such as, “What does it mean to be a man?” Viewers could see the physical manifestations of approaching manhood in the boys’ posture and facial hair, and hear it in the fluctuations of their developing voices. Handwritten pages by the two young men hung on adjacent walls. Since the gallery is located on the ground floor of the San Francisco War Memorial building, Kirby was inspired by this history to ask the boys to write their thoughts about war, thus sensitively linking her project to the site of the exhibition. The work subsequently “traveled” to China when Standardized Screen Tests was curated into a above Participants in the Laguna Yellow walk chose a color at the paint shop, and here they are singing their color’s frequency previous page lynn marie kirby at Langjökull Glacier in Iceland
show with the Chinese artist Li Xiaofei. Kirby went to China to meet Li, and while she was there they undertook a project together, a 30-day email exchange. This exchange was featured in the spring 2012 exhibition Descriptive Acts at
former (Icelandic) students from the late 1980s, all now work-
SFMOMA. The two artists are now working on The Crystalline
ing in media in Iceland. While there, she made a video with
World, a project exploring the effects of salt mining on econo-
Guðnason, How green IS my valley, which was included in the
mies and sites in the Bay Area and China.
retrospective show.
traces of the everyday
features
20
The 24th Street Listening Project is an expansion of a work Kirby began in 2009 for Triple Base, my former gallery. It involved Kirby getting to know people at various locations
Kirby is drawn to traces of the everyday—materials, anec-
along 24th Street, focusing on a few sites in particular: the
dotes, knowledge, and stories—as they reflect connections
7th Day Adventist Church, Center Nail Salon, the Brava
between experience and place. Her projects are deeply human
Theater, Saint Francis Fountain, the Alcoholics Anonymous
in the sense that they are manifestations of life and serve as
meeting house, and the soccer field at Garfield Square. She
evidence that another human—Kirby—is out there: attuned,
collaborated with Alexis Petty to re-present the various forms
listening, collecting.
of exchange witnessed at these sites in ways that mimicked
alexandra grant (MFA 2000), a prominent Los Angeles painter and also a former student of Kirby’s, says, “Many of us admire Lynn for taking a stand for things that are inaudible, not visible, or easily overlooked. Lynn doesn’t mind being a maverick. First as her student, and now as her friend and colleague, I admire her patient seeing, her championing of the trace, the gesture.” For years people referred to Kirby as a filmmaker, and she certainly is one, having had her work showcased at film festivals around the world, from Oberhausen to Toronto, London, San Francisco, and Athens. But her investigations take other forms as well: writing, site-based interventions, sound, ephemeral objects. Recording technologies themselves—interesting to Kirby because of how they create and mark records of time and place—sometimes feature as subjects in her explorations.
the signs, programs, menus, price lists, and brochures found
memorable curator-artist interactions I have had the pleasure of working with Lynn Marie Kirby for
there, and then she situated these new materials back in the landscape from which they had emerged.
return from sabbatical Kirby returned to CCA this fall after a year-long sabbatical, an extraordinarily eventful year that included shows and screenings at the San Jose Museum of Art, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Berkeley Art Museum, TIFF Toronto, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and SFMOMA. She traveled not only to Iceland for the retrospective, but also to China and Brazil. In Brazil she worked with the Sisters of the Holy Cross in São Paulo on Stitching Wishes. Begun as a sewing project, it has evolved into an ongoing collaboration with the nuns and continues her interest in alternate narratives, site-based work, and the role of the artist as a facilitator. She is currently engaged with several new time-based pieces, including a large commission in Wuxi, China. Lynn Marie Kirby is humorous. She is a philosopher, an
several years now. For me personally, her work Standardized
avant-garde filmmaker, and an artist. She is a teacher and an
Screen Tests, part of an exhibition I co-curated at the San
inspiration to many. I am happy to call her my friend, and I
Francisco Arts Commission Gallery in 2008, stands out
look forward to continuing to collaborate whenever possible
as particularly memorable. In this work she recorded two
and seeing what new and fascinating projects she undertakes
adolescent boys responding to questions about manhood,
in the years to come.
A