Artist-in-Residence Baxter Koziol
June 18 - 25, 2024
In addition to exhibiting work in Khaki, Baxter Koziol was in residence with Border Patrol at the Brundage Swap Meet during the last month of our Creative Corps grant-funded programming. Beginning on June 18, the artist created a hand-sewn cover for an F-150 truck using found fabric and yarn. "I'm going to California," the artist writes. "The movie posters promised good picking. I head there to make my fortune. But I find myself north of the fabricated oasis of Hollywood, in Bakersfield where one pumps movies up from the dirt. Crude movies. The great American export." The site-responsive work, 185 Horse Power Drive-IN Theater was installed temporarily at the edges of Lake Ming in Bakersfield, CA.
Baxter Koziol (b. 1995 Cambridge, NY) received his BFA from Maine College of Art in 2017 and MFA from Yale School of Art in 2024. He has attended residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Monson Arts, Hewnoaks, Surf Point Foundation, and the Ellis Beauregard Foundation. Koziol lives and works in Shushan, NY.
Baxter Koziol (b. 1995 Cambridge, NY) received his BFA from Maine College of Art in 2017 and MFA from Yale School of Art in 2024. He has attended residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Monson Arts, Hewnoaks, Surf Point Foundation, and the Ellis Beauregard Foundation. Koziol lives and works in Shushan, NY.
Photos by Manda Vasquez
Khaki
June 1 - 25, 2024
Featuring Meg Hahn, Julia Hassard in collaboration with Rana Hama, Jared Haug, Baxter Koziol,
Sydney Sanchez, and Elizabeth Spavento
Khaki is a group show that featured works made by Meg Hahn, Julia Hassard in collaboration with Rana Hamo, Jared Haug, Baxter Koziol, Sydney Sanchez, and Elizabeth Spavento in response to the GQ article, "The New Uniform of White Supremacy." The paintings, sculptures, and publications included in the exhibition explore the various iterations of khaki as a material and hue, demonstrating the ways in which it has been used as both a physical and ideological camouflage by its wearer. The material becomes inscribed with power and cultural meaning as it is employed in contexts as varied as colonial India, corporate boardrooms, retail box stores, public golf courses, military outposts, and most recently in domestic white supremacists rallies. This exhibition celebrated the closing of Border Patrol's 2023-24 Creative Corps grant with 18th Street Arts Center and the California Arts Council.
Photos by Manda Vasquez
Pop-Up Book Store
Saturday, April 6 - Saturday, May 11, 2024
Para Español, clic aquí
Border Patrol hosted a pop-up bookstore featuring poetry, prose, and other printed ephemera made in collaboration with artists from across the country. With a particular focus on artists and authors impacted by the carceral system, Border Patrol's month-long bookstore installation featured readings and releases, moderated conversations with authors, facilitated workshops with activists, and other hands-on public engagement events that were free and open to the public. On occasion of the bookstore, Border Patrol hosted an open call for young artists across the US to contribute drawings to the Brundage Swap Meet Coloring Book.
Schedule of Events
Book Store Opening
Saturday, April 6
We celebrated the launch of our book store with olivier's limited edition book, Meaning no metaphor for Nothing, which was created in December 2023 while they were in residence with Border Patrol. Only 33 copies were produced, and only a few remain.
Saturday, April 6
We celebrated the launch of our book store with olivier's limited edition book, Meaning no metaphor for Nothing, which was created in December 2023 while they were in residence with Border Patrol. Only 33 copies were produced, and only a few remain.
Orion Camero Residency
April 10 - April 15
Stockton-based artist, activist, and author Orion Camero was in residence with Border Patrol from April 10 through April 15. They presented two workshops: one public event that explored the relationship between storytelling, climate change, ancestral narratives, and activism; and another private event for Border Patrol Co-Directors that used somatic exercises to explore and process grief in the age of the climate crisis.
April 10 - April 15
Stockton-based artist, activist, and author Orion Camero was in residence with Border Patrol from April 10 through April 15. They presented two workshops: one public event that explored the relationship between storytelling, climate change, ancestral narratives, and activism; and another private event for Border Patrol Co-Directors that used somatic exercises to explore and process grief in the age of the climate crisis.
Marilynn Donato in conversation with Maggie Hazen
Sunday, April 21
The Columbia Collective artists, Marilynn Donato and Maggie Hazen discussed Marilynn's first book, She / Rose, a collection of poems written before and after the author's stay in the New York State Columbia Secure Center for Girls. Maggie moderated a conversation with the author before Marilynn read poems from the collection. A paint chip poetry workshop followed where participants crafted poems with the author using the names of paint samples.
Sunday, April 21
The Columbia Collective artists, Marilynn Donato and Maggie Hazen discussed Marilynn's first book, She / Rose, a collection of poems written before and after the author's stay in the New York State Columbia Secure Center for Girls. Maggie moderated a conversation with the author before Marilynn read poems from the collection. A paint chip poetry workshop followed where participants crafted poems with the author using the names of paint samples.
Brundage Swap Meet Coloring Book Launch
Friday, May 3
We celebrated the launch of TWO Brundage Swap Meet Coloring Books on May 3rd: one in black and white that readers can color in and another in full color both featuring original drawings from young artists living across the country.
Friday, May 3
We celebrated the launch of TWO Brundage Swap Meet Coloring Books on May 3rd: one in black and white that readers can color in and another in full color both featuring original drawings from young artists living across the country.
Closing Reception Featuring Artists Julia Hassard and Lucia Guzman
Saturday, May 11
Our bookstore closed on Saturday, May 11th with two artist authors. Border Patrol Co-Director and Communication Designer, Julia Hassard launched her book on experimental makeup design that critiqued traditional beauty standards. In addition, Bakersfield artist and poet Lucia Guzman read from her newest book, Let's Make Differences Together which pieces together personal narrative, poetry, and activities for readers to complete.
Saturday, May 11
Our bookstore closed on Saturday, May 11th with two artist authors. Border Patrol Co-Director and Communication Designer, Julia Hassard launched her book on experimental makeup design that critiqued traditional beauty standards. In addition, Bakersfield artist and poet Lucia Guzman read from her newest book, Let's Make Differences Together which pieces together personal narrative, poetry, and activities for readers to complete.
Orion Camero - Artist in Residence
April 10 - 15, 2024
For Orion's five day residency, they hosted two workshops: a somatic healing workshop for Border Patrol staff that focused on processing grief in the age of climate change, and a public storytelling workshop and idea session that combined open dialogue with consensus building techniques to build strategies for addressing issues important to Bakersfield residents. Touching on subjects as varied as ecological activism, nostalgia, grief, the ephemera of memory, and joy, Camero led participants through a series of collective drawings by the Beehive Design Collective, using metaphor as a entryway to in-depth discussion. These workshops combined somatic exercises, collective singing, allegorical exploration, and idea mapping in sessions to help build a framework for individual actions that can be taken to support contemporary social justice issues.
Orion Camero is a queer Filipinx multi-medium artist, coalition-builder and community advocate focused on nurturing the conditions for better worlds. Across more than a decade, their work has spanned the lenses local to global: ranging from organizing to protecting and restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta waterways in their hometown of Stockton, to mobilizing narrative interventions in global solidarity with grassroots communities to policy at the United Nations climate talks. For their efforts, they have been a 2015 Brower Youth Award winner for the New Leaders Initiative, a 2017-2018 Spiritual Ecology Fellow with the Kalliopeia Foundation, and most recently was a creativeparticipant of ArtPlace America's "Local Control, Local Fields" Initiative in 2020 to advance the field of creative placemaking in the Central Valley of California. They are also a 2023 Aspen Ideas: Climate Future Leader, a global distinction of the Aspen Institute and a 2024 Alumni Committee member.
With an embodied commitment to personal and political study of story, they have held leadership roles at the Center for Babaylan Studies, an ancestral organization working to bridge connections between the Philippine diaspora and indigenous kin, and the Beehive Design Collective, a globally renowned arts activist group. They have previously been a program designer and executive director of national youth-led climate justice organization SustainUS, a gallery guide and vital staff facilitator for the Oakland Museum of California's anti-racist equity process, and an intersectional justice organizer/educator for the Sierra Student Coalition. They deeply believe that what nurtures the heart of collective liberation are the ingredients of inter-identity solidarity, cross-cultural connection and exponential collaboration. They currently act as the Action Lead Program Manager for Narrative Initiative, an organization advancing multi-racial democracy through narrative organizing and cultural practice. They call Oakland, the traditional lands of the Lisjan Ohlone people, as well as Stockton, Yokuts territory, home but their heart is allied with the many vibrant places our planet takes shape in. Some of their broader interests include experimental theatre/improv, epic stories with ensemble casts, attuning to somatic and sensory experiences, and interdisciplinary dreaming.
