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Sandow Birk | Imaginary Monuments

Media Room:
Rob Carter | Urbanism : 3 Animations

October 24, 2015 - January 2, 2016


Sandow Birk
Imaginary Monuments

Catharine Clark Gallery presents Imaginary Monuments, a solo exhibition of new work by Sandow Birk.  On view October 24, 2015 - January 2, 2016, the exhibit features several new drawings and one new direct gravure print in Birk's Imaginary Monuments series. In this on-going project, the artist combines foundational and iconic texts with fantastical and imagined architecture in large scale works on paper. Birk will be present for the exhibition opening on Saturday, October 24, from 3 - 5 pm, with an artist talk at 3:30. 

Since debuting the series in 2007 with the drawing Monument to the Constitution of the United States, now in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Birk has created numerous drawings and three large scale gravures as part of this project over the last eight years. Subjects of his latest drawings tend towards broader themes, incorporating the text of multiple seminal documents in one work in an effort to portray the complex history behind topics germane to current events and consciousness.  True to form, Birk unabashedly portrays controversy.  In Proposal for a Monument to the Prison Industrial Complex (2015), and Proposal for a Monument to the NYPD (2015), Birk addresses head-on the firestorm of current events and polarized opinions concerning law enforcement, the use of force, and criminal legislation in the United States.   

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Media Room:
Rob Carter | Urbanism: 3 Animations

Pairing purposefully with Birk's exhibit in the main galleries, an installation of Rob Carter's video work displays concurrently in our dedicated media room. Carter's exhibition features three videos: Sun City (2013), Metropolis (2008), and Foobel (2005). Carter's stop motion animation portray the politics of nature and architecture through the lens of history, and often concern humanity's perpetually unfolding relationship to the natural world.  Works in the exhibit explore specific historical developments in architecture and the impact of our buildings on landscape and society.  Using stop motion animation, the past, present and future are visualized through paths of urban expansion, deconstructing cultural and corporate practices such as tourism and sport.  Works like Metropolis (2008) manifests Carter's ability to suggest the malleability of what may seem indestructible and permanent.  In this single-channel video, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina transforms through real and fictional aerial still images chosen and created by the artist.  From its stark beginnings as a Native American trading path in 1755, Charlotte metamorphosizes into a hubristic future-city, filled with skyscrapers and sports arenas. Ultimately, Charlotte's monuments of steel and glass succumb to the sylvan landscape.

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Catharine Clark Gallery
248 Utah Street
(Between 15th & 16th)
San Francisco, CA 94103