National Psyche
Feminine vision, thought, and action during wartime

February 24 - March 12, 2006

Curated by Elliot Lessing

The LAB 2948 Sixteenth Street at Capp Street, San Francisco
Opening Reception: 6-9 PM Friday February 24
Gallery Hours: 1-6 PM Wednesday through Saturday
Offsite Projects: various dates and locations

Centerpiece Exhibition Jane Benson, Maria Bustnes, Carole Caroompas, Caroline Cox, Alyse Emdur, Oriana Fox, Linda Ganjian, Jean Lowe, Jyung Mee Park, Sabrina Raaf, Paige Sarlin, Nicole Tschampel, Saya Woolfalk

Onsite and Offsite Projects Amy Albracht, Meg Duguid, Matt Gerring, Jen Pack, Kim Weller

National Psyche is a group exhibition exploring current feminine dimensions of Contemporary Art, while highlighting creative leadership within the context of post 9/11 America.

Forgoing the need to exhibit traditional processes or representations of the feminine, or to include projects with overtly political messages, National Psyche aims for a subtler, but no less expansive goal:

To highlight the entire Arts Field as a dynamic, elegantly connected, globalized team, whose independent projects in all media offer life-enriching tools and encouraging social models.

National Psyche includes a colorful range of innovative artistic programming and educational presentations featuring visual artists, educators and progressive leaders, including guest presenters from within and outside the Bay Area. Visitors to the gallery and to offsite projects are invited to take their time with exhibits to consider their informational qualities, coherent radicalism, and cultural significance.

Gallery attendees may weigh in their experiences of National Psyche through this interactive blog designed exclusively for exhibition information and feedback.

Installation, sculpture, video, site-specific, painting, performance, photography, and interdisciplinary projects are all represented in this multi-faceted exhibition.

National Psyche hopes to poise its participating artists, its visitors, and even its own Curator to experience their own personal cultural moment -- where freedom, spirit, and independent vision emerge as the primary material that Contemporary Artists work with everyday.

The results of such work are sometimes dazzling, meaningful, and rich.

National Psyche presents a kaleidoscopic view into Contemporary Art, new contexts for hope, and the project of civilization.

Discover your National Psyche!

National Psyche: The Exhibition
Ongoing, Wednesdays-Saturdays, February 24-March 11, 1-6 PM The LAB

Free

Centerpiece Exhibition Once gallery, now Cultural Center! National Psyche presents a selection of radiant new art from 13 Contemporary Artists. These works of all media offer challenging translations of content and form, while offering evidence of clarity and unlimited cultural practices at work in today’s alarming global climate.

Exhibiting Artists Jane Benson, Maria Bustnes, Carole Caroompas, Caroline Cox, Alyse Emdur, Oriana Fox, Linda Ganjian, Jean Lowe, Jyung Mee Park, Sabrina Raaf, Paige Sarlin, Nicole Tschampel, Saya Woolfalk

Super Troopers
February 24-March 12
Various outdoor locations & times. Rain or shine!

Free

Offsite Project Touching, temporal, and VERY PUBLIC -- Amy Albracht, Jen Pack, and Kim Weller have created joyful, luminous site-specific works to refresh the public mind and spirit.

Super Troopers projects, schedule & locations...

Jen Pack Sunday February 26. Ocean Beach: Where Lincoln hits the beach at PCH (Great Highway). Walk straight through the dunes to the cement platform, noon - 4 PM Project Title: duneweed

Kim Weller Friday March 10. Glama Rama Salon: 417 South Van Ness @ 15th St.. Sidewalk Reception 6 - 9 PM Project Title: Flip Not Thine Wig

Amy Albracht Sunday March 12. Brooks Park: Shields St. @ Ramsell St., noon - 4 PM. Project Title: flowerpile. ALSO: 2 PM Nature in the Park Tour provided by Park Naturalist & Steward, Peter Vaernet. Come celebrate the conclusion of National Psyche enjoying Contemporary Art & Nature in San Francisco's most gorgeous public park! Elliot Lessing hosts this temporal event. Rain or Shine!

Din Din Party: Exploring the Judy Chicago Legacy
Wednesdays-Saturdays, February 24-March 11, 1-6 PM The LAB

Free

Onsite Project San Francisco-based artist, Matt Gerring, presents his new public-ignited installation extending dialogue and concepts sparked by Judy Chicago’s 1979 signature installation, The Dinner Party. The public is invited to interact with its design.

Join the party!

Pandora Box: A DVD Collection
Wednesdays-Saturdays, February 24-March 11, 1-6 PM The LAB

Free

Onsite Project Outside the box? Get inside the box! Artists respond to various evils associated with the Pandora Myth. Co-curated with Ellen Lake and Heike Liss.

