Alana Perlin - Emanations

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Alana Perlin

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em a na tions

e m a n a tio ns Em a n a t i on s University Art Gallery | Department of Art School of the Arts | California State University, Stanislaus 1

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Director’s Foreword Alana Perlin - Emanations, represents a chance to view her brilliant work. Alana has successfully created wonderful bodies of artwork. Working with a wide range of ideas, her artistic expertise explores projects that engage many different digital processes but still in a wonderful way she retains a traditional amount of painterly approaches.

A few years ago, the University Art Gallery’s exhibition titled “Close to Home” featured the work of the faculty of Merced College and Modesto Junior College. Through this joint exhibition a new program of solo exhibitions of teaching colleagues was created.

Perlin is one of the colleagues from Merced College.

Many of our students have started their education at Merced College and had the good fortune to have had the opportunity to work with Alana as a Professor, many of these students have her commented on how much they enjoyed and learned from her.

I am very happy to be able to exhibit Alana’s work for others to enjoy.

I would like to thank the many colleagues that have been instrumental in presenting this exhibition. Alana Perlin for the chance of exhibiting her wonderful work, the College of the Arts, California State University, Stanislaus for the catalog design and Parks Printing for the printing this catalog.

Much gratitude is extended to the Instructionally Related Activates Program of California State University, Stanislaus, as well as anonymous donors for the funding of the exhibition and catalogue. Their support is greatly appreciated.

Dean De Cocker, Gallery Director California State University, Stanislaus

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fli ts “ Th e t r u e p i c t u r e of t h e pa st f l it s by.

Th e p a s t c a n b e se iz e d on l y a s an im a g e which f l a sh e s up at t h e i n st a nt wh e n it c an be r e c og n i z e d a n d i s n e ve r se e n a g a i n .”

— Walter B enjamin

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by Alana Perlin — Emanations University Art Gallery, California State University, Stanislaus

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Alana Perlin Artist’s Statement “All purposeful manifestations of life, including their very purposiveness, in the final analysis have their end not in life but in the expression of its nature, in the representation of its significance.” – Walter Benjamin.

Emanations of the Divine—While reflecting upon the Stanislaus State exhibition proposed by Gallery Director DeCocker, I created a brand new body of work for 2018-19 with an improvisational theme. During the process of animating a self-portrait, I created a series of replicas to enliven the artwork. We’re living in an era in-which one Leonardo DaVinci painting sells for four-times the amount of Picasso’s costliest work. Alongside the heightened focus on particularly unique works of art in our new gilded age, we’re increasingly presented with a pastiche of these pieces through their distribution on-screen. Our culture’s iconography proliferates in-tandem with the internet age. Artwork used to get displayed in-private domains. Now, we’re all subject to public consumption with the web’s instantaneous distribution of our digital selves as exemplified in my animated montage and pigmented sandstone sculpture.

Based on my desire to explore innovative forms of digital imagery, I’ve designed custom artistic software that generates wild patterns from my hand-drawn animal concepts. During the interminable process of scanning an entire sketchbook of critters onto my Mac, I found myself craving something sweet on-which to nosh. Therefore, I inadvertently happened upon my latest donut-inspired series in late summer 2018. When conceptualizing a delectable dessert, I begin by blocking out the basic shapes with Maya polygons or nurbs in a digital format. Afterward, my initial virtual mockup goes through several Arnold render passes (yes, the renderer pays tribute to California’s former governor and action star extraordinaire) prior to being softened with a celestial glow. Since we find ourselves mired in a technological age typified by consistently wading through digital experiences, my disparate animal and dessert imagery draws inspiration from the abrupt nature in-which we view artwork on digital devices. Each symmetrical food-themed pieces exists as a meditation on the compressed nature of the small “bites” that we’re continually served-up on-screen as encapsulated by digital media. Although the canvases appear as ephemeral bursts of mandala-like shapes within a glowing electroluminescent backdrop, they suggest an ultimately connected universe. Technologically, my spiraling animal pieces utilize custom software that I created to evoke Benjamin’s notion of “melancholy immersion,” whereby individual snippets express an underlying unity. Each radially symmetrical piece incorporates a series of intentional glitches and textures that interrupt the formal balance. The somewhat degraded quality suggests the increasingly compressed nature of human existence (our virtual selves) embodied in digital media.

Classical modes of representation become nullified by a shift away from art as a means to depict lived experience. Instead, cosmic forces and intangible elements come to the fore in bursts of pixelated light and energy.

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a m erica

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Talking talk about

America

Americana

Americcca

Amer

by Yehuda Sharim, Ph.D.

