RHONDA HOLBERTON: Still Life

January 10 – March 4, 2017

Artist reception: Tuesday, January 10, 7-9 PM

CULT | Aimee Friberg Exhibitions is pleased to present Still Life, Rhonda Holberton’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, on view from January 10 – March 4, 2017. Still Life features 3D mapped video installation, woven textiles, both animate and inanimate sculpture and photographs.

Holberton’s work explores the way technology reshapes the relationship between humans and our physical world. As the title Still Life suggests, this exhibition utilizes material and process to transgress the boundary between stillness and life. Unexpected parallels emerge between the organic and constructed such as value and waste, self and other, cognition and physiology, and real and representational. The cool façade provides a smokescreen for strange pairings and the subversive use of manufacturing as medium. Utilizing materials that run the gamut from gold dust and mosquitoes, to psychic readings and mannequins salvaged from the American Apparel bankruptcy liquidation, these objects are not simply things in themselves. Rather, they carry a coded memory of their personal, material, and cultural relations. The works weave together to form a surreal narrative documenting the artist’s attempts to make sense of our humanity within massive systems that can only be accessed through a technological lens.

The works on view provide visual antiphon to the investigation within three groupings in the gallery. At the entry of the gallery is a headless male mannequin casually presiding over the goings on in the gallery. On the walls in the front room, 3D modeled images are woven into tapestries (Just This One Thing series) and animated into a digital video (The Drone is not Distracted by the Perfume of Flowers). These representations soften distinctions between illustration and allegory through the restaging of real objects that have been scanned and re-presented in virtual space. Taking cues from Instagram aesthetics & the curation of posts as expressions of self, these 3D renderings engage the historical context of computation and automation. The video installation, /no stats on the same, utilizes motion capture data from the artist’s own body movements transplanted onto a scan of a male model as an exercise in becoming other or mapping one’s avatar onto another biology. The performance of the artist and the virtual environment are both plotted onto the dimensions of the existing architecture of the gallery; uniting the space of two physical locations through the projection of virtual space.

In the rear gallery, a netted veil is suspended from the ceiling illuminated by a full-spectrum hydroponic grow-lamp. Inside the net housing, mosquitoes feed on sugar water near recently harvested California gold measured by the gram. On the one hand, the works model extraction as method for value creation vis–à–vis material transformation through labor; the artist with the gold, the mosquitoes through blood meal. Meanwhile, the production and processing of marijuana are poised to take on the role of the next major viable California industry. On the other hand, the metaphors and histories of these very material things are embedded in stories of digital technologies, climate change, religion, and politics in ways that connect back to corporeality. Today, the technologists of Silicon Valley are compared to the 49ers of last century’s gold rush; both activities of value creation belong to a similar narrative belonging to a masculine entrepreneurial ideology. Similarly it’s hard not to think about the mosquito without thinking of the virus, currently one closely associated with fertility. These works offer a reminder that while the bio-technical divide grows ever more transparent, we are still very much dependent on the ‘six-inch layer of topsoil, and the fact that it rains.’

ABOUT THE ARTIST

RHONDA HOLBERTON (b. 1981, Fall Church, Virginia USA)

Working in sculpture, installation and photography, Rhonda Holberton employs a hybrid of scientific and metaphysical practices to reveal a symbolic reading of empirical canons of belief. Rhonda has recently had solo and two person exhibitions at City Limits Gallery (Oakland, CA), Royal Nonesuch (Oakland, CA) and the Berkeley Art Center (Berkeley, CA) and CULT | Aimee Friberg Exhibitions. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art and the San Francisco Arts Commission and notable private collections. In 2012 she received a Project Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's SECA Grant Nomination. Her work was featured as a solo presentation in ZONA MACO SUR 2016 in Mexico City. Holberton received her B.F.A. from the California College of Arts and Crafts, and her MFA from Stanford University where she currently teaches courses in experimental media. Her work has been featured in SFAQ, Art in America, Art Practical and Daily Serving, among others. Holberton is represented by CULT | Aimee Friberg Exhibitions.

RHONDA HOLBERTON, Still Life (bed), 2017, archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Still Life (croissant), 2017, archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Get You Secondaries Ready, 2017, Found male mannequin: fiberglass and resin, 30 x 72 x 36 inches (with pedestal)
RHONDA HOLBERTON, A / fisherman / hunts / a / shark / with / a / gun, 2017, Archival pigment print, 36 x 29 inches (framed), Edition of 3 + 1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Just This One Thing (Still Life), 2017, Archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Just This One Thing (tapestry), 2017, Cotton and steel, 40.5 x 52.5 inches, Unique, one of a kind
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Still Life (vanitas), 2017, 19 x 23 inches (framed), Archival pigment print, Edition of 3 + 1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Still Life (Stacked bowls), 2017, archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Still Life (bowl and rocks), 2017, archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Still Life (retail), 2017, archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Vessel, 2017, Slip cast porcelain from 3D printed scan, Edition of 12 + 2 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Developer, 2017, Inkjet on Vellum and steel bracing, 96 x 120 inches
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Lilium Candidum, Rosa 'Madame A. Meilland’, Alstroemeria (Day), 2017, Archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Lilium Candidum, Rosa 'Madame A. Meilland’, Alstroemeria (Night II), 2017, Archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Lilium Candidum, Rosa 'Madame A. Meilland’, Alstroemeria (Bouquet), 2017, Archival Pigment Print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Still Life (Petrified wood), 2017, archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, The drone is not distracted by the perfume of flowers, 2017, Digital Animation, No sound (4K screen), 00:02:36, Edition of 3 + 1 A.P.
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Still Life (Pillow and books), 2017, archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Still Life (Farm eggs), 2017, archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Lilium Candidum, Rosa 'Madame A. Meilland’, Alstroemeria (Studio), 2017, Archival pigment print, Edition of 3 +1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, /no stats the same, 2017, Digital video, sound, frosted acrylic, Variable dimensions, Edition of 3 + 1 AP
RHONDA HOLBERTON, Dust to Dust, 2017 Variable Dimension, Gold dust, mosquitoes, sugar water, acrylic, nylon, aluminum and LED lighting

