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CCA Wattis Institute Presents Capp Street Project: Michael Stevenson

Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006, by Brenda Tucker

Michael Stevenson, one of New Zealand's most prominent internationally recognized artists, is a 2006 Capp Street Project resident artist at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. His exhibition, "c/o the Central Bank of Guatemala," is the result of his intense investigation into the world's first economic computer and will be on view in the CCA Wattis Institute's Logan Galleries on the San Francisco campus of California College of the Arts from November 28, 2006 through March 24, 2007. An opening reception will take place November 28 from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. The exhibition and reception are both free and open to the public.

Stevenson's works are intricate fact-finding missions that seek to uncover unexpected links between art history, social history and economics and push boundaries of institutional critique and social sculpture. For his Capp Street Project, Stevenson investigated a hydraulic analog computer called the Phillips Machine or Moniac. Originally built in 1949 by New Zealand economist Bill Phillips—at the time a student at the London School of Economics—the Moniac, standing more than six feet tall and pumping water through a vascular series of Plexiglas chambers and channels, represented monetary flow in a national economy. Intended to provide sophisticated economic analyses, 15 machines were built, marketed and shipped to cities including Boston, Istanbul, Melbourne and Guatemala City.

Charting the exportation of Western economic models to developing worlds, Stevenson's unfulfilled search for the lost Moniac purchased by the Central Bank of Guatemala led to his recreation of that model. His replica will be the centerpiece of the installation at the CCA Wattis Institute. This installation symbolizes a country's thwarted dream to seek national prosperity, and will be left unattended, transforming into a state of ruin, through the duration of the exhibition.

Michael Stevenson, a native New Zealander, has exhibited regularly in New Zealand and internationally since 1988. After attending the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland he
moved to Berlin in 2000. He was artist in residence in Berlin at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in 2002, exhibited in the 2002 Biennale of Sydney and represented New Zealand in the Venice Biennale in 2003. In 2005 he was awarded a scholarship from Berlin's Senate Department for Science, Research and Culture.

About Capp Street Project

In the 22 years since its creation, Capp Street Project has given more than one hundred local, national and international artists the opportunity to create new work through its residency and public exhibition programs. Capp Street Project offers artists the opportunity to formulate ideas and experiment in a variety of exhibition spaces, while discovering and reacting to the San Francisco Bay Area. The project provides artists with time and resources to conceptualize, plan and execute new work. Artists are encouraged to continue their experimentation and dialogue with the community throughout the exhibition period.

About the CCA Wattis Institute

Established in 1998, the CCA Wattis Institute serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of leading-edge local, national and international contemporary culture. Through exhibitions, the Capp Street Project residency program, lectures, symposia, performances and publications in the fields of art, architecture and design, the Wattis Institute fosters interaction among the students and faculty of California College of the Arts; art, architecture and design professionals; and the general public.

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