Surrounded by calamities of different kinds, from fires to hurricanes, and with a deep moral and ethical crises that appear

to (return to) dominate this America, this time asks where we shall turn to prompt hope, to cultivate harmony and listening.

Moreover, as we enter any exhibition space, we need to question the role of art and the artist in offering us the tools and visions to see through the darkness, our current adversity, a barrage of empty images and hyper-sensational nothingness.

For how long America… for how long…

America, who remained (in)America?

Who disappeared without a trace?

Who got separated? Who did you, YOU, separate?

Who remained silent in this America?

In your CNN reports and FOX alerts?

And who has been locked in your gyms America?

Working on what muscle?

All muscles… all muscles… who told you that muscles are all that you need?

Can we return to America?

It is this craving for freedom from what this culture violates, separates, and consumes so meticulously, that asks us to find color and beauty (away from our screens) in what appears crumbling, falling, losing ground.

But this search, this journey forces us to face a number of doubts: where shall we find color? Is too late? Have we become accustomed to pain and injustice? Can we identify beauty when we will encounter it? Are we afraid of feeling the weight of the pain of this America and its history?

Now, like other historical and personal moments of deep adversity, for some of us, bombarded by mayhem and vulgarity, it’s too dark and hard sometimes to see any light, color, or beauty.

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Disheartened, some of us, life suddenly appears part of a cynical act: all is for sale; buy and don’t feel; buy because you

seed

don’t know how to deal with what you feel; all are sold and the shelves are empty; you got it all, yet it is still not enough.

I want to talk about Yellow America I want to talk about Black America I want to talk about Jewish America I want to talk about Prisons in America I want to talk about Brown America I want to talk about Poor America I want to talk about Homeless America I want to talk about War in America

I want us to talk about what we did and still do to America

Americana

Americcca

Am

Color is to be found when reaching out to the most vulnerable. Going into the shadows. Going into the darkness. Going

through storms of harsh weather. Touching and knowing love, where we realize that WE are not the most important and we must develop the ability to respect and be kind to one another, if that occurs, new futures emerge and unveil, and these futures are free, and they have smell, light, and color.

Alana Perlin’s exhibition is about these seeds of color.

It is about our futures, dedicated to our “unborn,” to borrow from Muriel Rukeyser’s poetry, generations.

It is a reminder that Ms. Perlin as an artist and an educator offers us.

It is about color; or better, resurrecting color and movement that transgresses borders.

It is a symmetrical get-together in one of the most asymmetrical moments of America, a meeting point in this desert of our now, remembering that no matter the clutter, violence and fascism, we have something more significant to offer one another. We do.

The ability to stop. To pause. Then to allow the weight to land, to touch, to find gravity, and watch it all open wide, more comprehensive, with no clear sense of structure and it all makes sense, all is allowed, invited, all that movement, immaculate flow of seeds of so many suns and horizons. You are pulled in it.

We want to talk about America Americana

Americcca

Amer

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tru th 8

“ Th e f o r m s of a r t r e f l e c t t h e h i st ory of m a n m o r e truthfully than do d oc u m e n t s t h e m s e l v e s.”

— T heodor Wiesengrund Adorno

fu lly 9

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poetic echo

“ Ma g ic a l be l i efs a re re ve l atory a n d f a sc i n a t i n g n ot bec a u se t h e y a re i l l-c o n c e i v e d i n s t r u m e n t s of ut i l it y but bec a u se t h e y a re poet ic e c h o e s of t h e cadences that guide t h e i n n e rm ost cou rse of t h e wo r l d . ”

— M ichael Tau ssig

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sus te na nce 12

Spi n oz a, f or e x a m pl e, t h ou g h t t h a t i n si g h t i n t o t h e e sse n c e of re a l i t y, i n t o t h e h a rm on i ou s st ru c t u re of t h e e t e rn a l u n i ve rse, n e c e ssa ri l y a wa k e n s l ove f or t h i s u n i ve rse. For h i m, e t h i c a l c on d u c t i s e n t i re l y d e t e rm i n e d by su c h i n si g h t i n t o n a t u re, ju st a s ou r d e vot i on t o a pe rson m a y be d e t e rm i n e d by i n si g h t i n t o h i s g re a t n e ss or g e n i u s. Fe a rs a n d pe t t y pa ssi on s, a l i e n t o t h e g re a t l ove of t h e u n i ve rse, wh i c h i s l og os i t se l f, wi l l va n i sh, a c c ord i n g t o Spi n oz a, on c e ou r u n d e rst a n d i n g of re a l i t y i s d e e p e n ou g h.

