Paparazzi Ethnography

Lounging at the ArtMRKT

When we heard that the San Francisco ArtMRKT was holding its inaugural fair, we decided to pay a visit. We were not disappointed.

Doniece Sandoval…

…using hand gestures…

…to explain the Tent.

The ever glamorous and articulate art critic, Doniece Sandoval, Chief Officer for Zero1 Gallery, introduced us to the work of artists Adrienne Pao and Robin Lasser, who created a number of installations they refer to as Dress Tents: Nomadic Wearable Architecture.

The most popular of the dress tents is titled Ice Queen: Glacier Retreat which was an installation at the entryway to the artMRKT Fair. It is surrounded by small flags printed with the names of glaciers that are receding. A woman sits atop the tent holding a weather balloon and does not respond to any of the jeering of passers-by.

Man with Ice Queen

Ice Queen up close

The Ice Queen tent is charismatic because it taps into themes in which expert prognostication plays a critical role in the unfolding of the present. Looking ahead to whatever lies in the future is a desire that dates back at least as far as Mesopotamia.

Seeing an igloo in the middle of San Francisco, with a woman popping out of the top also helps to create excitement. But the afternoon was unusually warm and we became worried that the Ice Queen might well just burn up, sitting on a ladder inside a tent and wearing an arctic moo moo. Perhaps this is one message of the installation– that the Arctic is so hot, you might as well just set up an igloo and wear a parka in the center of any town — for all that it is going to mean to anyone anymore in the Arctic.

Chris Antemann

Doniece assured us, however, that there are several Ice Queens and that none of the queens stay out longer than 30 minutes at at time.

In a complex society with differentiating knowledge systems, the rise of non-human forces of regulation through cybernetic systems and probability calculations, it’s good to know that art still stands in for and procures the aura of the future vision.

boudoir state-craft

delicacy of touch

We spent time wandering around. Nevertheless, I kept returning to the work of Chris Antemann, who created a set of ceramic models titled Paradise and Boudoir. There is something in the aesthetic features of these ceramics that captured my imagination about the corporeal romantic (versus what I usually write about — the corporeal expert).

I’m reading Norbert Elias‘ Court Society, about the role of etiquette in shaping the interdependences of Nobles to the French King at the 18th century court of Versailles. Notice, in these images, the emphasis placed on glances, whispered communication, and sleight of hand gesture.

These forms of meaningful communication convey a variety of messages about intimacy and statecraft — how the personal and professional were once merged — and provide a contrast to my own current research interests that emphasize a distance between these same life-spheres.

corner-of-one’s eye

touch and glance

secret and whisper