Orion Camero is a queer Filipinx multi-medium artist, coalition-builder and community advocate focused on nurturing the conditions for better worlds. Across more than a decade, their work has spanned the lenses local to global: ranging from organizing to protecting and restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta waterways in their hometown of Stockton, to mobilizing narrative interventions in global solidarity with grassroots communities to policy at the United Nations climate talks. For their efforts, they have been a 2015 Brower Youth Award winner for the New Leaders Initiative, a 2017-2018 Spiritual Ecology Fellow with the Kalliopeia Foundation, and most recently was a creativeparticipant of ArtPlace America's "Local Control, Local Fields" Initiative in 2020 to advance the field of creative placemaking in the Central Valley of California. They are also a 2023 Aspen Ideas: Climate Future Leader, a global distinction of the Aspen Institute and a 2024 Alumni Committee member.
With an embodied commitment to personal and political study of story, they have held leadership roles at the Center for Babaylan Studies, an ancestral organization working to bridge connections between the Philippine diaspora and indigenous kin, and the Beehive Design Collective, a globally renowned arts activist group. They have previously been a program designer and executive director of national youth-led climate justice organization SustainUS, a gallery guide and vital staff facilitator for the Oakland Museum of California's anti-racist equity process, and an intersectional justice organizer/educator for the Sierra Student Coalition. They deeply believe that what nurtures the heart of collective liberation are the ingredients of inter-identity solidarity, cross-cultural connection and exponential collaboration. They currently act as the Action Lead Program Manager for Narrative Initiative, an organization advancing multi-racial democracy through narrative organizing and cultural practice. They call Oakland, the traditional lands of the Lisjan Ohlone people, as well as Stockton, Yokuts territory, home but their heart is allied with the many vibrant places our planet takes shape in. Some of their broader interests include experimental theatre/improv, epic stories with ensemble casts, attuning to somatic and sensory experiences, and interdisciplinary dreaming.
Meg Hahn - Artist in Residence
March 3 - March 18, 2024
Border Patrol Co-Founder Meg Hahn made work for our summer exhibition that explores the material history of khaki and its links to military and corporate ideologies over the course of her two week residency. Inspired by the construction of khaki pants, the pattern of military camouflage, and the various colors used to define khaki, Meg explored how the material has been used for blending in (or not). She created works ranging from paintings on khaki-colored fabric swatches to monoprints on paper and fabric. The painted and collaged artworks contemplate khaki and its connection to white supremacy.
Meg Hahn is a painter and arts worker in Portland, Maine. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Perimeter Gallery, Belfast, ME; the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME; BUOY, Kittery, ME; Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, ME; Dunes, Portland, ME; SOIL, Seattle, WA; Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; and Collar Works, Troy, NY, among others. She has attended residencies at Surf Point Foundation, York, The Golden Foundation Residency Program, The Vermont Studio Center, Hewnoaks Artist Colony, and the Monhegan Artists’ Residency. She has also been a co-director at Border Patrol, a curatorial collective, since 2017. She received her BFA in Painting from Maine College of Art & Design.
Meg Hahn is a painter and arts worker in Portland, Maine. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Perimeter Gallery, Belfast, ME; the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME; BUOY, Kittery, ME; Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, ME; Dunes, Portland, ME; SOIL, Seattle, WA; Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; and Collar Works, Troy, NY, among others. She has attended residencies at Surf Point Foundation, York, The Golden Foundation Residency Program, The Vermont Studio Center, Hewnoaks Artist Colony, and the Monhegan Artists’ Residency. She has also been a co-director at Border Patrol, a curatorial collective, since 2017. She received her BFA in Painting from Maine College of Art & Design.
Muralist Brandon Thompson
February 25 - March 3, 2024
Visit the site - 1953 Palm Street in Bakersfield
Para Español, clic aquí
From February 25 through March 3, Brandon Thompson created a mural on the exterior of Palm Galerie, an exhibition space for young artists in downtown Bakersfield. Enlisting the help of students from Artists Seeking Knowledge (ASK) and Border Patrol staff, Thompson taught participants hands-on techniques for creating public artworks. From sketching ideas to scaling and painting, folks learned how to paint a mural from this acclaimed Central Valley muralist.
Born and raised in California, Brandon is a contemporary muralist and Air Force veteran. He earned his bachelor's degree in Small Business and Entrepreneurship. While traveling in the military in 2009 he began his journey as a self-taught artist. Using spray paint and stencils, he turned to his childhood influences of hip-hop and graffiti and the rest is history. Today, Brandon’s art is collected globally. A recent Bakersfield's '20 Under 40 Rising Star', he has completed several large scale-projects including murals with Antelope Valley Walls Festival and with the City of Bakersfield for murals like "Bloom" and downtown Bakersfield's EASTCHESTER mural. He has been awarded commercial commissions by Pepsi and Lowe's, and sells smaller works at Bird Dog Arts.
Born and raised in California, Brandon is a contemporary muralist and Air Force veteran. He earned his bachelor's degree in Small Business and Entrepreneurship. While traveling in the military in 2009 he began his journey as a self-taught artist. Using spray paint and stencils, he turned to his childhood influences of hip-hop and graffiti and the rest is history. Today, Brandon’s art is collected globally. A recent Bakersfield's '20 Under 40 Rising Star', he has completed several large scale-projects including murals with Antelope Valley Walls Festival and with the City of Bakersfield for murals like "Bloom" and downtown Bakersfield's EASTCHESTER mural. He has been awarded commercial commissions by Pepsi and Lowe's, and sells smaller works at Bird Dog Arts.
Photo courtesy of Gwen Corona
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Border Patrol welcomed Bakersfield artist, Deidre Hathor for its third R.I.P. residency. Throughout Black History Month, Deidre occupied spaces K4 and K5 of the Brundage Swap Meet where she built a multi-sensory, interactive installation with the help of swap meet youth and local visitors.
With the support of community organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Artists Seeking Knowledge (ASK), Deidre facilitated a community-driven installation that focuses on the social justice contributions of people of color throughout February. Part homage to the rich social justice history and cultural diversity of the Central Valley and part living memorial, figures such as Muhammed Ali, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and other cultural worker activists were integrated into the final installation alongside the personal mementos that honored public participants' loved ones who have died. Deidre's installation celebrates the work of those who have passed in physical form but whose legacies continue to radiate into the social, political, and cultural spaces that the living inhabit on a daily basis. ABOUT DEIDRE
Deidre has been creating and selling Art for over 20 years. While the subjects of her artworks vary, a sense of touch is the most common theme in Deidre’s art. In fact, she has designed projects the only mural for the blind in Bakersfield, CA. Deidre works with primarily with found objects, resin, and discarded and recycled materials to create 2D and 3D works. She describes her work as a "multi-sensory experience that you can feel literally and figuratively." She has worked with such organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Mercy House, the Valley School for the Blind, Bring Back the Kern, Vista High School, the Arts Council of Kern, the NAACP, the Bakersfield Museum of Art, and the California Arts Council. She is a Co-Organizer of the Haunted Museum Bakersfield and the co-founder of Artist Seeking Knowledge (ASK) where she teaches art classes. She is a recipient of a 2022 California Impact Grant. You can purchase Deidre's jewelry and sculptures at Bird Dog Arts located in the Tejon Mall. |
Border Patrol welcomed visiting artist, olivier, for its second R.I.P. residency. Over the course of two weeks, olivier occupied spaces K4 and K5 of the Brundage Swap Meet where they created texts and drawings, utilizing Border Patrol's printing and binding equipment. Listen to a short conversation between olivier and Border Patrol Co-Director and Photographer Manda Vasquez about their residency experience below.
In the process of (re)building a time machine (again).
o/o_oooooo_oooo_______oo(o)ooo_ooo_o______o_oo_oooo_ooo_oooooo_o_o_o_o_o____o/ The bookshelves have collapsed and the flying saucers will never land.
My current studio time involves a lot of “reading” texts; I am always looking for the edges: paratexts, metadata, marginalia, and poetics of languaging, where queerness (especially transness) lies for me. Queerness also lies in working in videos, drawings, site-specific interventions, performative lectures and happenings. Queerness; not because of the works’ content, but their forms where they refuse to *be*, but is in the process of constantly *becoming*, subverting what “trans-” is.
(o)
My current practice focuses on affect of archives, especially within the study of UFOs. I am taking an alternative approach towards ufology—rather than taking a stance as a believer or skeptic, I am investigating the “text-” and “book-as-evidence,” and subsequently the status of books and texts as objects and souvenirs. I ask how the UFO archive is born from a lack of scientific evidence, and how collections of these unscientific “souvenirs” shape and chart the gap of the Archive. I situate my practice in the uncategorisable, uncataloguable, unseeable, indecipherable, imponderable book; it is born from Lynn E. Catoe’s bibliographic work in 1969 and Mike Kelley’s essay On the Aesthetics of Ufology (1997).
