Humor US considers philosopher John Morreall’s definition of humor as “amusement that takes pleasure in a cognitive shift.” Indeed, much of what we find laughable also allows us to think differently about people, ideas, and states of being. Yet, in light of the current election season, humor can also function as an aggressive act of power and cause destructive effects. The graduate students featured in Humor US utilize comicality as a medium to reflect on the world outside of academia in the new upcoming presidential tenure. Through installations, videos, and photographs embedded with wittiness, the artists display personal experiences of disenfranchisement, criticisms regarding the American Dream, and platforms for positive social and political change made possible by the simplicity of simply listening to one another. 

Jin Zhu’s video piece sets the tone for the exhibition by providing viewers with a historical context and well-trodden path associated with Western politics––the disruption and marginalization of the “other” by the white male.  Douglas Angulo's video piece, and his deafening stare within it, builds on Zhu’s concepts and asks us to take a hard look inward to consider how we form and project identity, and construct misconceptions of identity. The work of France Viana and Hui Meng Wang question what it means to step in and out of traditional and individual identity in a photographic exploration and video piece, respectively. Viana searches for answers in the neighborhoods of Filipino Americans and confronts their political values. In a satirical commentary on the emerging Chinese middle class, Wang’s video investigates the disconnection between their idealized lifestyle and actual reality that is increasingly shaped by the political and social interests of the West.  Nathan Becka's objects and the installation of Kaitlin Trataris mock the blind acceptance that follows campaign endorsements and empty promises given by both powerful figures and everyday citizens simply due to the chase of the American Dream. Finally, it is Boris Scherbakov’s sound installations that presents viewers with some answers while grappling with the current political elections: to truly listen to our everyday surroundings and focus on conversations that lead to greater cultural and political understanding. 

Full Disclosure showcases artists from the MFA graduate programs of both the San Francisco Art Institute and California College of the Arts as part of a collaboration project, entitled SFiCA. SFiCA’s mission is to pool resources and provide as many opportunities for dialogue, exhibition, and participation as possible to the graduate students of both schools. A natural and necessary coupling, SFiCA’s programs foster a culture of collaboration between artists, curators, designers and writers within the larger Bay Area arts community. The structure of SFiCA’s first event is entitled BREAKOUT. It is similar to a music festival with different events happening on several ‘stages,’ including galleries and artist-run spaces throughout San Francisco and Oakland. BREAKOUT focuses on specific areas of interest under an umbrella theme of institutional critique and collaboration between the two schools, while also highlighting key concerns of current art practices across programs.

One of the many exhibitions occurring during the season of BREAKOUT, Full Disclosure unites artists who explore discourses of text and image by appropriating and manipulating the frameworks of typography, signage, advertisements, and books. This exhibition aims to analyze contemporary visual culture by uncovering the process of seeing language and internalizing it in order to confront ideologies of feminism, identity, consumerism, and race. Full Disclosure exhibits works on paper, sculpture, installations, and spoken word to encourages the viewer to experience aesthetic renderings in place of textual structures to communicate how our generation is seeing the world in a new way.

The opening reception will feature a flash fiction reading by Patrick Newson and Gabriel Edwards.

Ali True responds to elements that reside within a peripheral context. Her use of both weighty and frail materials—such as thread, salt, bronze, glitter and crystals—allows her to highlight architecture, light and sound, and reveal a presence that otherwise remains invisible. Through the intersection of these materials and elements, True encourages her audience to reconsider their account of everyday space and how they choose to interact within it.

True additionally breaks down the hierarchy that can be associated with an exhibition space. Instead of encountering artwork that prevents physical interaction by the use of frames and expensive materials, she presents the viewer with installations that can physically be walked upon or taken inside and outside of the gallery, as with her kaleidoscopes. Her works only become defined in connection to the bodies that activate the space and materials. These interactions found in the gallery function as collaborations or tributes to a site that aid in certain energies amongst viewers and elements alike.

ln the relationship that True initiates for her audience, viewers develop a state of awe for her elements' persona and living presence among us. The combination of pneumatic experiences and breakdown of exhibition space allow for a sense of essence that is found within actions and physical connections. This sense is inherent in our search for inspiration and revitalization, yet only exists within the back of our minds. True eliminates this distinction between body and mind to encourage her audience to see themselves as a sentient agent in the domain of art and everyday space.