2001



Justin Chin | Book 2

Art Buffalo is a collective loosely comprised of writers Lisa Asagi, Justin Chin and R. Zamora Linmark. As writers and as readers, Art Buffalo is aware of how expensive books cost to purchase. Month after month, piles of books are abandoned on sidewalks after used bookstores decline to buy them; some of these books are snapped up by street people who try to resell them, while others are thrown into the trash. In Book 2 the writers re-worked, re-visioned, and re-modeled books that had been discarded or abandoned in the street and other public places. By writing in the margins and between the texts, inserting pages of new text, “editing” the existing text, and by drawing and collaging on every page, the result was a collection of artists’ books that dared and defied categorization. The books covered a wide range of genres and styles, lengths, and work. Book 2 addressed numerous issues: paper costs and use, waste and recycling, discourse about street economies, “reading” in a new way, and anti-object/anti-commerce. Book 2 was on view at the Youth Speaks Library and Reading Room in San Francisco during March 2003.

Los Cybrids | High Tech Sweat Shop

High Tech Sweat Shop was an interventionist project through which Los Cybrids drew parallels between the Information Technology (IT) manufacturing labor force and the “digital divide” issue of computer access. The project included three components: a panel discussion including union organizers, activists and IT workers around the contradictions of labor’s digital divide and progressive solutions that might bridge these inequalities; a web site documenting the project’s research and serving as a resource on labor issues of the digital economy; and an interventionist performance at the Lilli Ann Building in San Francisco’s Mission District, which is an historic labor landmark. The October 10, 2001 event included live performance, large scale video projections of pre-recorded video montages and live video, and prerecorded and live digital audio. The event was structured as a taping of the mock TV show Tech TV and included interviews with Gordo, the show’s host; a live Techno Santero mass; a presentation on Temployee 2002 by the show sponsor Generica Ventas; the VC cheerleaders; and satellite interviews by Tech TV personalities. High Tech Sweat Shop united Los Cybrids and Media Alliance, a San Francisco organization that provides training and resources for media workers, activists, and community organizations.



Sergio De La Torre | The Housing Project

Working in collaboration with artist and educator Moriah Ulinskas, and architect Andrej Dekleva, Sergio De La Torre examined how the then-exploding Bay Area population and shortage of affordable housing transformed private spaces (homes) into public spaces during “open houses.” The artists visited ten open houses in West Oakland, an area cited at the time as the newest “hot” housing market of the Bay Area. By conducting on-site audio recordings at the open houses, gathering information distributed by housesellers, and conducting interviews with community members living around the marketed homes, the artists created a series of sound and architectural reliefs of the West Oakland properties that was exhibited at Pro Arts in Oakland in early 2002. When originally conceived, the themes of “rushing” and “crowding” to buy property dominated The Housing Project; a mere five months later the economic downturn had begun and a nationwide recession was looming on the horizon. Open houses were happening few and far between, and the project’s theme evolved into “absence,” including the absence of the original home occupants, the homeowners, and potential buyers.

Sharon Siskin | STILL HERE

STILL HERE was a transit shelter/billboard project that consisted of 15 images created collaboratively by Sharon Siskin, Nancer LeMoins and Bob Corti, with the help of HIV positive artists who allowed themselves to be photographed and who contributed writings to the project. STILL HERE focused on the fact that people living with HIV and AIDS are still here, struggling against all of its manifestations and ramifications; the project intended to give voice to some of the individual stories. Each of the 15 black-andwhite images were hand-colored and then scanned, after which the imagery was manipulated and shaped into the “front side” of a vintage tourist postcard. The participants’ writing was used for the “back side” of the postcard. Stamps were created from color copies of slide reproductions of the work the three lead artists had done in the past as artists addressing HIV/AIDS. STILL HERE was exhibited at the Berkeley Civic Arts Commission’s Addison Street Windows. Six of the images were placed in transit kiosks along Market Street in San Francisco, and ten images were installed at the Richmond Art Center.

JURORS for this year were: Sebastian Robin Craig, composer; Jo Kreiter, dancer and choreographer; Susan Leibowitz Steinman, pubilc artist; Susan Schwartzenberg, urban archaeologist and photographer; Christine Pielenz and William Laven, co-directors, Potrero Nuevo Fund.

images (l to r): photo: Los Cybrids (2001); detail from How to Read A City Map reworked by Lisa Asagi; Joanie Loves Chachi reworked by R.Zamora Linmark; The I Ching or Book of Changes reworked by Justin Chin (2003), promotional postcard (detail), image design: Scott Oliver (2001); photo (detail): Sharon Siskin (2001)