On view from August 18-September 18, 2015
Artist reception will be on September 4, 6PM Artist talk September 12, 11AM
Valdez was selected as one of the four curators to participate in the 2x2 Solos Program series at Pro Arts in Oakland, CA. She worked with Samuel Levi Jones to commission new work for his upcoming solo show entitled, Talk to Me.
Words like "freedom," "justice," "democracy" are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply. -James Baldwin, “The Crusade of Indignation,” The Price of the Ticket.
For 2 x 2 Solos, Samuel Levi Jones presents Talk to Me, a large site-specific installation of deconstructed law books. These texts, which are usually found neatly organized in law firms or law school libraries, archive federal and state laws that are applied and interpreted by the courts. Through an intense physical process, Jones pulls, rips, and tears apart the leather from its cardboard covers revealing the books’ underside of flesh-toned yellows, reds, and browns. Behind the privacy of his studio, these actions—akin to protest—shift. Jones begins the focused effort to delicately sew the softened material together, thereby building a new structure.
At the Pro Arts gallery, the enveloping installation of Talk to Me appears in the same sight line as Oakland City Hall. The juxtaposition of the exhibition against the center for civic engagement elicits a tension between the law and one’s position in the larger society. Talk to Me interrogates the limits of our legal system by rendering these books exposed and unbound. At its essence, Talk to Me is an invitation for dialogue about the structure that governs our bodies and lives. This very dialogue—as Baldwin underscores—is the necessary work individuals must endeavor to establish respect, recognition, and understanding.
Public Program: Artist talk with Dr. Leigh Raiford, Chair of African American Studies at UC Berkeley
Press: Daily Serving, Curiously Direct, and Art Practical
