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Read text here / Download PDF hereGhosts in the Machine
October 5 - November 18, 2006
Opening with the new gallery will be Ghosts in the Machine, which delves into the subtle influences of history on contemporary artwork. Guest curated by David Spalding, Ghosts in the Machine explores how elements of the past return to haunt the present in works of contemporary photography and digital media. The exhibition brings together artists from Finland, Lebanon, Vietnam and the United States to conjure the forgotten faces and demolished places that flicker at the far reaches of personal and cultural histories. Featuring 33 works, Ghosts in the Machine examines photography’s role in the construction of counter-histories and presents works by artists who have developed inventive strategies to revive and assimilate what might otherwise be forgotten. “Unlike previous shows, it is not an exhibition about the paranormal, the aesthetics of ghosts, or the history of photography, though it will raise questions about all of these things,” says Spalding, an independent curator and art critic. “Rather, Ghosts in the Machine explores the notion of haunting as a set of cultural conditions that arise when estranged moments in national histories and collective memory are not given their due.” Ghosts in the Machine serves as an exemplary vehicle to introduce the Bay Area to SF Camerawork’s most ambitious gallery space yet, featuring photographic works by Dinh Q. Lê, Mildred Howard, Jorma Puranen, Tony Hooker, Walid Ra’ad, Claudia Kunin and SF Camerawork’s newly commissioned performance video installation by Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom.
This exhibition is accompanied by the Spring/Summer 2006 issue of Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts; with essays by Avery Gordon, Louis Kaplan, Moira Roth, and David Spalding. This issue is available online here and nationally at select bookstores.
