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Swarm Gallery

October 30 - December 7, 2009

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560 Second Street Oakland, CA 94607
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V + Living Room Jordan Essoe, Myth of Sisyphus (2009), Video still
Gallery | V Solo exhibition of work by Taro Hattori Side gallery + project space | Living Room Jordan Essoe October 30 - December 6, 2009 Exhibit Opening | Friday, October 30, 6-8PM Artist Talk with Taro Hattori + Jordan Essoe | November 11, 6:30PM Swarm Gallery presents "V", and solo exhibition of new work by Oakland-based artist Taro Hattori. Taro's art practice is a way of measuring distances between him and things he finds unacceptable. Dealing with these "unacceptable" elements - generally weapons of destruction - he attempts to define himself by examining what he hates. He integrates these ideas into his art-making to render his world more coherent and balanced. This is his search for order, which is so often vulnerable to the power of chaos in our society. "V" consists of corrugated cardboard sculptures that represent five parts of a life-sized V-2 rocket, the world's first ballistic missile used by the Nazis. Other work in the show includes light-box prints that make a metaphorical connection between the V-2 rocket and Hattori's personal history. The V-2 was the most inefficient weapon ever made, causing more deaths during its production than in its deployment. An estimated 20,000 inmates at Mittelbau-Dora died constructing 5200 V-2s. Deployment resulted in the deaths of an estimated 7250 civilians and military personnel. By constructing this rocket from material we find in our everyday lives, Taro attempts to deactivate this symbol of destructive power. Essoe will present a two-part installation in Swarm's project space and side gallery about the indifference of the universe and its facility as a container. In the side gallery, the video The Myth of Sisyphus shows the artist continuously vacuuming up and down a hillside. This room also includes two close-up photographs of the floor and ceiling of Essoe's home studio/family room/dining room. In the project space, a series of drawings depict the artist laying on, straddling, and playing around a closed chest. A rectangular sculpture set in front of these pictures suggests the unseen contents of the chest, but also perhaps Sisyphus's rock, or the contents of the world being sucked up and collected in the performance video.
V + Living Room Taro Hattori, V2, Installation at the Headlands