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— M a x H orkheimer

ligh t

“ Non e of t h e a bst ract conc e pt s com e s c l ose r t o f u lf i l l e d ut opi a t h a n t h at of e t e rn a l pe ac e.”

— T heodor Wiesengrund Adorno

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sp a r k

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m i r a c le

“ A m i rac l e ent a i l s a d e g re e of i r r a t i o n a l i t y ; n ot b e c a u s e i t s h oc k s r e a so n , b u t b e c a u s e i t m a k e s n o a p p e a l t o i t ...”

— Emmanuel L ev ina s 16

m

le

a c r i

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“ Th e t a sk of a r t t od a y i s t o b r i n g c h a os i n t o or d e r.”

u n if i e d — T heodor Wiesengrund Adorno

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ess e n c e 21

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only to love

“ As y ou know — wi l d i s th e win d.

So w i l d i s a l l of o u r l if e. No tim e to hate — o n l y t o l o ve .

P l e a se h o l d m e t i g h t .”

— O fra H a z a & B e z alel Aloni

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h e a v e n ly

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“ Wh e n we d rop f e a r, we c a n d ra w n e a re r t o pe opl e, we c a n d ra w n e a re r t o t h e e a rt h, we c a n d ra w n e a re r t o a l l t h e h e a ve n l y c re a t u re s t h a t su rrou n d u s.”

— bell hook s

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sp a r ks 27

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“ Tru st y ou rse lf. Cre at e th e k in d of se lf that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks o f p o s s i b i l i t y i n t o f l a m e s o f a c h i e v e m e n t .”

— Golda Meir 29

Alana Perlin EDUCATION MFA in Digital Arts | New Media, University of California, Santa Cruz BA in Design | Media Arts, University of California, Los Angeles Academy of Art University: Concentration in Animation & Visual Effects TEACHING EXPERIENCE 2011-

Professor of Digital Art and Graphic Design: Merced College, Merced, CA, tenured.

Digital Art, Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Animation, Motion Graphics, Web Design, Typography.

2004-10 Teaching Assistant and Course Assistant, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Drawing, Two Dimensional Foundations, Film, Digital Media, Photography.

RELATED EXPERIENCE 2004

Farfan project, Peru—graphic artist and database designer. Worked in Peru. Responsibilities included graphic design,

observational drawing, photography, film documentation, and database design for the Farfan archaeological site.

2003

Easter Island Statue Project designer and graphic artist. Website: www.easterislandstatueproject.org.

Worked on Easter Island. Duties included graphic design, photography, design imaging, documentary filmwork and

three dimensional rendering/photogrammetry.

HONORS AND AWARDS 2006

Porter Fellow Grant Award / Graduate Student Fellowship

2004-06 Aurelio Alves Academic Scholarship 2004

UCLA Chancellor’s Marshall/Valedictorian—School of Art and Architecture

2004

UCLA Outstanding Senior Awards finalist

SELECTED ART EXHIBITIONS 2018

Merced College Faculty Show, Merced College Art Gallery, Merced, CA

2018

Merced County Fair Exhibition at the Arts Pavilion, Merced, CA

2016

Central California Art showcase—The Mistlin Gallery, Modesto, CA

2015

Merced College Art Faculty Exhibition, Merced Multicultural Arts Center, Merced, CA

2015

All Women Art Exhibition, Light Space Time Art Gallery, Jupiter, Florida

2015

Organic Designs—Carnegie Arts Center, Turlock, CA

2014

ASCI exhibition Art & Science Intersections Exhibition at the National Hall of Science in NYC, New York

2013

Book Publication featuring Perlin’s imagery through the University of New Mexico Press: Captured Visions,

The Rock Art at Little Lake Ranch, Rose Valley, CA

2012

Close to Home, group show of Merced College and Modesto Junior College Art Professors’ work,

California State University, Stanislaus

2011

Buildings as Live Entities, Multi-Sensory Moving Art Gallery, Austin, Texas

2010

Thanatopolis exhibition, I- Park, East Haddam, Connecticut

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2008

Artist studio exhibition, Santa Cruz Open Studios

2007

Artist studio exhibition, Santa Cruz Open Studios

2007

Bull City Rising, Bull City Arts Collaborative Gallery, Durham, North Carolina

2007

Animals and Sea Creatures, Expressions Gallery, Berkeley, California

2007

Participatory Art Exhibition Commission, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California