-olivier, 2023
o/o_oooooo_oooo_______oo(o)ooo_ooo_o______o_oo_oooo_ooo_oooooo_o_o_o_o_o____o/ The bookshelves have collapsed and the flying saucers will never land.
My current studio time involves a lot of “reading” texts; I am always looking for the edges: paratexts, metadata, marginalia, and poetics of languaging, where queerness (especially transness) lies for me. Queerness also lies in working in videos, drawings, site-specific interventions, performative lectures and happenings. Queerness; not because of the works’ content, but their forms where they refuse to *be*, but is in the process of constantly *becoming*, subverting what “trans-” is.
(o)
My current practice focuses on affect of archives, especially within the study of UFOs. I am taking an alternative approach towards ufology—rather than taking a stance as a believer or skeptic, I am investigating the “text-” and “book-as-evidence,” and subsequently the status of books and texts as objects and souvenirs. I ask how the UFO archive is born from a lack of scientific evidence, and how collections of these unscientific “souvenirs” shape and chart the gap of the Archive. I situate my practice in the uncategorisable, uncataloguable, unseeable, indecipherable, imponderable book; it is born from Lynn E. Catoe’s bibliographic work in 1969 and Mike Kelley’s essay On the Aesthetics of Ufology (1997).
-olivier, 2023
Download the full artist statement here.
Photos by Manda Vasquez
El Pueblo San Pablo Tijaltepec - R.I.P Residency at Border Patrol
October 25 - October 29, 2023
Traducción al Español aquí
Photos by Manda Vasquez and Elizabeth Spavento
For this R.I.P. residency, Border Patrol invited twenty-nine artists from El Pueblo San Pablo Tijaltepec, an Indigenous Oaxacan community living in Taft, CA, to create works based on the politics and aesthetics of grief and death. The artists occupied Border Patrol's booths (K4 and K5) daily from 10:00am - 4:00pm at the Brundage Swap Meet over the course of this five day residency. Some artists created traditional works like embroidered clothing while others played music, prepared food, and built altars on occasion of the Día de los Muertos celebration. Border Patrol held a public conversation with Valentín Bautista, San Pablo Tijaltepec's President, on Sunday, October 29th.
El Pueblo San Pablo Tijaltepec is a region in Oaxaca, Mexico that is home to a group of Indigenous people known for their rich embroidery and musical traditions. Out of financial necessity, approximately half of the community left Mexico in the late nineties and resettled in Taft, California, an unincorporated rural part of Kern County. Since members of San Pablo Tijaltepec have migrated in such a large group, their presence is felt throughout Taft; however, they remain fairly isolated since many speak a dialect of Mixteco Alto that is not commonly known outside of their community. Each year the community celebrates their feast day, showcasing traditional music, dancing, food, crafts, and fireworks that characterize the celebration. The most recent celebration was written about in a local news story, which you can access here.
This project has been made possible by 18th Street Arts Center's California Creative Corps grant and by a grant from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in partnership with the California Arts Council, a state agency, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. 18th Street Arts Center California Creative Corps is a pilot program funded by the California Arts Council as an engagement campaign designed to increase public awareness about issues of public health, water and energy conservation, civic engagement, social justice, and more.
El Pueblo San Pablo Tijaltepec is a region in Oaxaca, Mexico that is home to a group of Indigenous people known for their rich embroidery and musical traditions. Out of financial necessity, approximately half of the community left Mexico in the late nineties and resettled in Taft, California, an unincorporated rural part of Kern County. Since members of San Pablo Tijaltepec have migrated in such a large group, their presence is felt throughout Taft; however, they remain fairly isolated since many speak a dialect of Mixteco Alto that is not commonly known outside of their community. Each year the community celebrates their feast day, showcasing traditional music, dancing, food, crafts, and fireworks that characterize the celebration. The most recent celebration was written about in a local news story, which you can access here.
This project has been made possible by 18th Street Arts Center's California Creative Corps grant and by a grant from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in partnership with the California Arts Council, a state agency, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. 18th Street Arts Center California Creative Corps is a pilot program funded by the California Arts Council as an engagement campaign designed to increase public awareness about issues of public health, water and energy conservation, civic engagement, social justice, and more.
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Border Patrol is awarded $50,000 Creative Corps Grant
BORDER PATROL RECEIVES HISTORIC GRANT
The curatorial collective is one of 18 grantees participating in the first ever California Creative Corps program. Each grantee is given $50,000 to produce arts programming between July 2023 - June 2024 and a salary with benefits to support the administrative work related to their project. The CAC invited 18th Street Arts Center and 13 other arts organizations across the state to administer the funds. Border Patrol's application was one of 375 that 18th Street Arts Center received.
Over the next year Border Patrol members Jared Haug, Meg Hahn, Baxter Koziol, and Elizabeth Spavento will occupy spaces K4 and K5 of the Brundage Swap Meet, an indoor flea market in downtown Bakersfield, California. The collective will stage exhibitions, host community workshops, publish multiple texts, and create other events throughout our tenure at the indoor market. Our programming will focus on:
The curatorial collective is one of 18 grantees participating in the first ever California Creative Corps program. Each grantee is given $50,000 to produce arts programming between July 2023 - June 2024 and a salary with benefits to support the administrative work related to their project. The CAC invited 18th Street Arts Center and 13 other arts organizations across the state to administer the funds. Border Patrol's application was one of 375 that 18th Street Arts Center received.
Over the next year Border Patrol members Jared Haug, Meg Hahn, Baxter Koziol, and Elizabeth Spavento will occupy spaces K4 and K5 of the Brundage Swap Meet, an indoor flea market in downtown Bakersfield, California. The collective will stage exhibitions, host community workshops, publish multiple texts, and create other events throughout our tenure at the indoor market. Our programming will focus on:
- Exhibitions and public engagement events related to the material history of khaki and its relationship to contemporary white supremacist terrorist groups
- A pop-up publication studio with an emphasis on publishing artists who are currently/formerly detained or imprisoned and an art book fair featuring local, regional, and national artists
- An R.I.P. artist-in-residence series in which visiting artists are invited to explore the politics and aesthetics of grief and death
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ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA CREATIVE CORPS GRANT
The 2021 State Budget included a $60 million one-time General Fund allocation for the California Arts Council to implement the California Creative Corps pilot program, a media, outreach, and engagement campaign designed to increase:
- Public health awareness messages to stop the spread of COVID-19;
- Public awareness related to water and energy conservation, climate mitigation, and emergency preparedness, relief, and recovery;
- Civic engagement, including election participation;
- Social justice and community engagement.
ABOUT 18th STREET ARTS CENTER
18th Street Arts Center is one of the top artist residency programs in the US, and the largest in Southern California. Conceived as a radical think tank in the shape of an artist community, 18th Street supports artists from around the globe to imagine, research, and develop significant, meaningful new artworks and share them with the public. We are a nonprofit that strives to provide artists the space and time to take risks, to foster the ideal environment for artists and the public to directly engage, and to create experiences and partnerships that foster positive social change. Our mission is to provoke public dialogue through contemporary art-making. We believe that:
- Art making is an essential component of a vibrant, just and healthy society.
- Creative action is a vital part of individual wellbeing.
- Humanity benefits when artists are valued.
ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL
Culture is the strongest signifier of California’s identity. As a state agency, the California Arts Council supports local arts infrastructure and programming statewide through grants, programs, and services. Our mission is to strengthening arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all.
Instagram: @CalArtsCouncil
Deconstructing Khaki: An Online Performance Lecture
Saturday, November 6, 2021
ABOUT THE TALK
Border Patrol adopts the architectural and aesthetic cues of our subject matter to inform how we organize and execute exhibitions. Our goal has always been to explore the intersection of contemporary art and capitalist aesthetics. Our current interests are specifically focused on the way that khaki represents these overlapping topics, emphasizing the material’s colonial history and role in contemporary corporate fashion.
Deconstructing Khaki was a performance lecture presented by Border Patrol and hosted by the Rainmaker Craft Initiative as part of their ongoing virtual conversations on craft. Border Patrol traced the history of khaki from British colonialism in India to the white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, critiquing the material's evolution in military and corporate aesthetics and uncovering the political future of khaki.
Download a recording of the performance here.
(total running time 19:33)
ABOUT RAINMAKER CRAFT INITIATIVE
Rainmaker Craft Initiative (RCI) is a 501c3 non-profit organization established in 2013, now under the direction of four former faculty of Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC). The initiative is driven to propagate the intellectual capital of OCAC’s creative education. Envisioned as a decentralized organization of nodes, RCI intends to perpetuate material practice through the discourse of contemporary craft. Though OCAC will no longer exist as an institution, the faculty have an opportunity to seed new beginnings founded on OCAC’s principles. RCI will honor OCAC by generating creative ecologies in the Northwest and throughout North America.
