SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The Museum of Craft and Design is presenting Interior/Exterior, an exhibition that examines structures, “rooms” and objects, which are neither fully interior nor fully exterior. This exhibition exposes the permeability between the categories of public and private space. Looking beyond the neat closure of four walls, Interior/Exterior features site-specific installations, temporary structures and sculptures by Julie Alpert, Benjamin Armas and Ori Carino, Macon Reed, Kathy Sirico and Kaori Yamashita.
Curator, Ariel Zaccheo, notes “This exhibition sheds light on the already punctured nature of privacy and interiority in built structures, and aims to show how identity and community shape (and are shaped by) our built environment.”
Interior/Exterior becomes a portal that invites people to question their relationship to the spaces they inhabit, and positions structures and shelters as permeable, active bodies. Objects of the home–no longer just containers–become active shapers of our social space. San Francisco-based Kathy Sirico’s work seeks to build radical empathy, weaving narratives of memory, desire and loss in a world threatened by climate catastrophe through experimental collage-based practices, while Julie Alpert’s installations address nostalgia, decoration and our ideas of memory and experience by distorting the interior of a room using craft materials and hardware store supplies.
New York-based artists Benjamin Armas’ and Ori Carino’s work lays bare the bones of a wall in a minimized scale. Hinting at demolition, the wood is ragged and unfinished, and in some cases, burned. The hollowness and destruction of the object signals the end of its intended use as a social space, but also implies a new beginning, either in its abandonment or in its potential demolition. Armas’ and Carino’s work serves as a haunting visual emblem of gentrification, felt deeply in their home-state of New York and in San Francisco, as many rent-controlled buildings have burned, creating space for new development. San Francisco-based Kaori Yamashita follows on this theme with an installation using mortar, wood and plaster that undermines the physical imposition of a brick wall.
Additionally, created from simple materials, cardboard, plaster and wood, Massachusetts-based Macon Reed’s Eulogy for the Dyke Bar is an immersive installation questioning why once-thriving queer female spaces are in decline, and the necessity of public gathering spaces in community formation. During the exhibition run her work will be aligned with programming that highlights the loss of queer female spaces in the Bay Area.
“MCD values creatives who are risk-takers driven to inspire the world. Interior/Exterior artists pose questions around public and private spaces, gentrification, memory and climate control supporting MCD’s mission to be a welcoming place for spirited conversation and an experiential understanding of creative expression,” states Executive Director, JoAnn Edwards.
