Measure of Time

Conversation: Alan Rath and Meredith Tromble

May 5, 2007; 1:00 p.m.

Gallery 6

Oakland-based artist Alan Rath is well known for his electronic and kinetic artworks, which transcend a mechanistic view of electronic art by appealing to our most human qualities and foibles. Train of Thought, his intriguing work in Measure of Time, is no exception: through a series of clever simulations, it elicits our complex and empathetic responses. In this program, Rath and Meredith Tromble will include the audience in a wide-ranging conversation addressing cybernetics, kinetics, art, attitudes toward technology, and related measures of time.

Trained in electrical engineering at MIT, and recognized for his pioneering work in the exploration of electronics as an art form, Rath has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and his pieces are held in many public collections including the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Hara Museum in Tokyo.

Artist and writer Meredith Tromble has years of experience in art journalism, in both print and broadcast formats. An associate professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at the San Francisco Art Institute, she was also co-coordinator of SFAI’s Center for Art + Science.

Conversation with Jim Campbell

April 21, 2007; 12:00 NOON

Gallery 6

Continuing our focus on how artists think about time, duration, and related interactions will be this audience-artist dialogue with Jim Campbell, the maker of Shadow (for Heisenberg), an interactive installation piece currently on view in Measure of Time.

Originally trained in electrical engineering and mathematics, Campbell employs art to explore questions of emotion and intuition as well as intellect, yielding surprisingly poetic insights into human issues such as memory and desire as well as the forces of matter, space, and time. His work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions locally and internationally, and he has fulfilled several public art commissions throughout North America. Several works by Campbell were the subject of a 2003 MATRIX exhibition entitled Memory Array. Jim Campbell lives and works in San Francisco.

Facilitating the artist's conversation with the audience will be Steve Seid, PFA's video curator, and Terri Cohn, instructor of the museum-based course Perception, the Art Object, and the Gallery Space.

Gallery Talk by Bill Berkson

February 11, 2007; 5:00 p.m.

Gallery 6

It’s about time and it’s about space. It’s also about the poetry of modern art.

Kicking off our third semester of public programs for Measure of Time will be a very special gallery talk by San Francisco–based poet, critic, essayist, and teacher Bill Berkson. Addressing works in the exhibition by David Ireland, Jay DeFeo, and Jackson Pollock, among others, he will consider how these artists treated temporality, duration, and related concerns in their work.

A gifted storyteller, Berkson has been active in the art and literary worlds since the late 1950s. He has written extensively on such artists as Hans Hofmann, Willem de Kooning, Pollock, Alex Katz, Jasper Johns, and Yvonne Jacquette. His recent books of poetry include Fugue State, Hymns of St. Bridget & Other Writings with Frank O’Hara, Gloria (in a deluxe limited edition with etchings by Alex Katz), and an online chapbook entitled Same Here (at bigbridge.org). A collection of his criticism, The Sweet Singer of Modernism & Other Art Writings: 1985–2003, appeared in 2004. Berkson was the 2006 Distinguished Mellon Fellow at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and is professor of liberal arts at the San Francisco Art Institute.