Focused on advancing partnerships with a variety of constituencies within the greater Portland community, RCI will support learning communities fostering self-reliant, critically engaged makers across a spectrum of mediums, capabilities, and aspirations. As an asset granting enterprise RCI will strengthen experiential, alternative creative education platforms focused on a Craft ethos.
Rainmaker Craft Initiative is an educational platform committed to creative inquiry founded on Craft. Focused on advancing partnerships within the greater Portland community and nationally, RCI emphasizes material practice and community exchange. RCI is dedicated to fostering socially conscious, critically engaged makers across a spectrum of mediums, outcomes and aspirations.
Instagram: @rainmakercraftinitiative
Border Patrol adopts the architectural and aesthetic cues of our subject matter to inform how we organize and execute exhibitions. Our goal has always been to explore the intersection of contemporary art and capitalist aesthetics. Our current interests are specifically focused on the way that khaki represents these overlapping topics, emphasizing the material’s colonial history and role in contemporary corporate fashion.
Deconstructing Khaki was a performance lecture presented by Border Patrol and hosted by the Rainmaker Craft Initiative as part of their ongoing virtual conversations on craft. Border Patrol traced the history of khaki from British colonialism in India to the white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, critiquing the material's evolution in military and corporate aesthetics and uncovering the political future of khaki.
Download a recording of the performance here.
(total running time 19:33)
ABOUT RAINMAKER CRAFT INITIATIVE
Rainmaker Craft Initiative (RCI) is a 501c3 non-profit organization established in 2013, now under the direction of four former faculty of Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC). The initiative is driven to propagate the intellectual capital of OCAC’s creative education. Envisioned as a decentralized organization of nodes, RCI intends to perpetuate material practice through the discourse of contemporary craft. Though OCAC will no longer exist as an institution, the faculty have an opportunity to seed new beginnings founded on OCAC’s principles. RCI will honor OCAC by generating creative ecologies in the Northwest and throughout North America.
Focused on advancing partnerships with a variety of constituencies within the greater Portland community, RCI will support learning communities fostering self-reliant, critically engaged makers across a spectrum of mediums, capabilities, and aspirations. As an asset granting enterprise RCI will strengthen experiential, alternative creative education platforms focused on a Craft ethos.
Rainmaker Craft Initiative is an educational platform committed to creative inquiry founded on Craft. Focused on advancing partnerships within the greater Portland community and nationally, RCI emphasizes material practice and community exchange. RCI is dedicated to fostering socially conscious, critically engaged makers across a spectrum of mediums, outcomes and aspirations.
Instagram: @rainmakercraftinitiative
"Sea of Delusion" by William Nickel
Voices in the Shadow Co-Organizer
Dedicated to Jade, Nina, and William.
I'm standing on the shore of contemplation looking out at the horizon wondering,
thinking of how it was and how it could have been sailing into the sunset on a yacht,
the "Forget Me Not"...
In the bay of truth gazing at the sky of illusions
I manifest a fantasy on western skies
memorized
by what I see I set adrift on a memory
bliss in the p.m. dawn with no wind in my sails to hold me, I'm blowing in the wind.
Just a light breeze a gust of wind for my delusion to be,
in the ocean of reality
it's me hindering me.
"Forget Me Not"
I would be lost without you,
so I pray and live for the wind,
my delusion at sea.
"Forget Me Not"
dropping anchor in the shallow deep
as I scope for the harbor rendezvous
wherever I may be.
However long, however old
I declare my cargo of what I hold,
a nine lock jade chest with a dollar worth of gold.
Forget me not
on the darkest day or the brightest night,
through the greatest of days and most loneliest of nights,
my delusions casting wind to my sails, my paradise serenity.
I want to dive into your ocean and see an eclipse from your view,
to be forever young with what was once true.
I'm standing on the shore of contemplation looking out at the horizon wondering,
thinking of how it was and how it could have been sailing into the sunset on a yacht,
the "Forget Me Not"...
In the bay of truth gazing at the sky of illusions
I manifest a fantasy on western skies
memorized
by what I see I set adrift on a memory
bliss in the p.m. dawn with no wind in my sails to hold me, I'm blowing in the wind.
Just a light breeze a gust of wind for my delusion to be,
in the ocean of reality
it's me hindering me.
"Forget Me Not"
I would be lost without you,
so I pray and live for the wind,
my delusion at sea.
"Forget Me Not"
dropping anchor in the shallow deep
as I scope for the harbor rendezvous
wherever I may be.
However long, however old
I declare my cargo of what I hold,
a nine lock jade chest with a dollar worth of gold.
Forget me not
on the darkest day or the brightest night,
through the greatest of days and most loneliest of nights,
my delusions casting wind to my sails, my paradise serenity.
I want to dive into your ocean and see an eclipse from your view,
to be forever young with what was once true.
Voices in the Shadow Book Launch
October 3, 2021 at SPACE
Between February and April 2021, members of Border Patrol co-organized an exhibition called "Voices in the Shadow" with Mesa Verde residents Levi Cruz, Walter Cruz-Zavala, and William Nickel. The publication features much of the contents of the exhibition, documenting the detainees' activist work in support of better living conditions and the abysmal food served inside the facility. Part catalogue and part archive, Voices int he Shadow contains letters, portraits, recipes, and exhibition images related to Border Patrol's ongoing collaboration with detainees at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, CA. Border Patrol had originally planned to be in dialogue with Levi Cruz via video chat during the book launch, but ICE officers prevented Levi from joining the conversation. Click here to download an audio interview with Levi as he explains what happened. Click here for a transcript of the interview.
Voices in the Shadow was presented as part of SPACE's exhibition, What Rhymes with Freedom? in conjunction with Freedom & Captivity: A Humanities Initiative for an Abolitionist Future. Click here to access the Freedom & Captivity Abolition Resource List for further reading. Copies of the book are available for purchase in our online shop. Proceeds will benefit the current and former residents of Mesa Verde.
Flip through the book here.
Voices in the Shadow was presented as part of SPACE's exhibition, What Rhymes with Freedom? in conjunction with Freedom & Captivity: A Humanities Initiative for an Abolitionist Future. Click here to access the Freedom & Captivity Abolition Resource List for further reading. Copies of the book are available for purchase in our online shop. Proceeds will benefit the current and former residents of Mesa Verde.
Flip through the book here.
Photos by Elizabeth Spavento
Border Patrol would like to thank Alan Estigoy, Elezar Calmo, Elodio Valencia, Abadín Hector, Jaswant Singh, John Victorio, José Mauricio Enriquez, Levi Cruz, Mohamed Mousa, Nestor Chavez, Ordaz Camacho, Osvin Orozco-García, Mark Griffin, Quan Lam, Roberto Ramirez Piñeda, Salvador Moncada, Walter Cruz-Zavala, Wei Lin, William Alexander Matias and WIlliam Nickel for their participation and continued collaboration. We also wish to thank New Country (Bakersfield, CA) and SOIL (Seattle, WA) for opening their galleries to exhibitions of this work and to SPACE (Portland, ME) for the funding that made this publication possible. Design assistance was provided by Douglas W. Milliken and exhibition documentation by Alex de la Pena.
Voices in the Shadow: Art from Mesa Verde ICE Detention Facility
Voces en la Sombra: Arte del Centro de Detención de Mesa Verde (ICE)
Co-organized by Levi Cruz, William Nickel, and Walter Cruz-Zavala
Saturday, February 27 - Sunday, April 17, 2021
New Country - Bakersfield, CA
Saturday, February 27 - Sunday, April 17, 2021
New Country - Bakersfield, CA
Artwork by Levi Cruz
Photos by Alex De La Pena
PRESS RELEASE
Download Levi's letter
Download Levi's letter
Artwork by Walter Cruz Zavala
Photos by Alex De La Pena and Elizabeth Spavento
Artwork by Juan Lopez García
Photos by Alex De La Pena and Elizabeth Spavento
Portraits
Installation Images
Photos by Alex De La Pena
Get Involved
Kern Youth Abolitionists
Kern Welcoming and Extending Solidarity to Immigrants (KWESI)
People's Budget Bako
Faith in the Valley
Our Revolution Kern County
Our Revolution Antelope Valley
Central Valley Mutual Aid
Find Help
Critical Resistance
Kern Freedom Fund
Jakara Movement
Kern Welcoming and Extending Solidarity to Immigrants (KWESI)
People's Budget Bako
Faith in the Valley
Our Revolution Kern County
Our Revolution Antelope Valley
Central Valley Mutual Aid
Find Help
Critical Resistance
Kern Freedom Fund
Jakara Movement
Special thanks to Gaby Facio and Maricruz Ramirez who translated the detainees' writings into English and Spanish.
