FAREWELL, HELIOSPHERE!
From June 4th to June 30th, 2011
Opening: June 12th from 5 to 7 PM
Right Window Gallery at ATA
992 Valencia at 21st Street, San Francisco
FAREWELL, HELIOSPHERE!is an installation by Christine Canepa, and will be on view at Right Window through June 2011. It is a cover of General Idea’s installation Fin de Siecle, which was on view at SFMOMA in 1993. Like a musician covering another artist’s song, she has reinterpreted and rearranged General Idea’s piece, as both a humble homage, while adding her own layers of meaning. Replacing their 3 harp seals with a polar bear (another endangered animal), she is considering their ideas about extinction and endangerment. Endings have been a reoccurring theme in Canepa’s work. What happens to lives, events, relationships, or matter when they are no longer in the present temporal/spatial dimension is something she has explored in various bodies of work over the years. Sadly, polar bears will be gone in 50-100 years, according to author Richard Ellis. Beyond endangered, polar bears are facing imminent extinction. It is time to say goodbye.
General Idea are AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal. The latter two have since died from AIDS, while Bronson continues to work as an artist.