DVD Works from these artists: Matt Burnett, Robert Grieves & Tom Munday, Sarah Klein, Paul Leroy, Lynn Lu, Sheena Macrae, Elizabeth Monoian, Shana Moulton, Niels Post, Maria D. Rapicavoli, Zev Robinson, Sietske Tjallingi, George Wichelns

Daymare: New Documentary Terrain
Saturdays, February 25 and March 11, Screenings begin at 4 PM The LAB

Free

Onsite Special Screenings Drop in, decompress, and check your reality at the door for this juicy new wave of artist-produced documentaries. 2 Saturdays. 2 different programs:

Saturday February 25: Enviromash-up
Gdansk: Talk Back by Andrew Demirjian 2004
Anthology of American Folksong by Steve Reinke 2004
Weekend in Moscow by Skip Blumberg 2002
Tea and Cookies Break
Introductions by Bill Basquin (live appearance)
Range: A Triptych in 16mm Film by Bill Basquin 2005

91 min total

Saturday March 11: Phosphorescent Identikit
A/K/A Mrs. George Gilbert by Coco Fusco 2004
Tea and Cookies Break
Is It Really So Strange? by William E. Jones 2005

111 min total

Free Bee: Gift Economies Expo
Saturday, March 4, 2-5 PM The LAB

Free

Onsite Special Event Themes of access, gifting, and generosity are driving this delightfully public free event. 3 maverick thinkers serve up the brain cookies for a freewheeling Learn-In. Free yourself!

Free Bee Guest Presenters:

Timothy Tangherlini, Folklore Professor, Cal Berkeley
Presentation: Making Danish: Beer, Politics and Advertising
Political and commercial advertising crowd the Danish mediascape. While pitching a particular project or ideology, the advertisements also comment on the rapid demographic shifts that mark the Danish ethnoscape. The concept of what is a "Dane," once so easy to define, has shifted radically in the past ten years, and created an ever deepening rift in Danish political life, a rift that effects the daily lives of millions.

In an exploration that takes us from Danish political advertising, to television advertisements for Tuborg and Carlsberg Beer, this short presentation explores how competing images of Danishness react to and help define what it means to be a Dane in this ever changing ethnoscape, and the violent implications of these political changes for the daily life of Danes of non-Danish heritage.

Stacy Bond, KQED Producer, Founder of AudioLuxe
Presentation: Digital Storytelling in the New AudioScape
feat. excerpts from "Flight: A Story About TransAmerica"
Advances in digital technology now allow user-generated content to vie for attention alongside mainstream media content. Independent podcasts and internet radio are drawing audiences away from traditional audio content, because media consumers have only 24 hours in a day. Each minute they give to independent programming is a minute lost to commercial media. Now, with the traditional gatekeepers gone, compelling an audience becomes a very different thing. Authentic content counts, not mass appeal. Old techniques still apply in some cases, but not in others.

In the new AudioScape, the sound itself can be more intimate, more fun, more real. During this listening session, we'll deconstruct some current audio offerings and explore ways in which the popular audio-landscape is changing. Advances in digital technology now allow user-generated content to vie for attention alongside mainstream media content. And in many cases, the DIY stuff is winning.

Polly Stryker, Producer/Reporter
Presentation: Voices of Dissent: Forms of Protest
A recurring theme in some of Polly Stryker's radio features is how people voice dissent. Protest motivates people to express themselves in various ways. She will share these stories to illustrate different approaches to dissent -- both active and passive -- using art, the media, or simply doing nothing at all. These viceral stories will inspire us to reflect on how we voice our dissenting opinion as we proceed into the uncharted territories of our new globalized and connective worlds.

Din Din Party Party: Celebrating International Women’s Day
Wednesday Evening, March 8, 7-9 PM The LAB

$3-$10 sliding scale admission

Onsite Special Event NP Curator Elliot Lessing and The LAB host a unique Public Social. Participating artists and special guest speakers share personal insights into their art practice, contemporary issues, and global views. Summit or Shindig? You decide! PLUS special screening by Bodil Furu (Norway), refreshments, and yummy yum yums from Sibby's Cupcakery.

The Cocktail Party: A Public Project by Meg Duguid
Saturday Evening, March 4, 8-11 PM
Michelle O’Connor Gallery 3265 Seventeenth Street, fourth floor

Free

Offsite Project New York-based artist, Meg Duguid, premieres her latest Performance Event exploring laughter and comedy as a form of socio-political dissent. The public is invited to participate in her high-concept "Laugh-In"-inspired project.

Go Go, Mod, Groovy, or Formal Party Attire REQUIRED

National Psyche: Feminine vision, thought, and action during wartime

Curated and Developed by Elliot Lessing

Project Assistance by Julie Bohannon, Candice D’Amore, Jane Steele

National Psyche was supported, in part, by a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission

National Psyche was realized, in part, through encouragement and support from:

Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts (NY), Quint Gallery (La Jolla), IBID Projects (UK), Western Project (LA), McKenzie Fine Arts (NY), Stefan Stux Gallery (NY), Sarah Bowen Gallery (NY), 16Beaver Group (NY), Synthetic Zero (NY), Rosamund Felson Gallery (Santa Monica), Michelle O’Connor Gallery (SF), Wendy Cooper Gallery (Chicago), Zg Gallery (Chicago)

We thank ALL who helped to take National Psyche into the Global Public Sphere!