April 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sight School presents
"Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors)"
Solo exhibition by Christine Wong Yap
May 14–June 12, 2010
Sight School, 5651 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA 94608
Media Contacts:
Michelle Blade, Director, Sight School: sightschool@gmail.com
Christine Wong Yap, Artist: cwy@christinewongyap.com
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OAKLAND, CA — Sight School presents "Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors)," an exhibition of new installation, sculpture and work on paper by Oakland-based visual artist Christine Wong Yap from May 14–June 12. Inspired by discount culture and popular psychology, the exhibition reflects Yap's recent exploration of pleasure, modest expectations and accessibility. "Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors)" is Yap's first solo exhibition.
The artist will transform Sight School into a colorful shop-like interior, populated by reconfigured discount shop materials, illuminated pegboard displays and a text-based light box. Its storefront facing San Pablo Avenue will house an installation of balloons that will float at varying heights.
Yap, who holds a BFA and MFA from the California College of the Arts, investigates optimism and pessimism in her work. She has employed metaphors such as light and dark, words and meaning, and concept and material. She has exhibited subtle, viewer-oriented light and mirror pieces extensively in the San Francisco Bay Area.
With its unabashed enthusiasm, extensive use of representation, and bright colors, "Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors)" marks a shift in Yap's direction. This change can be traced back to her 2009 Breathe residency at Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester, U.K., where she became enamored with the aesthetic, symbolic and conceptual potential of discount store culture, the decorative impulse, and the search for happiness.
Yap sees works of art as props that mediate relationships between artists and viewers. In "Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors)," Yap embraces and shares sentiment and immediacy. The exhibition's title highlights the paradox of thinking rationally about emotional and internal experiences. Alan Greenspan coined the term to negatively describe manic speculation; Yap appropriates it to consider the positive activity of optimism. She believes that to be optimistic is to embrace selective perspectives; what seems irrational may in fact be quite sensible. Yap maintains that pleasure and delight—often negatively associated with thoughtless hedonism—can be usefully deployed to maintain positive outlooks. As author Paul Martin explained in “Sex, Drugs and Chocolate: The Science of Pleasure” (Fourth Estate, 2008), pleasure is the most fleeting of sentiments, and therefore, must be constantly renewed. Modest pleasures will suffice, so Martin advocated that readers become “wily hedonists.”
"Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors)" follows in a Pop Art tradition of artist-created stores, such as Claes Oldenberg's "The Store" (1961-2), "The American Supermarket" (1964) organized by Paul Bianchini, Keith Haring's "Pop Shop" (1986–2005), Tracy Emin's and Sarah Lucas's "The Shop" (1993) and Takashi Murakami's Louis Vuitton shop (2008). Yet her work may have more in common with the work of contemporary artist Cary Leibowitz (Candyass) in its un-ironic stance and cheap and cheerful appeal.
Sight School is an artist-run exhibition space directed by Michelle Blade. The space began from a desire to create dialogue around new modes of living and being in the world in order to reveal connections between art and life.
"Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors)" will be on view from May 14 through June 12, 2010. Sight School is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from noon to 5 pm. An opening reception will be held on Friday, May 14th, from 7 to 10 pm. A closing reception and dialogue, "As Is: Pop Art & Stuffhood" featuring special guests including critic and curator Glen Helfand and artist, writer and theorist Ginger Wolfe-Suarez, will be held on Saturday, June 12, from 2 to 4 pm. All events are free and open to the public.
For more information, please email sightschool@gmail.com or cwy@christinewongyap.com, or visit sightschool.com or christinewongyap.com.
Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors)
Exhibition: May 14 – June 12
Opening Reception: Friday, May 14, 7–10 pm
Closing Reception and Dialogue with special guests including critic and
curator Glen Helfand and artist, writer and theorist Ginger Wolfe-Suarez:
Saturday, June 12, 2–4
pm
Sight
School, 5651 San Pablo, Oakland, CA
Gallery hours: Wed.-Sat., noon – 5 pm
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS
Gallery Opening, Exhibit and Talk
WHAT:
"Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors)," visual art exhibition by
Christine Wong Yap
WHEN:
Exhibition: May 14–June 12, 2010; Gallery hours: Wednesday—Saturday,
noon to 5 pm
Opening reception: Friday, May 14, 7–10 pm
Closing reception and dialogue with guests including Glen Helfand: Saturday,
June 12, 2–4 pm
WHERE:
Sight School, 5651 San Pablo Ave (at Stanford), Oakland, CA 94608
Free and open to the public.
INFO:
sightschool@gmail.com
cwy@christinewongyap.com
sightschool.wordpress.com
christinewongyap.com.
