NO WAY OUT BUT THROUGH

Curator’s Statement

The compounded grief these last few years have brought—under the weight of pandemic isolation and spurious violence against our most marginalized, and recently in Uvalde, our most precious, has made getting from one day to the next a herculean feat. You’re lucky if you make it out of bed in the morning, let alone to work and back. How does one hold all of this weighted grief? How do we hold it collectively? A friend of mine once, when going through a personal crisis of her own, had one request from loved ones, family and friends: to not be reminded of any of it. “I just want to be distracted,” she told us. 

Distraction has often carried associations with frivolity and unseriousness at best, unproductivity and willful irresponsibility at worst. But distraction is only possible if there is something to be distracted from and who among us, given the immensity of the world at this moment, couldn’t use a little break from reality? If only for a few precious minutes.

For my friend, and I would venture for countless others, distraction is also a way to connect, to not turn inside oneself or close oneself off from the inside. Distraction through phone calls, through park dates, through picnics, through long hikes, through Zoom birthday parties, through street activations, through Netflix parties, through online viewing rooms, through memorials, through virtual drag shows, through Verzuz battles, distraction was a way of being with others and reminding ourselves what was at stake for us all on the other side. 

When selecting the work for this year’s juried exhibition, I often returned to the idea of distraction as having this connective potential. Perhaps because I kept getting distracted myself and kept seeking out TV shows and happy hours to pass the time. In many of these artists’ work, I saw a similar sense of longing and desire for connection reflected through the various subjects or scenes—both fantastical and mundane—used to help move us through. In sharp, vibrant color, Serena Corson offers a peek into the world of exuberant, adventuring femmes sharing space either in the great outdoors or in one another’s living rooms. Anthony A. Russell imagines a pastel-rendered pre-pandemic—maybe even primordial—San Francisco of languorous nudes taking in the warm night air or playing chicken on the roof of SFAI. Dreamy spaces of pleasure and play, with nary a mask in sight; where risk is minimal, and indulgence is encouraged. 

There are works that explore the celestial, as in Ann Holbserry’s abstract solar prints and cyanotypes, reminding us of just how infinite this world truly is. In Dana DeKalb’s Field Trip, figures cast their gazes up to the stars in reverent wonder.

But not all distraction needs necessarily to venture into fantasy; some distractions can be small reprieves within our daily realities. Pictured in bed, in a locked embrace, Jy Jimmie Gabiola presents a domestic scene of quiet intimacy between two figures, emphasizing the pleasures of rest and one another’s touch. In a suite of street scenes, Zoe Loa shows us communities of friends, families, or neighbors enjoying a park bench at sundown or simply reminding us to “be nice to the elote man.” 

Through it all, we find solace in connection—to ourselves, our bodies, our world, and one another. At times it is necessary to turn away from the pain and heartache of the present moment, events bigger than ourselves, and remember this simple fact. Remember to let some of it go and to seek comfort and wonder, to get lost in our daydreams, our fantasies, and our sweet indulgences.

About the Curator

ELENA GROSS (she/they) is an independent writer and culture critic living in Oakland, CA. She received an MA in Visual & Critical Studies from the California College of the Arts in 2016, and her BA in Art History and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2012. She specializes in representations of identity in fine art, photography, and popular media. Elena was formerly the creator and co-host of the arts & visual culture podcast what are you looking at? published by Art Practical. Her research has been centered around conceptual and material abstractions of the body in the work of Black modern and contemporary artists. She has presented her writing and research at institutions and conferences across the U.S., including Nook Gallery, Southern Exposure, KADIST, Harvard College, YBCA, California College of the Arts, and the GLBT History Museum. In 2018, she collaborated with the artist Leila Weefur on the publication Between Beauty & Horror (Sming Sming Books). The two performed a live adaptation of their work at The Lab, San Francisco. Her most recent writing can be found in the publication This Is Not A Gun (Sming Sming Books / Candor Arts). Elena is the co-editor, along with Julie R. Enszer, of OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Culture, forthcoming from Rutgers University Press in March 2022. Elena is the former Director of Exhibitions & Curatorial Affairs at Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, and joined the Berkeley Art Center as the Co-Director in June 2022.