The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation's 5 Year Anniversary Exhibition
April 22 - June 19, 2021 at Cove St. Arts
Photo by Joel Tsui
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Border Patrol presented a selection of works from 2019 as part of the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation 5 Year Anniversary exhibition at Cove Street Arts. The collective received an inaugural project grant from the foundation to realize R.I.P., a public art series that addresses the aesthetics and politics of death.
The series featured works by photographers, sculptors, performers and writers on a backlit advertising kiosk in the Maine Mall and on a grave site in the Highland Memorial Cemetery. More information about the project can be found here. For the exhibition, Border Patrol created a series of charcoal prints from the tombstone that serves as a permanent public artwork in the Highland Memorial Cemetery. The stone was installed in the fall of 2019 as part of R.I.P. and features an original poem by writer Imani Jackson. Viewers were encouraged to take materials provided in exhibition to create their own rubbings at the South Portland cemetery. |
Click here for projects between July 1 - December 31, 2019
Pop-Up Party & Book Drive
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Works by Brendan Shea
|
In honor of our time in Suite 309, we hosted a pop-up party and book drive for the Maine State Prison featuring works by:
Brendan Shea (ME) Brian Doody (ME) Ruby Jackson (NY) + Emma Post (NY) Cobra McVey (TX) Hayley Barker (CA) As always, a portion of proceeds were donated to the Indigenous Action Network. |
Absent Myths: Watercolors by Greg Jamie
April 6 - May 31, 2019
Border Patrol presented Greg Jamie's first solo exhibition of watercolor paintings in its last exhibition in the State Theatre Building. The exhibition at Border Patrol was the first in an ongoing series of paintings that play with folklore as a dreamlike, non-nostalgic and immediate form. Inspired by self-taught artists Martin Ramirez, Henry Darger, Carol Rama, Bill Traylor, and John Lurie, Greg Jamie works to create his own symbolic language and unspecific mythic beings caught in nightmarish landscapes. In Jamie's work, an odd juxtaposition of vibrant colors and muted tonal settings depict abstract and childlike creatures consumed by nature and wandering outside of their parameters. The symbolism has no frame of reference and the myths are not established, yet Jamie's paintings depict vibrant fairy tales that are endless.
Greg Jamie lives in Portland, Maine. A songwriter and musician, Jamie has released albums under his own name and with his bands, O’Death and Blood Warrior. He holds a BFA in film from the film conservatory at SUNY Purchase. He is a partner and programmer at the Apohadion Theater. A closing reception for Absent Myths with live music by Drab Pony took place on Friday, May 31st.
Follow Greg on Instagram - @gregjamie
Greg Jamie lives in Portland, Maine. A songwriter and musician, Jamie has released albums under his own name and with his bands, O’Death and Blood Warrior. He holds a BFA in film from the film conservatory at SUNY Purchase. He is a partner and programmer at the Apohadion Theater. A closing reception for Absent Myths with live music by Drab Pony took place on Friday, May 31st.
Follow Greg on Instagram - @gregjamie
Photos by Joel Tsui
Flavor Profile Closing Reception and Reading with Brenna Quinn
Saturday, March 23rd
3 - 4pm at Wild Burritos
4 - 6pm at Border Patrol
Border Patrol hosted a reading with B. Quinn at Wild Burritos on occasion of the closing of Flavor Profile, curated by Meg Hahn. B.Quinn read from her text-based work, 116 Actions in 24 Hours with a Purple Cabbage in Johnson, Vermont, which was included in the exhibition. The piece was originally conceived and created while Quinn was in residence at the Vermont Studio center in March 2018. In the review "Food, Mundanity, Devotion: Flavor Profile at Border Patrol," Olivia Canny observes “there is a comical and unsettlingly familiar quality to Quinn’s anthropomorphization of the cabbage...the dynamics of the narrator’s relationship with the cabbage offer introspection into how value and turbulence function within interpersonal relationships.” Just like in the artist’s everyday life, banality, dark humor, uncertainty, and obsession were present in this performative reading. Border Patrol also screened the short film, Food by Jan Švankmajer on the restaurant's television during the event.
Flavor Profile
Curated by Meg Hahn
January 19 - March 23, 2019
Flavor Profile was a group show curated by Meg Hahn and featuring works by Jarid del Deo (ME), Ruby Jackson (NJ), Dustin Metz (CA), Cat Quattrociocchi (ME), B. Quinn (IL), and Kemar Wynter (NY). The works dislayed in the exhibition use food as their source, directly and indirectly, as representational and abstract forms. On occasion of the exhibiton, Border Patrol produced Flavor Profile Cookbook, a publication that included original writing, recipes, and artworks by participating artists. Flavor Profile Cookbook is an edition of 65, risograph printed by Wing Club Press.
Food involves labor. It is a material and an object whose combinations can create a composition. It can be elevated in its presentation and used to mediate borders. Food represents and measures the cycles of life, from germination, to fruit, and eventual decay. Its presence can be humorous, sentimental, and deeply reactive. The artists in Flavor Profile embody these ideas by demonstrating food’s universal humanist understanding, reflecting our own idiosyncrasies, culture, and histories. Using food as its source, both directly and indirectly, each artist’s contributions create an overarching show, or meal.
--Meg Hahn, January 2019
Full text available in Flavor Profile Cookbook
Please email us for more information on how to purchase
Food involves labor. It is a material and an object whose combinations can create a composition. It can be elevated in its presentation and used to mediate borders. Food represents and measures the cycles of life, from germination, to fruit, and eventual decay. Its presence can be humorous, sentimental, and deeply reactive. The artists in Flavor Profile embody these ideas by demonstrating food’s universal humanist understanding, reflecting our own idiosyncrasies, culture, and histories. Using food as its source, both directly and indirectly, each artist’s contributions create an overarching show, or meal.
--Meg Hahn, January 2019
Full text available in Flavor Profile Cookbook
Please email us for more information on how to purchase
Night Guard Recruitment Day
Performance by olivier
November 17, 2018 2 - 4pm
The Museum is hiring! We need YOU to guard our pretentious, I mean, precious, art. Do you want to be the keepers of treasures? Do you want to be part of us? Do you want a cool badge that make you feel you belong? The Museum needs you! You can too be the chosen one! Join us now!
Night Guard Recruitment Day was a participatory performance in which guests were invited to step into a day in the life of a museum night guard on occasion of the closing of THE WE. THE YOU. THE US. Mimicking recruitment events sponsored by The Museum, Ho led visitors through a series of tasks related to the exhibition that included hiring, working, and resigning--duties typically assigned to a night security guard. This participatory performance references cult religions and a sense of belonging. It is an exploration of the purposeless purposes and the forced engagement towards hierarchy.
Image by olivier
THE WE. THE YOU. THE US
Curated by Baxter Koziol
September 29 - November 17, 2018
The we. The you. The us.
Derived from the inclusive vocabulary in so many ad campaigns, this title also encapsulates how I felt about my curatorial approach. Curation is built on branding, gathering an inanimate crowd with commonalities. Artists are so regularly boiled down to a brand to assure quality in recognition and repetition in the financial and social marketplace. I saw this multiplication of the self, a projection of one’s body into concurrent body objects, giving them a history. I also saw in these artists an ability to coexist as maker, consumer, and critic of their own enterprise. They actively participate in an inevitable distillation process, and they use its momentum to further communicate and inhabit the brand others see them as. Their artworks have an element of wearability wherein they become avatars to play out this artistic brand, or just to take our place when we want to do something else.
--Baxter Koziol, curator
September 2018
Featuring works by Magnus Gitt-Henderson, olivier, Terrance James Jr., Baxter Koziol, Dave Munson, and Brian Trelegan
Derived from the inclusive vocabulary in so many ad campaigns, this title also encapsulates how I felt about my curatorial approach. Curation is built on branding, gathering an inanimate crowd with commonalities. Artists are so regularly boiled down to a brand to assure quality in recognition and repetition in the financial and social marketplace. I saw this multiplication of the self, a projection of one’s body into concurrent body objects, giving them a history. I also saw in these artists an ability to coexist as maker, consumer, and critic of their own enterprise. They actively participate in an inevitable distillation process, and they use its momentum to further communicate and inhabit the brand others see them as. Their artworks have an element of wearability wherein they become avatars to play out this artistic brand, or just to take our place when we want to do something else.
