CUBE SPACE
2010 Addison Street
Center Street Garage ground floor
A Pallet of Blackberry and Feverfew, by Richard-Jonathan Nelson
October 12 – December 7, 2019
Dayclean come and these bones are still weary, by Richard-Jonathan Nelson
A Pallet of Blackberry and Feverfew, by Richard-Jonathan Nelson, is a site-specific installation created for the Cube Space, which is located on the ground floor of the Center Street Garage at 2010 Addison Street near Milvia Street in the heart of the arts district in Downtown Berkeley. This exhibition was organized by independent curator Demetri Broxton with support from the City of Berkeley’s Civic Arts Program and is on view 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from October 12 through December 7, 2019.
A pallet of blackberry and feverfew is a hoodoo prescription for protection that Nelson has translated into a video textile installation which transforms the Cube Space into a place to ruminate on how Queer people of the Black Diaspora can nurture themselves and their identity while navigating the cacophony of modern life. For this installation Nelson blends the craft of quilting and digital art to create an alternative world where the Black body is removed from the persistent historic depictions of it as servile and without agency. Nelson’s work references both African American low country herbalism and cybernetic Afrofuturism as a means to expand our concept of who and what Black people can be culturally.
Richard-Jonathan Nelson is a multi-disciplinary artist who uses textiles, video, and digital manipulation to create alternative worlds of speculative identity. Born in Savannah, Georgia in 1987 and working in Oakland, CA, Nelson received his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2017. For more information on Nelson’s work visit www.richard-jonathan-nelson.com.
Past Exhibitions
San Jose and Juri, by Amy M. Ho
August 31 through October 5, 2019
Amy Ho Cube Space Installation. Photo by Demetri Broxton
San Jose and Juri, by Amy M. Ho, was a site-specific installation created for the Cube Space, which is located on the ground floor of the Center Street Garage at 2010 Addison Street near Milvia Street in the heart of the arts district in Downtown Berkeley. This exhibition was organized by independent curator Demetri Broxton with support from the City of Berkeley’s Civic Arts Program.
San Jose and Juri was part of a recent series of artwork by Amy M. Ho that draws from local architecture. Over the last few years, the Bay Area has experienced an influx of wealth that has helped drive real estate prices up and as a result, buildings are being renovated, or torn down and replaced by new development. Creating work in response to the changing urban landscape, the artist aims to preserve her memories of the local architecture via large-scale installations that explore how we inhabit our world both psychologically and physically. Space is the most immediate medium through which we understand the world yet we often take it for granted. Amy M. Ho’s artwork explores the role that space and architecture play in our experiences and their impact on our individual identities.
Sea Beds and Signals by Dimitra Skandali
June 8 through August 10, 2019
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Dimitra Skandali Cube Space installation. Photo by Marie-Luise Klotz
Sea Beds and Signals, by artist Dimitra Skandali, was a site-specific installation created for the Cube Space, a new art exhibition space located on the ground floor of the Center Street Garage on Addison Street near Milvia in the heart of the arts district in Downtown Berkeley. This exhibition was organized by independent curator Demetri Broxton with support from the City of Berkeley’s Civic Arts Program and is on view 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from June 8 through August 10, 2019.
Using materials such as seagrass and seaweed from the Pacific Ocean and found fishing net from the coasts of Bengal, Skandali’s installation is composed of elements that allude to oceanic environments, pollution and a growing environmental risk. Here these fragile materials hang in tendrils from the ceiling and are woven together to form a delicate web that fills the space. The weaving together of these materials from disparate locations from around the world speaks to the interconnectedness of individuals separated by geography and worldviews who remain linked by the same global issues of climate change and its impact on our oceans. Embroidered into and suspended from the woven mass of sea grass, net and fishing line are two frayed reflective emergency blankets that appear to be held in time in an undulating form as if adrift in the sea. The blankets are embroidered with a multitude of letter-like marks and lines made of sea grass which overlap painted charts of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This mark-making manifests a confused emotional and psychological state suggesting an attempted emergency communication in a coded language. The stitching both punctures and holds together the deteriorated blankets, which are now unable to provide protection or safety. Projected onto the shiny underside of the suspended blankets is a video of movement and color which illuminates the ground below and shines through the punctures and tears in the blanket filling the space with movement and light. The installation is accompanied by a soundtrack that draws viewers into an undulating sound of making and unmaking during the process of embroidering the blankets. Sea Beds and Signals evokes fragility, ethereality, and beauty overcoming ugliness, confusion, careless intervention, and destruction.
Dimitra Skandali grew up on Paros, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. She states, “I carry my island with me everywhere and it shapes the way I see the world. I create installations that weave together found elements and sounds from those locales and other sites to create ethereal forms; reminders of the sea, with its openness and possibilities, as well as its fragile and unstable limitations.” Skandali was educated in Greece and the Netherlands before moving to California and earning her MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2013. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and her works have been exhibited throughout the Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, and Houston, as well as in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Portugal, the Philippines, and Greece. She lives and works in the United States and Paros Island, Greece.