Event

Set for an Altered StatePost an Event »

pick

Sight School

August 5 - September 1, 2011

Info

5651 San Pablo Avenue Oakland, CA 94608
Google Map »
Set for an Altered State "The Wind Doesn't Always Blow", flag detail, 2011. Image by Lauren Marsden
Opening Reception: Friday August 5, 7-9pm Performance artist, Lauren Marsden debuts her sculpture in this art installation in which the protagonist is missing but what remains are the ephemera of discarded pageantry, California state identity and the futility of the contemporary energy system. On the heels of her ceremonious forays into the American West, Marsden transforms Sight School into a stage set where the cast is conspicuously absent. Against a video backdrop of a stuttering landscape, she uses hand/readymade objects including a large golden flag fluttering in the wind, a text with altered presidential grammar, Miss Department of Energy’s bathing suit, and a vacant lectern. Marsden is inspired by the precarious Californian grid and her set reveals its own energetic crisis, giving way to an unlikely collection of Golden State artifacts. This exhibition marks her first solo gallery installation and is, in a sense, her farewell to California and the Bay Area, as she is relocating to Vancouver, Canada.