--Baxter Koziol, curator
September 2018
Featuring works by Magnus Gitt-Henderson, olivier, Terrance James Jr., Baxter Koziol, Dave Munson, and Brian Trelegan
Video and Sound Works
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Olivier Ho
Together We Can Rule the Galaxy, 2018 Digital video Running time: 6 min. Please note this video contains nudity. |
Brian Trelegan
Excerpt from Putt-Putt Forgets What the Zoo Was Like, 2018 Sound piece (stereo) Full running time: 41 min. 45 sec. FMI: visit Brian Trelegan's website |
New England Art Book Fair
October 5 - 6, 2018
Border Patrol returned to the New England Art Book Fair at SPACE Gallery, a two-day event featuring independent publishers and artists from across the country. Visitors explored the convergence of publishing, identity, art, and storytelling. We sold artworks, music and texts by Hayley Barker , Nick Benfey, Big Blood, Demian DinéYazhi', Sandra Erbacher, Nat Evans, Baxter Koziol, Jake Nussbaum, Seven Count, Brendan Shea, and others. A portion of proceeds went to support the Indigenous Action Network and we collected books for the Maine State Prison Library in Warren, ME.
LADY-LIKE
Curated by Beth Kleene
August 4 - September 5, 2018
Definition of ladylike
1 : becoming or suitable to a lady
2: resembling a lady in appearance or manners : well-bred
3 a : feeling or showing too much concern about elegance or propriety
3b : lacking in strength, force, or virility
Lady-Like, a group exhibition curated by Portland, Maine artist, Beth Kleene. Featuring works by Anne Buckwalter, Jaime Bull, Stacey Elder, Elizabeth Kleene, KC Crow Maddux, Kayla Mattes, and Cobra McVey, Lady-Like seeks to question accepted definitions of femininity and what it means to make work that is “feminine.” The show hopes to present the idea of femininity as a broad spectrum that extends beyond traditional expressions of the feminine, encompassing interpretations of ladylike behavior and gender that defy convention.
Images by Justin Levesque
1 : becoming or suitable to a lady
2: resembling a lady in appearance or manners : well-bred
3 a : feeling or showing too much concern about elegance or propriety
3b : lacking in strength, force, or virility
Lady-Like, a group exhibition curated by Portland, Maine artist, Beth Kleene. Featuring works by Anne Buckwalter, Jaime Bull, Stacey Elder, Elizabeth Kleene, KC Crow Maddux, Kayla Mattes, and Cobra McVey, Lady-Like seeks to question accepted definitions of femininity and what it means to make work that is “feminine.” The show hopes to present the idea of femininity as a broad spectrum that extends beyond traditional expressions of the feminine, encompassing interpretations of ladylike behavior and gender that defy convention.
Images by Justin Levesque
Backwards Dive
New Works by Emilie Stark-Menneg
June 9 - July 14, 2018
"These recent paintings are storyboards for an impossible film—cue the monsoon, catch the shark, release the mermaids. I don’t know how to animate, so my movie-making decisions are largely based on real-life circumstances and DIY green-screen effects. In the past, I’ve celebrated the humor of the shoddy production, of the self-conscious reveal. But increasingly I am interested in being enraptured. What are the mechanisms at work, when one sits in a movie theater and becomes completely engulfed in the story? And how does the cinematic play out in painting? Reluctantly, I’ve decided to give illusion, light, depth and atmosphere a second chance. I’m beginning to look back, to admit to my love of Renaissance painting and Gothic romance. This descent makes me squeamish, because I’ve been so obsessed with breaking the rules and making work that looks weird and new. I don’t know what I’ll find, but I’ve always been terrified of diving backwards, so here it goes."
--Emilie Stark-Menneg
May 2018
Images by Joel Tsui
--Emilie Stark-Menneg
May 2018
Images by Joel Tsui
POP-UP SHOP!
Saturday, June 23, 2018 10am - 4pm
Border Patrol hosted a pop-up shop on Saturday, June 23 from 10am - 4pm during the Pickwick and Friends 3rd Annual Print Fair in Congress Square Park. Both the pop-up and print fair were free and open to the public. A portion of sales went to support the Indigenous Action Network. Texts and works by: Hayley Barker, Nick Benfey, Big Blood, Ryan Burghard, Demian DinéYazhi', Sandra Erbacher, Nat Evans, Baxter Koziol, Jake Nussbaum, Seven Count, Brendan Shea, and Emilie Stark-Menneg.
TIIC
March 16 - May 12, 2018
Border Patrol presents TIIC, a satellite project by Sandra Erbacher in conjunction with her exhibition, Geometry of Oppression, on view at SPACE (538 Congress St.).
For TIIC, Sandra Erbacher presents a suite of seven formal portraits of both Nazi officials and IBM managing directors. Collectively known as Faces of Fascism and Bureaucracy, the portraits are part of an ongoing series of graphite drawings that the artist initially created as a response to Edwin Black’s book, IBM and the Holocaust, which charts the business connections between IBM and the Nazi regime. In the process of drawing, the artist's initial concern to chart the parallels between fascism and bureaucracy--evident here in the authoritative expressions, formal business attire and homogeneity of race and gender--extended to an interest in the assumed status of the archive as a neutral container for an objective, historical truth.
Erbacher aims to construct an archive that casts the boundaries between fact and fiction into doubt; in fact, the portraits of IBM directors and Nazi officials appear almost interchangeable. The work poses questions about the ways in which dominant power relationships are tied up with the creation and governance of an archive or narrative history and how such an archive shapes one’s relationship to the past, present and future.
The more deliberately obscure exhibition title, TIIC (an acronym for The Idiots in Charge) is taken from the eponymous neon artwork in the gallery’s back room. Extracted from its particular corporate context, TIIC alludes to business jargon, occupational acronyms, and corporate communications. This commonplace if not irrational class of language is traditionally employed by government agencies as a tactic of abstraction and reinforced by the gallery’s intentional resemblance to an office waiting room.
Images by Joel Tsui
For TIIC, Sandra Erbacher presents a suite of seven formal portraits of both Nazi officials and IBM managing directors. Collectively known as Faces of Fascism and Bureaucracy, the portraits are part of an ongoing series of graphite drawings that the artist initially created as a response to Edwin Black’s book, IBM and the Holocaust, which charts the business connections between IBM and the Nazi regime. In the process of drawing, the artist's initial concern to chart the parallels between fascism and bureaucracy--evident here in the authoritative expressions, formal business attire and homogeneity of race and gender--extended to an interest in the assumed status of the archive as a neutral container for an objective, historical truth.
Erbacher aims to construct an archive that casts the boundaries between fact and fiction into doubt; in fact, the portraits of IBM directors and Nazi officials appear almost interchangeable. The work poses questions about the ways in which dominant power relationships are tied up with the creation and governance of an archive or narrative history and how such an archive shapes one’s relationship to the past, present and future.
The more deliberately obscure exhibition title, TIIC (an acronym for The Idiots in Charge) is taken from the eponymous neon artwork in the gallery’s back room. Extracted from its particular corporate context, TIIC alludes to business jargon, occupational acronyms, and corporate communications. This commonplace if not irrational class of language is traditionally employed by government agencies as a tactic of abstraction and reinforced by the gallery’s intentional resemblance to an office waiting room.
Images by Joel Tsui
Over Land Art Book Fair
May 5, 2018
Border Patrol was pleased to participate in the Over Land Art Book Fair at Waking Windows. Organized by pop-up art space Overnight Projects and Burlington-based Flatlander Press, Vermont celebrated its first and only art book fair. OLABF presented a curated selection of regionally-based sellers and small presses. A portion of sales went to support the Indigenous Action Network. Texts and works by: Hayley Barker, Nick Benfey, Big Blood, Seven Count, Demian DinéYazhi, Sandra Erbacher, Nat Evans, Colleen Kinsella, Baxter Koziol, and Brendan Shea.
LOVESEAT
January 27 - March 10, 2018
Border Patrol kicks off 2018 with Loveseat, an exhibition of new works by Brendan Shea and Nick Benfey. An opening reception with the artists will be held on Saturday, January 27 from 3 – 6 PM.
Shea presents paintings, sculpture and architectural interventions to the space on occasion of Loveseat. He displays an acute understanding of what he describes as painting’s “congealed histories.” Balancing material exploration with an awareness of the medium’s ability to construct empathy through sustained looking, Shea explains:
“Painting is unique because upon viewing you simultaneously perceive an image and the materials that construct the image. It is a platform for illusion that is attentive to its material reality. When an object articulates this type of awareness it can affect us on a different level, it can make us feel things more deeply. My intent is to promote a general sense of awareness and an aptitude for feeling.”
Nick Benfey’s work also rewards prolonged study. The figures that appear in his paintings exist as a generic “type,” a cypher for the imminently relatable situations into which they are placed. He succeeds in translating personal moments into glimpses of a universal. Transparency of method and intention is similarly crucial for Benfey:
“I’ve been through enough to know that many people live on a precarious edge of mental and emotional stability. Painting is my way of exploring that edge. In my work, which is almost entirely focused on people, I enjoy slipping back and forth between orderly waking life and an anarchic dream world, between selfless giving and insecure withholding, between agonizing fear and joyful confidence, between exposed vulnerability and tender care. My art is a reflection of what I value in my personal experiences, and my only criterion for a painting worth making is whether it comes from an honest and meaningful place.”
