CCA News
The CCA Wattis Institute Presents Route 1: R for Replicant
Posted on Tuesday, December 8, 2009, by Brenda Tucker
The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts will present the exhibition Route 1: R for Replicant from January 19 through April 10, 2010, in the Logan Galleries (upper level) on the San Francisco campus of California College of the Arts. The exhibition is free and open to the public, with an opening reception on Tuesday, January 19, from 6-8 p.m.
The exhibition will feature works in a wide range of media, from photography to video, sculpture, drawing, film, and installation. The featured artists are Eleanor Antin, Jennifer Bornstein, Juan Capistran, Bruce Conner, Mario Garcia Torres, Rodney Graham, Colter Jacobsen, Tim Lee, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Kristen Morgin, Catherine Opie, Raymond Pettibon, Allen Ruppersberg, Mark Soo, Ron Terada, Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace, and James Welling.
The starting point for the exhibition is the Voight-Kampff machine, an imaginary mechanism of interrogation used to distinguish humans from replicants (or androids). It was first proposed by the American writer Philip K. Dick in his 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and later visually represented in Ridley Scott's 1982 science-fiction classic Blade Runner. The Voight-Kampff test, in the book and the film, is more than a simple test, and it has no simple answers. Rather, it introduces problems and ambiguities that point to larger questions about reality and the perception of reality.
R for Replicant is intended as a kind of variation on the Voight-Kampff test. The conductors and recipients of this test are artists, artworks, and the viewing audience, each of whom plays simultaneously the roles of inquisitor and suspect. The show investigates how images shape and challenge our understanding of reality, and more specifically our understanding of American identity.
The show is the first in what is to be an annual series drawing from the 101 Collection, a collection of contemporary artworks belonging to the Artnow International Foundation in San Francisco. The 101 Collection focuses on established and emerging artists who live and work along the West Coast's Highway 101.
The curator of R for Replicant is Xiaoyu Weng. She is a 2009 graduate of CCA's Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, and the inaugural 101 Curatorial Fellow. Each 101 Curatorial Fellow will spend a year at the Wattis after finishing the Curatorial Practice program, realizing his or her first curated project in a public arts institution. This is a unique initiative between the Artnow International Foundation, the Wattis Institute, and CCA's Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice.
About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) is noted for the interdisciplinarity and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 20 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CCA currently enrolls 1,800 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl. For more information about CCA, visit www.cca.edu.
About the CCA Wattis Institute
The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts was established in 1998 in San Francisco at California College of the Arts. It serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary art and curatorial practice. Through groundbreaking exhibitions, the Capp Street Project residency program, lectures, symposia, and publications, the Wattis Institute has become one of the leading art institutions in the United States and an active site for contemporary culture in the Bay Area. For more information about the Wattis Institute, visit www.wattis.org.
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