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The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers: 2.7 Kristin MorginPost an Event »

CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

March 3 - April 5, 2009

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360 Kansas Street San Francisco, CA 94103
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The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers: 2.7 Kristin Morgin Kristin Morgin, Topolino, 2003. Unfired clay, wood, wire and cement
Kristen Morgin uses a mixture of clay, cement, and glue applied over armatures of wood and wire to create true-to-scale objects that appear to be in a late stage of decomposition. Conjuring up a post-apocalyptic vision, the Los Angeles based artist's sculptures are, however, as elegant as they are crude. Morgin uses her background in ceramics to achieve sophisticated textures in the unfired clay, such as the appearance of actual rust in Captain America (2005) included in the Passengers exhibition. Her techniques give the work exceptional complexity while avoiding the refined perfection traditionally associated with the ceramic arts. Captain America, based on an old-fashioned child's pedal car, bares marks of an apparent use with significant dents, a missing wheel, and the faded decorations of stars and stripes. Given the toy car's current state of ruin, these signs of use pertain to an eerie absence. Though she often recreates prized vintage automobiles, Morgin's subjects also include antique carousel horses and an upright piano. These vehicles of leisure and play—relics from an earlier era—are presented as skeletal versions of themselves. In the midst of returning to the earth, they become melancholic reminders of an irretrievable time.