“Beth Cook: It’s Not You, It’s Me”
Last night, I went to my first gallery opening in San Francisco. The show was at Triple Base Gallery, a very cute, small exhibition space on 19th Street in the Mission—from what I can tell, the perfect introduction to the SF gallery scene. The artist, Beth Cook recently graduated with an MA from CCA (as a studio art student). The show is guest curated by Zoe Taleporos, who I believe is in her second year of the curatorial program. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. Beth does these amazing, large-scale pencil drawings which literally chart, diagram, graph and model aspects of her past relationships. She calls herself a “relationship anthropologist”, which I think is hilarious. Some of the charts are extremely complex, and they reminded me of scientific charts that you stare at in the doctor’s office while wearing that horrible paper robe that’s totally open in the back, waiting for the doctor to come in. Anyway, her work was really amazing. It’s the kind that you want to describe and explain every detail—which is a great sign. It’s really memorable, accessible, and gets you excited….
For various reasons, I was feeling really emotional the whole time I was at the gallery, which struck me as an odd response to the work. I mean, some of it was sad, but it was mostly just really biting and funny. I think, for me, it was a combo of all the relationship stuff reminding me of missing my own far-away bf (particularly this really great piece: 2 letters, one written by Beth and the other by her current boyfriend, Tom, to each other, describing their first “experience” together as each remembers it with revisions and comments written on the letters by both of them; it became this very sweet, but not cheesy, conversation on paper). So, I was getting emotional because of the emotional content of the work in combination with feeling social anxiety about being at the first gathering of a lot of people from my program… I’m sure the majority of twenty-somethings at the opening were curatorial students (and studio art students, as well), and I probably could have struck up a conversation with any one of them, but… I didn’t. I’m terrible about that when I don’t know people yet. I kind of hate meeting people because I hate how I come off at first. Kind of a harsh self-review, actually, but it’s one of my only real social anxieties. Anyway, I’ll actually be meeting everyone tomorrow night at this bar thing, so it’s not a big deal.
Half-way through the opening, Beth made a little speech (I guess you could call it a “performance”) where she gave her rules and tips on dating, which was very funny. She, of course, was as awesome as her work and was really great to listen to. Following, there was a short Dating Q&A, for which she brought her extremely cute current boyfriend up to give “the guy’s perspective” alongside her own. It struck me during the Q&A that one of the most impressive things about Beth’s work is how accessible it is and how true it is to her as a person—she’s 25 years old, so the trials of dating is a very real, immediate subject for her (and most everyone at the opening). Having such a rich subject on the table sort of took away the pressure of this scenario being in the context of “art”. It was a very unique feeling, for a gallery opening. I think it helped that most of the people there were CCA students, so the opening had a friendly feel to it… and yet I still didn’t talk to anyone. Ugh. The show is only up through August 30, so get to it, San Franciscans!
www.basebasebase.com
For various reasons, I was feeling really emotional the whole time I was at the gallery, which struck me as an odd response to the work. I mean, some of it was sad, but it was mostly just really biting and funny. I think, for me, it was a combo of all the relationship stuff reminding me of missing my own far-away bf (particularly this really great piece: 2 letters, one written by Beth and the other by her current boyfriend, Tom, to each other, describing their first “experience” together as each remembers it with revisions and comments written on the letters by both of them; it became this very sweet, but not cheesy, conversation on paper). So, I was getting emotional because of the emotional content of the work in combination with feeling social anxiety about being at the first gathering of a lot of people from my program… I’m sure the majority of twenty-somethings at the opening were curatorial students (and studio art students, as well), and I probably could have struck up a conversation with any one of them, but… I didn’t. I’m terrible about that when I don’t know people yet. I kind of hate meeting people because I hate how I come off at first. Kind of a harsh self-review, actually, but it’s one of my only real social anxieties. Anyway, I’ll actually be meeting everyone tomorrow night at this bar thing, so it’s not a big deal.
Half-way through the opening, Beth made a little speech (I guess you could call it a “performance”) where she gave her rules and tips on dating, which was very funny. She, of course, was as awesome as her work and was really great to listen to. Following, there was a short Dating Q&A, for which she brought her extremely cute current boyfriend up to give “the guy’s perspective” alongside her own. It struck me during the Q&A that one of the most impressive things about Beth’s work is how accessible it is and how true it is to her as a person—she’s 25 years old, so the trials of dating is a very real, immediate subject for her (and most everyone at the opening). Having such a rich subject on the table sort of took away the pressure of this scenario being in the context of “art”. It was a very unique feeling, for a gallery opening. I think it helped that most of the people there were CCA students, so the opening had a friendly feel to it… and yet I still didn’t talk to anyone. Ugh. The show is only up through August 30, so get to it, San Franciscans!
www.basebasebase.com
posted by Jess Brier at 9:32 AM
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