Such concerns for the conditions of viewing betray an unshakeable confidence in the connection between looking and acting. Benfey and Shea celebrate bodies, objects, and moments both mundane and sparkling, mediated and exposed, agonized and joyful. Loveseat is on view through Saturday, March 10.
Images by Joel Tsui
Shea presents paintings, sculpture and architectural interventions to the space on occasion of Loveseat. He displays an acute understanding of what he describes as painting’s “congealed histories.” Balancing material exploration with an awareness of the medium’s ability to construct empathy through sustained looking, Shea explains:
“Painting is unique because upon viewing you simultaneously perceive an image and the materials that construct the image. It is a platform for illusion that is attentive to its material reality. When an object articulates this type of awareness it can affect us on a different level, it can make us feel things more deeply. My intent is to promote a general sense of awareness and an aptitude for feeling.”
Nick Benfey’s work also rewards prolonged study. The figures that appear in his paintings exist as a generic “type,” a cypher for the imminently relatable situations into which they are placed. He succeeds in translating personal moments into glimpses of a universal. Transparency of method and intention is similarly crucial for Benfey:
“I’ve been through enough to know that many people live on a precarious edge of mental and emotional stability. Painting is my way of exploring that edge. In my work, which is almost entirely focused on people, I enjoy slipping back and forth between orderly waking life and an anarchic dream world, between selfless giving and insecure withholding, between agonizing fear and joyful confidence, between exposed vulnerability and tender care. My art is a reflection of what I value in my personal experiences, and my only criterion for a painting worth making is whether it comes from an honest and meaningful place.”
Such concerns for the conditions of viewing betray an unshakeable confidence in the connection between looking and acting. Benfey and Shea celebrate bodies, objects, and moments both mundane and sparkling, mediated and exposed, agonized and joyful. Loveseat is on view through Saturday, March 10.
Images by Joel Tsui
Artist Talk and Silk Screening Workshop with Demian DinéYazhi'
Saturday, October 28, 2017 Co-presented with Pickwick Independent Press
R.I.S.E. founder + director, Demian DinéYazhi' spoke on the artwork, concepts, and socially engaged projects organized by the Indigenous artist + activist initiative on occasion of the closing of WILD FAMILY. Most notably, the #DecolonizeFeminism poster series, Indigenous Queer/Decolonize Yr Luvvv posters, and a recent collaboration with Winter Count collective and Postcommodity for the Land-based exhibition, Nothing is Natural.
Demian DinéYazhi´ (born 1983) is a Portland-based Diné transdisciplinary artist born to the clans Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water’s Edge) & Tódích’íí’nii (Bitter Water). Whether he is broaching topics adjacent to Decolonization, Survivance, & Queerness in written or visual language, Demian is caught in a narrative that is informed by romanticized notions of belonging & the alienation experienced through centuries of forced assimilation to White Supremacist Capitalist Heteropatriarchal Colonization. His practice is rooted in Radical Indigenous Queer Feminist ideology, landscape representation, memory formation, HIV/AIDS-related art & activism, poetry, and curatorial inquiry. He received his BFA in Intermedia Arts from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2014. Demian is the founder & director of the artist/activist initiative, R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment, which is dedicated to education, perseverance, & evolution of Indigenous art & culture, as well as co-director for the forthcoming zine, Locusts: A Post-Queer Nation Zine. DinéYazhi was an artist-in-residence at Institute of American Indian Arts (2016), and is a recipient of Crow’s Shadow 2017 Golden Spot Residency and the 2017 Brink Award. He has received grants from Evergreen State College (2014, 2016), PICA – Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (2014, 2016), Art Matters Foundation (2015), and Potlatch Fund (2016).
Images by Joel Tsui
Demian DinéYazhi´ (born 1983) is a Portland-based Diné transdisciplinary artist born to the clans Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water’s Edge) & Tódích’íí’nii (Bitter Water). Whether he is broaching topics adjacent to Decolonization, Survivance, & Queerness in written or visual language, Demian is caught in a narrative that is informed by romanticized notions of belonging & the alienation experienced through centuries of forced assimilation to White Supremacist Capitalist Heteropatriarchal Colonization. His practice is rooted in Radical Indigenous Queer Feminist ideology, landscape representation, memory formation, HIV/AIDS-related art & activism, poetry, and curatorial inquiry. He received his BFA in Intermedia Arts from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2014. Demian is the founder & director of the artist/activist initiative, R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment, which is dedicated to education, perseverance, & evolution of Indigenous art & culture, as well as co-director for the forthcoming zine, Locusts: A Post-Queer Nation Zine. DinéYazhi was an artist-in-residence at Institute of American Indian Arts (2016), and is a recipient of Crow’s Shadow 2017 Golden Spot Residency and the 2017 Brink Award. He has received grants from Evergreen State College (2014, 2016), PICA – Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (2014, 2016), Art Matters Foundation (2015), and Potlatch Fund (2016).
Images by Joel Tsui
Wild Family
August 18 - October 28, 2017
WILD FAMILY is a group show dedicated to memories, representations, and imaginings of matriarchy. Named after a 1510 drawing by artist Albrecht Altdorfer, this exhibition imagines a world in which women rule.
Altdorfer was an accomplished German Renaissance painter, architect, city planner, and wine maker, credited with inventing the genre of western landscape painting. Unlike his contemporaries, Altdorfer prioritized depictions of the natural world over idealized human bodies. Many of his works feature lush foliage and atmospheric cloudscapes. Figures, when present, do not exploit the natural environment but rather participate within it. His early works in particular aligned more with pagan traditions than Christian ones; in addition to thick forests, Altdorfer depicted feral humans, witches, and other apparitions in his compositions. His is a world in which woman and man, child and adult, soil and flesh churn and pulse on the same horizontal plane.
The exhibition uses the drawing as a framing mechanism, as both an alternate history and as a dissection of patriarchy. Like Altdorfer, the works on display de-naturalize current power relationships while conjuring the arrival of a transformed landscape. Assuming that historical representations contain kernels of worlds to come, WILD FAMILY stumbles toward a suffusion of female energy.
Featuring works by: Elizabeth Atterbury (Portland, ME), Erin Elyse Burns (Seattle, WA), Demian DinéYazhi (Portland, OR), Nika Kaiser (Tucson, AZ), Courtney Kemp (Portland, OR), Zakkiyyah Najeebah (Chicago, IL), Elizabeth Spavento (Portland, ME), and Cammie Staros (Los Angeles, CA)
Images by Joel Tsui
Altdorfer was an accomplished German Renaissance painter, architect, city planner, and wine maker, credited with inventing the genre of western landscape painting. Unlike his contemporaries, Altdorfer prioritized depictions of the natural world over idealized human bodies. Many of his works feature lush foliage and atmospheric cloudscapes. Figures, when present, do not exploit the natural environment but rather participate within it. His early works in particular aligned more with pagan traditions than Christian ones; in addition to thick forests, Altdorfer depicted feral humans, witches, and other apparitions in his compositions. His is a world in which woman and man, child and adult, soil and flesh churn and pulse on the same horizontal plane.
The exhibition uses the drawing as a framing mechanism, as both an alternate history and as a dissection of patriarchy. Like Altdorfer, the works on display de-naturalize current power relationships while conjuring the arrival of a transformed landscape. Assuming that historical representations contain kernels of worlds to come, WILD FAMILY stumbles toward a suffusion of female energy.
Featuring works by: Elizabeth Atterbury (Portland, ME), Erin Elyse Burns (Seattle, WA), Demian DinéYazhi (Portland, OR), Nika Kaiser (Tucson, AZ), Courtney Kemp (Portland, OR), Zakkiyyah Najeebah (Chicago, IL), Elizabeth Spavento (Portland, ME), and Cammie Staros (Los Angeles, CA)
Images by Joel Tsui
Boston Art Book Fair
October 20 - 22, 2017
Border Patrol took part in the inaugural Boston Book Art Fair, organized by Boston Center for the Arts and Bodega. The Boston Art Book Fair is an innovative and cutting edge event where international and local artists, thinkers, collectors, publishers and anyone drawn to the rich intersection of text and image convene to celebrate and trade print in all forms—including art books, zines, prints, catalogs and analog recordings. Border Patrol accepted book donations for the Maine State Prison library at our table. A portion of sales went to support the Indigenous Action Network and Portland Outright. Texts and works by: Demian DinéYazhi', Nat Evans, Zakkiyyah Najeebah, Ryan Burghard, Angus McCullough, Keijaun Thomas and more.
New England Art Book Fair
October 6 & 7, 2017
Border Patrol took part in the New England Art Book Fair at SPACE Gallery, a two-day event featuring independent publishers and artists from across the country that explores the convergence of publishing, identity, art, and storytelling. We shared a table with our friends Grammar Center Press from Orlando, FL. Border Patrol accepted book donations for the Maine State Prison library and donated a portion of sales to the Indigenous Action Network. Texts and works by: Demian DinéYazhi', Ryan Burghard, Nat Evans, and more.
