Detritus
Curators:
Kevin Chen, De Young Museum
Lisa Ellsworth, Palo Alto Arts Center
Lordy Rodriguez, Artist
May of 2017 thru September 2017 at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
Process, concept, engagement; these are some of the attributes we search for when looking at art. Sometimes the focus is so strong that the final outcome of the art becomes documentation of those same attributes. This show has nothing to do with that. This is a show about the left over, the detritus, the scraps that are a result of the art making process. Artists from all backgrounds and disciplines will be mined for the resulting material that comes from their studio practice. What kind of insight does a jar full of eraser shavings reveal in the studio practice of an artist that draws? Or the evolving patina of paint colors that can accumulate on the studio floor of a painter? Notions of an unofficial recorded history, timely obsessions and inspirations, even the changing relationship between artist and process, are all embedded in the detritus, the left over. In an almost forensic like approach, this show can change the focus away from the product of the art commodity to the core value of art making.
