Flow I Obstruction: process.dialogue.inquiry opens on June 8 from 6–9 p.m. at The Collaborative Gallery at 421 Gallery. Flow I Obstruction: process.dialogue.inquiry opens on June 8 from 6–9 p.m. at The Collaborative Gallery at 421 Gallery. The exhibition is curated by Arts Council for Long Beach CAP committee member Carolyn Schutten with Sayon Syprasoeuth. They invited artists to unfold their process in real time and engage in a deep collective inquiry of the intersections between Long Beach waterscapes and human and consumer flows. The exhibition will open with unexpected blank walls and we invite the public to a panel discussion with the artists and curators. This conversation will lead to various activations throughout the exhibition.
For its second Artist Registry show, Arts Council for Long Beach Executive Director Griselda Suarez is excited to share with Long Beach artists Schutten’s curatorial practice, which is rooted in space and place, dialogue, social exchange, engagement, and experimentation. Schutten said, “This exhibition honors the artistic process rather than the product, allowing visitors to witness the considerable thinking and exploration that goes into an artist’s final product. Artists are some of the great thinkers of our time, and this exhibition will make the artist process visible.”
CAP committee member, Sayon Syprasoeuth added, “The Collaborative Gallery is both an experimental space and a venue to highlight Long Beach artists registered on the new, user-friendly site. In addition to being eligible for future exhibitions, artists are provided an updateable micro-site and the means to add events to the Arts Council calendar. Artists in all disciplines are encouraged to submit a profile.”
Featured artists include Jennifer Celio, Myriam Gurba, Dulce Soledad Ibarra, Olga Lah, Tiffany Le, and Anna Beatrice Scott with programming by artists Devon Tsuno and Southern California Soundscape Ensemble.
Visitors are invited to witness this experimental “unfolding” exhibition during gallery hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 12:30–5 p.m. Sketches, photos, texts, multimedia, performance, and other objects and materials will contribute to an evolving archive-installation that will culminate at a closing reception and exhibition on August 2, 2018, from 6–9 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public and takes place at The Collaborative (421 W. Broadway).
For more information please visit, artslb.org/ Please RSVP at Eventbrite.com. Artists may submit an artist profile at artslb.org/artist-registry/register/
This admission-free event would not be possible without the generous contributions of our sponsors: City of Long Beach, Gallery 421 Apartments, Long Beach Home + Living, Lyon Management, Pacific Court – Pine Square Partners, and Los Angeles County Arts Commission
About the Curator
Carolyn Schutten’s thematic interests stem from her dissertation work on the history of Tijuana River at the U.S-Mexico border and her curatorial project “There Is a River Here” at the Santa Ana River in Inland Southern California, which included river cleanups and collaborative choreography, facilitated by Crystal Sepúlveda, as well as community crochet circles to co-construct massive yarn bombings of boulders that were later donated to a local homeless shelter, facilitated by textile art collaborative Threadwinners. Schutten said, “I’m really interested in the ways in which our waterways have become contested sites for constructing home as people and goods flow into our region — and how those efforts are often thwarted.” Schutten notes poignant parallels between border, inland, and Long Beach waterscapes and points to similar connections made in the work of Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei’s film Human Flow. “In nature there are two approaches to dealing with flooding, said Ai Weiwei in an article for The Guardian. “One is to build a dam to stop the flow. The other is to find the right path to allow the flow to continue. Building a dam does not address the source of the flow – it would need to be built higher and higher, eventually holding back a massive volume. If a powerful flood were to occur, it could wipe out everything in its path. The nature of water is to flow. Human nature too seeks freedom and that human desire is stronger than any natural force.”