TAVARES STRACHAN, “Where We Are Is Always Miles Away”

WHERE WE ARE IS ALWAYS MILES AWAY

installation by TAVARES STRACHAN

ARTIST TALK: DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 11/01/06) ,Under Strachan’s direction, a crew from the City of New Haven, Connecticut excavated a portion of Crown Street – including cement, earth, a parking meter, a street sign. The accompanying air was collected. The excavated materials will be transported to San Franciscos luggage store gallery by truck and then craned up to the 2nd floor where it will they will be exhibited in a hermetically sealed container that is being made to recreate the atmospheric and temperature conditions at the time of Strachans excavation. The gallery will be darkened and the only light emanating within the space will come from New Haven, Connecticut.

In the winter of 2006, the City of New Havens Department of Cultural Affairs in association with the Office of Economic Development and the Enginnering Department agreed to provide pro bono services for Strachans project. This included a crew to excavate the sidewalk under Strachans direction, a donation of the Citys real estate and “accompanying air” t o the artists project, and a crew to repair, recreate and replace the materials that were taken from the City street. The crew ultimately left no trace or evidence that anything out of the ordinary had occurred.

“Where We Are Where We Are goes beyond issues of forcible displacement by engaging current scientific technologies to explore multiple layers of removal, replacement, repositioning and re-creation while evoking both absence and presence (or non-presence) .

The work can be viewed literally as a physical reality moving to a different space and time. On a poetic level, it suggests the notion of dual and shared experiences bringing light from one place to another, as well as the play of virtual reality, myth- making and oral tradition. Yet the work also has an implicit association with violence– a violation of a specific space and time–with intent to extract, disrupt, and displace, ultimately leading to a state of imbalance. In this way, Strachans work deftly addresses and reflects on a myriad of cultural shifts and socio-political conditions of the present day.

Strachan is originally from Nassau, Bahamas, and holds an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been exhibited at the CAC in Cincinnati, SAFN Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland, among other venues. His Artic Ice Project The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want, which involved extracting a 4000 pound ton of ice from
an Alaskan River and shipping it to Nassau where it was kept frozen by solar energy, was on view during July and August 2006 in Nassau, Bahamas. It will be exhibited in the Wynwood section of Miami, Florida during Miami Basel Art Fair in December 2006. Concurrent with his show at the luggage store, Strachan also is being featured in solo exhibitions at Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn, New York and the Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York City.

The exhibition is funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, Grants for the Arts of the Hotel Tax Fund, The San Francisco Foundation and The San Francisco Art commission/Cultural Equity, The City of New Haven Connecticut Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Pro bono support from Kytin Design.

Many thanks to ; Constantine of Kytin and crew, Steven Clifford, Mark Sabatino/Gizmo,Kory, Sham, Christophhe Thompson, bcci construction, Ed Mayfield, Alicia Utter, Steven Shottenfeld, Don Arce, Paul Waschkowsky, James Keenan, Nathan Groth, Daniel Guzman, Felipe Ortega, Chester Chiu, Juan Beccerra, Sergio Galvez, Dale Robertson; Ricardo Richey and Cigarette Man “Ron” and Mr. Walsh; Dennis Parlante from Ameriship USA., Max Toth, Zachary