Light
b. 1963, Clearwater, Florida; based in San Francisco
100 Suns: 021 CLIMAX/61 kilotons/Nevada/1953, 2003
100 Suns: 035 PRISCILLA/37 kilotons/Nevada/1957, 2003
100 Suns: 036 GRABLE/15 kilotons/Nevada/1953, 2003
All pigment prints
Courtesy of the artist and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco
The history of modern art can be discussed in terms of the history of artists wrestling with
the idea of beauty. For artists like Michael Light, beauty and horror can be intertwined. In
fact, that juxtaposition is one definition of the Sublime. There is little argument that atomic
bombs are the most horrible things ever built by man, but works like Light’s also argue for
these explosions to be considered as objects, sculptures made of light, heat, and smoke.
Alternatively, the process of imploding the atom to create an explosion similar in form and
process to the Big Bang is the closest that humankind has come to a “God-like” action.
Light utilized the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to these military images and
then repurposed them as art works.
The Long Now Foundation
founded in 1996; based in San Francisco
Geneva Wheel Prototype for 10,000 Year Clock, 2008
Steel
Courtesy of The Long Now Foundation
Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty
June 18–September 20, 2015
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The Long Now Foundation exists to “provide a counterpoint to today’s accelerating culture
and help make long-term thinking more common” (from the Long Now Foundation
website). They define “long-term” as 10,000 years, the approximate age of human
civilization. To accomplish this goal, the Foundation hosts seminars; is compiling a database
of every word in every language in the world; has opened a public space to support
conversation and thinking about these projects; and is creating a clock that will be able to
run continuously for the next 10,000 years.
The 10,000 Year Clock is currently nearing completion in a mountain in western Texas. The
clock will be buried hundreds of feet underground, itself 200 feet tall, and will chime at noon
on the days that it is wound. The Foundation is currently in conversation with a local Texas
family regarding the winding and upkeep of the clock in perpetuity from one generation to
the next. Even if nobody visits the clock, it will continue to keep accurate time by utilizing
changes in climate and temperature to produce energy.
The Geneva wheel on view is taken from the full-scale prototype for the clock that was
assembled in a warehouse in Marin County. The gear is a standard mechanism, invented
along with the first mechanical clocks, that turns continuous rotation into intermittent
motion. This is how a clock ticks.
Jorge Macchi and Edgardo Rudnitzky
Macchi: b. 1963, Buenos Aires; based in Buenos Aires
Rudnitzky: b. 1956, Buenos Aires; based in Berlin
From Here to Eternity, 2013
Two-channel video projection, color, with three sound channel, loop
Courtesy of the artist and Alexander and Bonin, New York
Vanessa Marsh
b. 1978, Seattle; based in Oakland, California
Mountains 11 from the series Falling, 2014
Chromogenic photogram, edition 3/3 unique prints +1 A/P
Mountains 4 from the series Falling, 2014
Chromogenic photogram, edition 3/3 unique prints +1 A/P
Mountains 10 from the series Falling, 2014
Chromogenic photogram, edition 3/3 unique prints +1 A/P
Courtesy of the artist and Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco
Josiah McElheny
b. 1966, Boston; based in New York
The Center Is Everywhere, 2012
Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty
June 18–September 20, 2015
Complete Wall Text
Brass, cut lead crystal, electric lighting
Courtesy of Artware Editions, New York
Klea McKenna
b. 1980, Freestone, California; based in San Francisco
Rainstorm #14 (Kona, March), 2015
Unique gelatin silver photogram of rain
Rainstorm #11 (Kona, April), 2014
Unique gelatin silver photogram of rain
Rainstorm #13 (Kona, March), 2015
Unique gelatin silver photogram of rain
Courtesy of the artist and Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles
Katie Paterson
b. 1981, Glasgow, United Kingdom; based in Berlin
Dying Star Letters, 2010–12 and present
Posted letters and envelopes
Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai
Fred Tomaselli
b. 1956, Santa Monica, California; based in Brooklyn, New York
Toytopia, 2003
Photo collage, gouache, acrylic, and resin on wood panel
Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai
Fred Tomaselli
b. 1956, Santa Monica, California; based in Brooklyn, New York
Bloom #6, 2011
Bloom #8, 2014
Bloom #9, 2014
Bloom #10, 2014
Bloom #11, 2014
All gouache and photo collage on photogram
Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty
June 18–September 20, 2015
Complete Wall Text
Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai
Tomaselli is most well-known for his psychedelic paintings that often include actual
psychedelics and other drugs varnished into their surfaces. The artist does not shy away from
acknowledging his past personal use of psychotropic drugs, though the work is immediately
a response to the language around drug use and painting offering, “windows onto the
world.” The Bloom series consists of perhaps Tomaselli’s most intimate and personal works
to date. They offer the viewer a window into his world, more specifically, his garden. Each
of the photograms is from a leaf taken from the artist’s own backyard garden. Similar to
Peter Dreher’s meditative paintings of a water glass, Tomaselli studies the leaves of plants he
sees everyday and exposes their beauty while drawing the viewer’s attention to the forms of
nature, human impact on nature, and the delicacies of maintaining the balance between
humanity and the natural world. Tomaselli’s painting Toytopia depicts a human’s experience
of deep engagement with and awe of the universe.
Fred Tomaselli
b. 1956, Santa Monica, California; based in Brooklyn, New York
July 5, 2012 (Study), 2012
Digital print with silkscreen, edition 98 of 108
Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai
Christopher Woodcock
b. 1975, San Francisco; based in San Francisco
Arc Pass, 2011
C-print
Courtesy of the artist and Benrubi Gallery, New York
Christopher Woodcock
b. 1975, San Francisco; based in San Francisco
The Great Western Divide —Trail Crest, 2011
C-print
Courtesy of the artist and Benrubi Gallery, New York
The original philosophy of the Sublime was based on an appreciation of the majesty of
nature, combined with anxiety around understanding that individual human existence was
miniscule at the level of the cosmos. Woodcock’s photographs refer back to those early days
when we swooned over images of the Rocky Mountains. What makes his works
contemporary is that, like much of the art in Night Begins the Day, there is a bit of information
withheld from the viewer that changes its meaning. Woodcock’s photographs of the Sierra
were taken not at high noon, as they appear to be, but in the middle of the night, using only
moonlight to make the exposure. His work is a direct manifestation of the title of the
exhibition, in which the definition of day and night is redefined.
Night Begins the Day: Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty
June 18–September 20, 2015
Complete Wall Text
flydime
The Door to Hell, Gas Crater Turkmenistan, fire, 2010
Digital photograph
In the 1970s, a Soviet oil exploration crew in a distant desert in the Soviet Republic of
Turkmenistan discovered what they took to be a potentially rich field. As often happens they
struck natural gas and not oil. A decision was made to burn off the gas before continuing to
search for oil. They inadvertently set off an enormous conflagration that, rather than burning
off quickly, has continued to be a fiery pit hundreds of feet across, up until the present time,
a half century later. Called Darvaza, or the Door to Hell, it stands as a monument to human
folly at the grandest of scales. Michael Light’s photographs in this exhibition are exemplars
of the contemporary Sublime, showing the power of human activity upon the world. With
similar flaming intensity, Darvaza reveals the awesome power that nature holds over us that
first defined the Sublime some 250 years ago.
Flight Patterns
vimeo.com/5369286
From Aaron Koblin
Yosemitebear Mountain
Double Rainbow 1-8-10
youtu.be/OQSNhk5ICTI
From Yosemitebear62
Encounters At The End of the World
Holy Diver
film by Werner Herzog
youtu.be/aVtj_dQvVUM
From Romiina Zano