7/1/08

HALFLIFERS GROUP SHOW


Catharine Clark Gallery presents:
Cummings, Birk, Diaz Hope, HalfLifers at Catherine Clark Gallery
July 19 - August 23, 2008; opening Saturday, July 19, 5-7pm, San Francisco
MORE INFO: www.cclarkgallery.com
Catharine Clark Gallery's New Location
150 Minna Street, Ground Floor (between 3rd and New Montgomery)
San Francisco, CA, 94105 - 415-399-1439

Catharine Clark Gallery
Solo Exhibition: Timothy Cummings: "Last Call"
Installation: Sandow Birk selections from "Leading Causes of Death in America"; Andy Diaz Hope with Laurel Roth
Video Project: AfterLifers: Walking and Talking by HalfLifers (Anthony Discenza and Torsten Zenas Burns)
July 19 - August 23, 2008

Catharine Clark Gallery announces the upcoming solo exhibitions of new paintings by Timothy Cummings, titled "Last Call". "AfterLifers: Walking and Talking", a collaborative video project by Anthony Discenza and Torsten Zenas Burns, will be featured in the Video Project Room. Selections from Sandow Birk's "Ten Leading Causes of Death" will be featured in the back gallery, along with a collaborative installation by Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth. An opening reception for the artists is Saturday, July 19, 5 - 7pm.

For Cummings, last call is a state of existence where the perpetual desire to nurse a drink functions as an antidote for the pain associated with a more sober experience of contemporary life. In an era of continuous bad news, Cummings argues, many dangerously choose diversion over engagement. Cummings' zombie-youth admonish the viewer that without awareness and action, we may soon face a political reality that is devoid of choice, where our voices are rendered silent, and we too resemble the zombie characters of horror films.

HalfLifers, Anthony Discenza and Torsten Zenas Burns, working with reimagined zombie-characters in their collaborative video work since 1994, exhume cinema's favorite incarnation of mindless, decaying mortality in the hopes of breathing new life into this misunderstood figure.

A selection of prints from Sandow Birk's series "The Ten Leading Causes of Death" alongside a chandelier constructed from pills and hypodermic needles by Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth, similarly examine how certain behavior, generally in excess, contributes to a zombie-like existence that can lead to a general apathy towards life.