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Last Light: Luz Carabaño, Sophronia Cook, Cross Lypka, and Aidan Koch
June 23 - August 26, 2023

ECHO ECHO: Rachel Bridges and Ivan Bridges at CULT Bureau, Oakland
March 2 - August 5, 2023

RHONDA HOLBERTON: Two Handfuls Of Silver Dust
April 27 - June 17, 2023

LEGACY: Binta Ayofemi, Adrian L. Burrell, Rachel Bridges, Ivan Bridges, Masako Miki, and Jean Isamu Nagai
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ZHIVAGO DUNCAN: Measuring Consciousness
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CULT Bureau: Gaze Interrupted
September 17 - November 19, 2022

AMY NATHAN: Slipknot Loophole
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REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN: Welcome Home Stranger
March 19 - May 7, 2022

Sapiens / Stories at CULT Bureau
November 10, 2021 - April 30, 2022

Physics & Fiction
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CHRIS FALLON: Irresistible Deception
October 15 - December 18, 2021

Sapiens / Stories on 8-Bridges
October 7 - November 3, 2021

MASAKO MIKI: New Mythologies
June 16 - October 12, 2021

Tales of Metamorphosis: Rebekah Goldstein, James Perkins, and Amy Nathan
June 3 - 30, 2021

Janus II - CULT's 7 Year Anniversary Exhibition
April 9 - May 20, 2021

TROY CHEW: Yadadamean
October 17 - December 12, 2020

We’re all in this together
August 14 - October 10, 2020

Beyond Words
June 26 - August 29, 2020

Ritual of Succession
January 10 - March 28, 2020

Record of Succession at fused space
January 13 - March 27, 2020

AMY NATHAN: Glyph Slipper
September 13 - December 7, 2019

FEMALE TROUBLE 2
June 28 - August 3, 2019

RUXUE ZHANG
April 20 - June 15, 2019

MASAKO MIKI: Shapeshifters
January 12 - March 23, 2019

JASKO BEGOVIC (SKO HABIBI): HUMAN_E.T.
November 30 - December 14, 2019

REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN: See You On The Flipside
September 8 - November 25, 2018

FEMALE TROUBLE
June 9 - July 28, 2018

TERRI LOEWENTHAL: Psychscapes
March 2 - May 19, 2018

VECINOS
October 27, 2017 - January 20, 2018

RHONDA HOLBERTON: Still Life
January 10 – March 4, 2017

REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN: Release Me
October 21 - December 10, 2016

NO SHOW MUSEUM: Yves Klein, Maria Eichhorn, Daniel Knorr, Etc.
One Night Only: Monday, October 17, 2016

DESIRÉE HOLMAN: Selected Works
September 17 - October 8, 2016

SHE MOONAGE DAYDREAM:
Facundo Argañaraz, Leah Guadagnoli, Desirée Holman, Kara Joslyn, Max Maslansky, Liz Robb, Tamra Seal, Emily Weiner, & Cate White

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PABLO DÁVILA: Ladies & Gentlemen,
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MASAKO MIKI: Conversations with Fox, Feather, and Ghost
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SUZY POLING: Total Internal Reflection
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DAN GLUIBIZZI: You Don’t Have to be Alone Tonight
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FRANCESCO IGORY DEIANA: Haptic Render
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ADAM SORENSEN: In Situ
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KLARA KÄLLSTRÖM & THOBIAS FÄLDT: Village / High Hills
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PRINCE RAMA: How To Live Forever
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JOSEPH DUMBACHER & JOHN DUMBACHER: Divert (Out of Line)
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REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN: Passenger
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A PATTERN LANGUAGE: Michelle Grabner, Angie Wilson & Lena Wolff
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MICHELLE BLADE: Gathering Into Being
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MIGUEL ARZABE: /*Reject Algorithms*/
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JACQUELINE KIYOMI GORDON: Drawings
March 7 – April 19, 2014

FRITZ CHESNUT: Purr Valley
& Rhonda Holberton

January 10 - February 22, 2014

UNSEEN: Miya Ando, Miguel Arzabe, Chris Duncan, Klea Mckenna & Dean Smith
November 10 - December 21, 2013

Past Off-Site Exhibitions

RHONDA HOLBERTON: Still Life 2
April 7 - May 26, 2018

LAS COSAS QUE PINTAN / PAINTING IN AN EXPANSIVE FIELD
Works by Miguel Arzabe & Juan Sorrentino

April 9 – May 17, 2015

EBB: Gina Borg and Chris Russell at Loczi Design
December 10, 2014