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Electric Works

September 7 - October 7, 2012

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1360 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103
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Geometria Concretus Lucy Puls, Geometria Concretus (12-26), 23.25 x 18.5 x 3", photograph, aluminum panel, cast polyurethane, gouache, 2012
Opening reception Friday, September 7, 6-8 PM Electric Works is pleased to present Geometria Concretus, mixed media art work by Lucy Puls, September 7 - October 6 with a reception Friday, September 7, 6-8 PM at 1360 Mission Street in San Francisco. Puls' work has centered around 'stuff' — our possessions, objects and items which are so important in our day-to-day lives. It is these possessions, specifically the discarded ones, which consume Puls' interest. The latest examples of these disposable possessions that Puls works with is the center of the American dream: our homes. Since early 2009 Puls has been photographing interiors of "used up" homes. It is difficult to enter these stripped bare spaces, both from the practical level of gaining access and the psychological level of entering a space where some disharmony has occurred. The immediate punch of simmering emotion and decay, with its reek of disruption and intractability, growls regression - these rooms now exist in a more primal state. This potent atmosphere reinforces the perception of encroachment on a private topography that causes ones heart to flutter - it seems wrong to trespass. Strangely, as it always seems odd given the rawness of the setting, these spaces are loaded with striking vestiges of banality: glow-in-the-dark stars on a ceiling, nails evenly spaced where pictures once hung, or carpet indentations from furniture and repeated traffic. There was a time when normal everyday life happened here. In contrast to the ordinariness are the physical materials that make up these spaces, so brutally used up and disordered, ground down and ground upon, that walls and surfaces emerge as a type of chronicle. Its a peculiar, chaotic, beautiful, repellent read. In Geometria Concretus, Puls centers on issues of control and surrender inspired by our culture's constant shifting of desire. By tracking possessions that are materially, technologically, and/or psychologically expired - passageways to the collective conscience are traversed. Lucy Puls received her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her M.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design. Puls' work has been exhibited internationally and she is represented in numerous collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Museum, the Kent and Vicki Logan Collection, and the Progressive Art Collection, Mayfield Village, OH. Puls is a Professor of Art at University of California, Davis. Gallery hours are: Tuesday-Saturday 11:00 am - 5:00 pm