The myth-master is Eleanor Antin, one of the founding members of UC San Diego’s Visual Arts Department, and an internationally-admired artist, or as the Klines put it: “an artist of the world.” Shown here is one of the pieces from her “Roman Allegories,” a series of large-scale photos staged in Del Mar and La Jolla that re-envision the last days of an ancient civilization remarkably similar to ours.
Debby and Larry Kline’s lush black and white works, the phrase “3 EYES” running vertically between two images, one of which features the eyes of a potato, while drones circle a rather apocalyptic landscape; the other a man with a singularly long lensed telescope or perhaps a periscope, pointed down, with an eye at its lens. The frame above the work features eye-like shapes. We are encouraged to look within, and to truly “see” our way of life. Beautifully, realistically detailed, the humor and absurdist quality of the subjects create a rich dichotomy.
After the failed military coup of 2016 in Turkey, Iristay designed 55 rehals (the x-shaped bookrests for the Quran) and filled them with small minarets. Titled “Oku | Read,” the rehals are covered with military cards used by soldiers to keep track of their service days. The translucent cast-resin minarets are in jumbled disarray. The piece, part of the San Diego Art Institute’s exhibition “Beyond the Age of Reason,” warns of ignorance.
“Myth is open to interpretation, and unfortunately, so are truths, but they are still the underpinnings of religious belief. The nuances of belief can either unite or divide individual, families and nations. The nuances can lead to peace or more often, war,” the Klines relate. “We believe -pun intended – that the artists reflect the larger populace that struggles with the concept of belief.”
Conceptual power-couple Debby and Larry Kline worked on five different projects during SS2 including the crowd-pleasing Poor, Poor Artist, which asked the public for stock tips (the Klines had invested their $500 stipend from the residency into the market).
Although this article was not specifically written about “Beyond the Age of Reason,” Smithsonian’s feature article on Wayne Martin Belger and his “Us and Them” project was published just days before our exhibition opened. Since the “Beyond the Age of Reason,” exhibition is the first time that “Us and Them” has been publicly exhibited, we felt it important to include the article here. To read the complete story, please visit SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, “The Dispossessed,” by Anna Diamond, July 2018.
San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park Presents: Beyond the Age of Reason
Dates: September 1–October 31, 2018
Member Reception: Saturday, September 15 from 5pm-6pm
Public Reception: Saturday, September 15 from 6pm-8pm
The museum is open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10am-5pm, Wednesday 10am-8pm,
Saturday-Sunday 12pm-5pm
Simultaneous exhibitions at San Diego Art Institute and California Center for the Arts Museum!
We will be showing our “Post-Apocalyptic Coffeehouse” as well as thirty-nine drawings from our latest series, “Tiny Revolutions,” which have never been seen in San Diego at California Center for the Arts Museum. These tiny “acts of defiance” are hand-drawn graphite images ranging in size from ½” x ½” to 2 ½” x 2 ½.”
Beyond the Age of Reason continues at San Diego Art Institute featuring works by 20 artists including Eleanor Antin, Wayne Martin Belger, Michelangelo Buonarroti, de la Torre Brothers, Ruben Ochoa and Erika Rothenberg. Curated by Debby and Larry Kline.
Artists Larry and Debby Kline have been involved in a pair of collaborations with scientists, including a current engagement as artists in residence at San Diego’s Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, where they are updating the work of 19th-century ornithologist John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” portfolio.
With media that shifts depending upon the project they undertake, the pair have used everything from salt to Israeli mud, ceramics, foam, and cement to shape their works. “It is the process of experimentation that leads to truly amazing things in the studio,” they attest. Dealing with subjects both political, social, and humane, their witty, pointed, and above all, graceful, work is a conversation with the viewer.
We have decided to create an “act of defiance” each day in the form of Tiny Revolutions, very small hand-drawn graphite images ranging in size from ½” x ½” to 2 ½” x 2 ½.” Their size is dictated by the possibility that a day may come when Americans cannot freely voice dissent.
Artists collaborated with scientists from the Salk Institute for works to be included in the exhibition titled Extra-Ordinary Collusions at San Diego Art Institute. Debby and Larry Kline learn[ed] about plant symmetry and fractals from Saket Navlakha.
We created “Cacophony and Utterances,” a participatory poem in two parts based on the artist’s own works. The first reading took place in the Getty Center theater, with hundreds of participants each reading one of five of David’s poems simultaneously. Through his words, a cacophonous wall of sound filled the theater.
Each work consists of the CALL statement, and 2 RESPONSE drawings. The “CALL” occurs when one of The Klines asks the other partner to draw “something”. Once that drawing is finished, the person who issued the CALL creates a second drawing (in RESPONSE to the first drawing). We alternate who initiates the CALL. The result of this project reinforces the manner in which we feed off of each other’s ideas. It also emphasizes the continued spirit of play and the duality that guides many of our projects.
For years, The Klines have engaged in an unusual ritual by making art when dining out. It is one facet of their art that spawned their collaborative ventures. These works capture creativity at its most playful state, resulting in surprisingly complex and impromptu sculptures borne of only the materials at hand.
In the main gallery, Debby and Larry Kline intrepidly essay on the relationship between Mexico and the United States, but they don’t stop there. US/Middle East policy, military might makes right, and the health care system as big business are all candidates for brutal scrutiny in this cavalcade of social and political commentary.