Janus II - CULT's 7 Year Anniversary Exhibition
Fused Space 1401 16th Street, San Francisco
April 9 - May 20, 2021
Miya Ando
Marcela Pardo Ariza
Chris Fallon
Rebekah Goldstein
Amy Lincoln
Terri Loewenthal
Masako Miki
Amy Nathan
James Perkins
"Revolution is not a one time event." – Audre Lorde
Continuing the celebration of CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions’ seven-year anniversary, and in light of many transitions globally and locally, we are delighted to announce a second part to the Janus exhibition we presented digitally in the autumn of 2020. Janus II, opening by appointment on April 9, draws from the gallery’s past seven years and offers a glimpse into its next seven with work by Miya Ando, Marcela Pardo Ariza, Chris Fallon, Rebekah Goldstein, Amy Lincoln, Terri Loewenthal, Masako Miki, Amy Nathan, and James Perkins. Janus II is on view physically at Fused Space at 1401 16th Street in San Francisco, within Yves Behar’s Fuseproject.
Much has shifted since CULT was born: public optimism collapsed under the weight of emboldened racial bigotry, anti-globalist populism, and policy decisions that have wrought untold harm on the environment and marginalized individuals. On this occasion for reflection, we consider Janus, the two-headed Roman deity presiding over the future and the past, transitions and doorways. As we navigate thresholds, at once cultural, political, and biological—the duality of Janus allows us to envision a stronger, more equitable future fueled by cognizance of our shared responsibility to the planet and to each other.
Works by Pardo Ariza and Perkins investigate care and belongingness and the role language plays in building our realities and communities. Pardo Ariza creates a trans-historical kinship bringing the archive in dialogue with the contemporary, while Ando, Perkins and Goldstein labor the boundaries of materiality and form with intention. Miki’s sculptures investigate trans-pacific Indigenous knowledge, and works by Loewenthal and Lincoln re-imagine our relationship and responsibility to the land. Nathan and Fallon reconsider the illusionistic permanence of our current structures and identities—retrieving histories of the past to build new systems for a new world, one that prioritizes and benefits us all.
Janus is a talisman for optimism in light of a polarized cultural climate; this exhibition meditates upon the opportunities, rather than challenges, that arise from the "new normal" we are collectively living.
Exhibition is open by appointment only Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Image Credit: Marcela Pardo Ariza, Randy, Andy, Dollface, Tania, Lu, Louis, et al. (1983, 1975, 1992, 2018), 2018
