Participating Artists
Ellen Driscoll ~ Brooklyn
Uma Rani Iyli ~ Los Angeles / San Francisco
Liz Miller Kovacs ~ Berlin
Katie Murken ~ Oakland
Alex H. Nichols ~ San Francisco
Beth Davila Waldman ~ Los Angeles / Kingston
Minoosh Zomorodinia ~ San Francisco
Curatorial Statement
“The 36th Parallel” explores the cross sections of conscious and unconscious landscapes informed by visual navigations guided by historic, domestic and economic compasses. The 36th parallel north in particular has been defined as is a circle of latitude that is 36 degrees north of the Earth’s equatorial plane that crosses Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America and the Atlantic Ocean. In the ancient Mediterranean world, its role for navigation and geography was similar to that played by the Equator today. Featuring select works by seven interdisciplinary practices artists, “The 36th Parallel” opens the conversation with various entry points of our social and cultural geography through material, image and assemblages. Curated by Los Angeles artist Beth Davila Waldman, “The 36th Parallel” is a global platform of geographic and cultural connective tissues that speaks to the root of her own artistic practice as well as those of fellow participating artists from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Brooklyn to Berlin, India to Iran. Waldman has found inspiration for this exhibition in exploring liminal realms through terrains of ground and water, industry and economy, sanctuary and prosperity. Fellow Wellesley College graduate of Waldman’s Cathy Simon recently published book Occupation: Boundary, Art, Architecture and Culture at the Water which defines idea the of liminal realms as “transitional places, combinations of people and goods, events and structures, habitats of interaction between ideas, things and territories; sites for exchange and shipping, making and taking.” This Book along side those of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost, as well as Thomas Cole’s Series “The Course of Empire” have been of service in developing the concepts of this exhibition. As Waldman walks the grounds of the Hudson Valley during her monthly visits to her Kingston studio as well as frequent family visits to Charlottesville where she has frequently toured Jefferson’s Monticello as well as the downtown alley where Heather Heyer was run over and killed during the Unite the Right protest in 2017, the charged role of landscape throughout time continued to ignite for her. In this exhibit, the current atmosphere of the Anthropocene is considered on macro and micro levels, across our great oceans as well as within a hands reach.
