My dear friend Edith Abeyta has an amazing installation up at the Wignall Museum at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga. Like all of her projects, it has an element where the public interacts with, and shapes the life and future of the piece. It’s part of an exhibition titled Inlandia, a group show featuring Edith Abeyta, Adam Belt, Sasha Bezzubov, Margarita Cabrera, Misty Cervantes, Samantha Fields, The Institute for Figuring, Roman Jaster, Sant Khalsa, Kimberly Kolba, Amy Maloof, Michelle Mayer, Thomas McGovern, Jessica Newman-Skrentny, David Rathman, Alex Slade, Jessica Swanson, and Roger Tilton. The show is based upon the book of the same title, is part of the One Book/One College program and was curated by Misty Burrel & Rebecca Traywick.
I thought that the show was a little too much work/too many artists for the space, but there’s a ton of really strong work in the gallery, so that sin is in the venial column. Of note, in addition to Edith’s work, there is a hyperbolic crochet cactus garden installation by the Institute for Figuring and an awesome poured plaster piece (which I’ll write a little about in a later post) by and artist who’s name I neglected to write down, so I won’t attempt to butcher.
For her piece, E-M-P-I-R-E, Edith is collecting clothing and stories from Inland Empire residents and then using those materials as the basis for the piece. The pieces seen in the exhibition at the opening were brought by people working in and near the college, as well as people who read about the project in the newspaper. Edith will be present in the gallery at pre-arranged times, “collecting, inventorying, deconstructing, and bundling donated clothing as well as sewing letters on your clothing.” A full schedule of the days and times that she will be there can be seen on her website. Even if you’re not a subject of the Inland Empire, I’m sure she would enjoy your company and your participation if you take the trouble to come see her at the show. She will also be participating in a discussion of her work with Roman Jaster on Monday, February 11 at 12:30.
The image at top is one of my favourite components of her installation, a 1970’s Buffums robe brought by Sandra Rose to the gallery with the story below. A view of the whole section, including her portrait and story can be seen here. All of my images of E-M-P-I-R-E can be seen in this search.
The gold towel-like robe from the seventies was her father’s. She kept it after he died. It has been with her for thirty years, not knowing what to do with it until she read the article in the newspaper.
Above - Installation View of E-M-P-I-R-E. As more people participate, and clothing accumulates, this will change.
Above: Edith’s worktable for E-M-P-I-R-E. This is where the magic happens. Here you can see her cutting patterns for the E-M-P-I-R-E lettering, and the silk screened cloth bags where she catalogs the objects, laying over the back of the other chair.
Above: Chili Cheese Fries with Everything (and I mean everything) at The Hat at Victoria Gardens. I’ve become familiar with Rancho Cucamonga’s Victoria Garden via a pair of trips to Southern California’s first Bass Pro (I’ve written about the joys of Bass Pro before). Victoria Gardens is a frightening place, a patch of dry land transformed into a the Disney Version of a mall, complete with faux-main streets and surrounded by a wall of townhomes - a birth-to-death paradise for the compulsive consumer set. In some ways it’s a bit of a proto-arcology, minus the energy and food self-sufficiency. Unfortunately for those of us who love the future, the super-dense urban life that’s inevitable given rates of population growth is more like the Gap and less like, well, the future.
Since The Hat is only minutes from Chaffey, it was a solid choice for a post-opening eat before getting back onto the road to Los Angeles. They have truly delicious, really thinly sliced pastrami that they’re known for, but I’m obsessed with their monstrous chili fries. None of the components, on their own, stand out, but together they are the food equivalent of a human wave attack - your better gastronomical instincts and foodie pretensions just cannot resist their brute force charm. At about midway through eating these, we added abut 3/4 of an avocado that Edith’s mother had ordered as a side, and found to be way more avocado than she needed for her purposes. As two last notes on The Hat, I should also mention their truly excellent sour cream-based potato salad, a little too moist for my taste, but just chock full of the right flavours, and their immense row of condiment dispensers that remind you that you’re definitely in a land of limitless possibilities, so long as they come in a pre-packaged form.
Technorati Tags: Inlandia, E-M-P-I-R-E, Edith Abeyta, Wignall Museum, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, Inland Empire, art, installation art, The Hat, Chili Cheese Fries, food porn, food, Victoria Gardens