Invitation
May 19 - June 19, 2017
Air enters through the nose, deposits oxygen into the bloodstream via the lungs, and is pushed out again through the mouth, vibrating a reed, passing through a modifiable architecture of valves and bells, and re-entering the atmosphere as CO2. As musicians, we know this linear account is both true and false. The air we breathe is thick with old sounds, already processed by ancient lungs, still resonant. Our breathing is a re-performance, a cover, of when the first lung synchronized its existence with the first fern. The songs we play are rumors of what they were, and shells of what they are trying to be.
Invitation is a collaborative installation by artists and musicians Angus McCullough (Bennington, VT), Jake Nussbaum (Brooklyn, NY) and Adam Tinkle (Saratoga Springs, NY) that attempts to crystallize these phenomena. Through collective improvisation (intellectual, musical, performative, sculptural), we research experiences of time and space that are non-linear, confounding, and bent. We meditate on how they are are already present in our lives, and how they lead us towards new performances, recordings, and broadcasts.
Invitation is a place to continue this research, and we invite you to join us as participants in this limitless, modifiable series of openings. The deal is: we learn something from you, and in exchange we learn something from you. We can play your records, we can scan your documents, we can listen to your theories, we can read your Tarot cards. Become an antennae. Articulate an interior shadow-form and photocopy it. Join us in the ongoing study of participatory ethics. The horn is a transmitter. Radio waves are sanctified. The room is an amp. We want to tell you what we've found and spark new findings into momentary existence. We'll be at work in the space for some time, so please consider this your Invitation.
Seven Count is a group making improvisational music featuring Angus McCullough, Jake Nussbaum and Adam Tinkle. Listen here.
Invitation is a collaborative installation by artists and musicians Angus McCullough (Bennington, VT), Jake Nussbaum (Brooklyn, NY) and Adam Tinkle (Saratoga Springs, NY) that attempts to crystallize these phenomena. Through collective improvisation (intellectual, musical, performative, sculptural), we research experiences of time and space that are non-linear, confounding, and bent. We meditate on how they are are already present in our lives, and how they lead us towards new performances, recordings, and broadcasts.
Invitation is a place to continue this research, and we invite you to join us as participants in this limitless, modifiable series of openings. The deal is: we learn something from you, and in exchange we learn something from you. We can play your records, we can scan your documents, we can listen to your theories, we can read your Tarot cards. Become an antennae. Articulate an interior shadow-form and photocopy it. Join us in the ongoing study of participatory ethics. The horn is a transmitter. Radio waves are sanctified. The room is an amp. We want to tell you what we've found and spark new findings into momentary existence. We'll be at work in the space for some time, so please consider this your Invitation.
Seven Count is a group making improvisational music featuring Angus McCullough, Jake Nussbaum and Adam Tinkle. Listen here.
Ladyboy
April 15 - May 12, 2017
Ladyboy is a solo exhibition featuring new works by Derek Jackson (Portland, ME).
"I want to talk about trans and gender narratives that aren’t featured in the mainstream. I want to talk about cross dressing. I want it to be about genitals, just for one day. And sex work. And faces. Beautiful faces. And gender expression that isn’t about craft or identity, that isn’t an end but a means.
These are the stories we aren’t supposed to hear or tell. They subvert our fight to not be murdered just for being who we are. I feel honored to be an artist and to hold these stories. I feel compelled to make them beautiful, to embellish and seduce. To convince you that this is ok. Then I remember, it’s not about pleasing the audience or being ok. It’s about Ladyboy.
I'm going to draw and paint the fuck out of this painting with an urgent need to engage in pleasure and expression without persecution. I don’t care if it’s the same painting over and over. I don’t care if I’m good at drawing hands. I don’t care if it’s a simple expression of a couple of ideas. I need to do this.
I'm reflecting the desire to dress, to cross dress, as a way to get to a different place. To be different than I was before, than we were, before. Maybe drugs or alcohol makes it easy for you to go there. Maybe it’s a place you return to on occasion or every day. But this isn’t just about totems either. I'm finding humanity and strength in the simple play with things I love. I am handling materials like lumber and sheetrock--stereotypically thought of as masculine--in a way that subverts their intended use, regardless of validation or whether any house was built. Am I holding up a roof caving under the weight of expectations around respectability? Does this show do anything to make it safer for anyone? I so desperately want it to. This world is not safe. I would be kidding you if I believed a painting could change that. But this isn’t about the world. This is about Ladyboy.
This is about life in the shadows and on the fringe. This is about your brother, father, coworker or friend. This is about being a tech geek during the week and letting down your long black hair as an androgynous goth lord on the weekends. This is about transforming pain into a flawless ability to serve contour for days. This is about a big load from daddy all over your face because you’ve been a good girl. This is about violence and beauty living side by side in the perfume of sex for sale. Ladyboy is here and she’s dressed for you."
-Derek Jackson, March 2017
"I want to talk about trans and gender narratives that aren’t featured in the mainstream. I want to talk about cross dressing. I want it to be about genitals, just for one day. And sex work. And faces. Beautiful faces. And gender expression that isn’t about craft or identity, that isn’t an end but a means.
These are the stories we aren’t supposed to hear or tell. They subvert our fight to not be murdered just for being who we are. I feel honored to be an artist and to hold these stories. I feel compelled to make them beautiful, to embellish and seduce. To convince you that this is ok. Then I remember, it’s not about pleasing the audience or being ok. It’s about Ladyboy.
I'm going to draw and paint the fuck out of this painting with an urgent need to engage in pleasure and expression without persecution. I don’t care if it’s the same painting over and over. I don’t care if I’m good at drawing hands. I don’t care if it’s a simple expression of a couple of ideas. I need to do this.
I'm reflecting the desire to dress, to cross dress, as a way to get to a different place. To be different than I was before, than we were, before. Maybe drugs or alcohol makes it easy for you to go there. Maybe it’s a place you return to on occasion or every day. But this isn’t just about totems either. I'm finding humanity and strength in the simple play with things I love. I am handling materials like lumber and sheetrock--stereotypically thought of as masculine--in a way that subverts their intended use, regardless of validation or whether any house was built. Am I holding up a roof caving under the weight of expectations around respectability? Does this show do anything to make it safer for anyone? I so desperately want it to. This world is not safe. I would be kidding you if I believed a painting could change that. But this isn’t about the world. This is about Ladyboy.
This is about life in the shadows and on the fringe. This is about your brother, father, coworker or friend. This is about being a tech geek during the week and letting down your long black hair as an androgynous goth lord on the weekends. This is about transforming pain into a flawless ability to serve contour for days. This is about a big load from daddy all over your face because you’ve been a good girl. This is about violence and beauty living side by side in the perfume of sex for sale. Ladyboy is here and she’s dressed for you."
-Derek Jackson, March 2017
Now Burning
January 6 - March 3, 2017
Now Burning is a group show featuring incense and burners made by over thirty artists from the United States and Canada. Artist-made Incense will be burned in each artist-made burner over the course of the exhibition. Invoking the pragmatic and mystical properties of scented smoke, the exhibition will ceremoniously cleanse the space of previous occupants’ residue. This non-visual announcement will cultivate a meditative, mildly psychoactive atmosphere and prepare the ground for subsequent exhibitions.
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Hayley Barker (Los Angeles, CA)
Mike Bray (Eugene, OR) Ryan Burghard (Portland, OR) Sara Clendening (Los Angeles, CA) Bruce Conkle (Portland, OR) Brooks Dierdorff (Orlando, FL) Matthew Clifford Green (Los Angeles, CA) Tannaz Farsi (Eugene, OR) James Herman (Los Angeles, CA) Elisabeth Horan (Portland, OR) Courtney Kemp (Portland, OR) Christina Kenton (Vancouver, BC) Kylie Lockwood (Detroit, MI) Jeffry Mitchell (Seattle, WA) Donald Morgan (Eugene, OR) Dylan Neuwirth (Seattle, WA) |
Nicholas Nyland (Tacoma, WA)
Virginia Overton (New York, NY) Laura Piasta (Vancouver, BC) Ralph Pugay (Portland, OR) Wendy Red Star (Portland, OR) Lydia Rosenberg (Philadelphia, PA) Jack Ryan (Eugene, OR) Anna Sew Hoy (Los Angeles, CA) Brendan Shea (Portland, ME) Dave Siebert (Philadelphia, PA) Rob Smith (New York, NY) Jesse Sugarmann (Bakersfield, CA) Gabriel Temme (Portland, OR) Audra Wolowiec (New York, NY) Elizabeth Zvonar (Vancouver, BC) |