2006

FONLAD Remake Festival for Digital Arts, the Web Art Center, Lisbon, Portugal

2006

Better than the Real Thing, Digital Art Group Show, Dublin, Ireland

2006

Freestyle 2-3-d, Digital Art, Energy Gallery, Toronto, Canada

2006

DANM.01 MFA show, The Digital Media Factory, Santa Cruz, CA

2005

Cross Pollination solo digital art show, Cowell College Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA

2004

UCLA Design Media Arts student show, Westwood, California

2004

Unexpected Token: Void, Show of interactive media works, UCLA E.D.A. center, Los Angeles, CA

2001

Diversiforms group show: electronic sculptures, Ridley-Tree Art Center, Santa Barbara, CA

2001

The Increasing Momentum of Entropy group show (TIME): paintings, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA

1999

Collaborative mural project painting at a monumental scale, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA

ARTIST RESIDENCIES 2016

Digital Artist in-Residence, Digital Fabrication Residency, Maryland

2008

Virtual Artist in-Residence, Second Life Ars Virtua Gallery, Cyberspace

2008

Digital Artist in-Residence, I - Park Artist studios, East Haddam, Connecticut

2007

Digital Artist in-Residence, I - Park Artist studios, East Haddam, Connecticut

IMAGE LIST Images are ordered left to right, top to bottom where applicable.

Cover: Back: Page 3: Page 5: Page 8: Page 10: Page 12: Page 13: Page 14: Page 14: Page 14: Page 15: Page 16: Page 17: Page 17: Page 17: Page 17: Page 17: Page 18: Page 18: Page 18: Page 18:

Butterfly Madness, detail, digital media, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Command Mint, digital media on canvas, 40 x 40 x 1.5”, 2019 Butterfly Madness, digital media, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Alana Spin, pigmented sandstone, 3 x 7 x 4”, 2019 Bedazzled Pomegranate, digital media, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Hamsa Healing, digital media, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Mmmenorah, digital media, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Sufganiyot, digital media, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Star David, digital media, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Tiger Mandala, detail, digital media, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Tiger Talisman, detail, digital media, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2019 Tiger Talisman, digital media, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2019 Peacock Hexagon detail, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5” 2019 Peacock Hexagon, digital media on canvas 60 x 40 x 1.5 2019 Kippah, digital media on canvas, 40 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Dreidelicious, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Bird Circle, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2019 Cheetah Unity, digital media on canvas, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2019 Lion Ball, digital media, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Lioness Star, digital media, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2019 Lioness Star, detail, digital media, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2019 Luria Lion, digital media, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2019

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Fennex Fox 02, digital media on canvas, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Fennex Fox, digital media on canvas, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Bulldog, digital media on canvas, 40 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Giraffe Box, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Giraffe Box detail, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Camel Ball detail, digital media on canvas, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Camel Ball, digital media on canvas, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Leopard Ball 02, digital media on canvas 40 40 1.5 2018 Leopard Ball, digital media on canvas, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2018 Leopard Block, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Owl Orb, digital media on canvas 60 x 40 x 1.5 2019 Owl Radiance, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2019 Owl Radiance detail, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2019 Zebra Ball, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Zebra Aura, digital media on canvas, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2019 Zebra Aura detail, digital media on canvas, 40 x 60 x 1.5”, 2019 Puma Pizazz, digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Wolf Dawn, digital media on canvas 40 x 60 x 1.5 2019 Puma Pizazz detail,digital media on canvas, 60 x 40 x 1.5”, 2018 Alana’s Replicas, digital media animation, 2017 Alana Spin, pigmented sandstone, 3 x 7 x 4”, 2019

Acknowledgements California State University, Stanislaus

Dr. Ellen Junn, President

Dr. Kimberly Greer, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs

Dr. James A. Tuedio, Dean, College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of Art

Dr. Carmen Robbin, Chair, Professor

David Olivant, Professor

Dean De Cocker, Professor

Patrica Eshagh, Lecturer

Martin Azevedo, Assistant Professor

Ellen Roehne, Lecturer

Tricia Cooper, Lecturer

Dr. Staci Scheiwiller, Associate Professor

James Deitz, Lecturer

Susan Stephenson, Assistant Professor

Daniel Edwards, Associate Professor

Jake Weigel, Assistant Professor

Jessica Gomula-Kruzic, Professor

Meg Broderick, Administrative Support Assistant II

Daniel Hekcamp, Lecturer

Andrew Cain, Instructional Technician I

Chad Hunter, Lecturer

Jon Kithcart, Equipment Technician II

University Art Gallery

Dean De Cocker, Director

Megan Hennes, Gallery Assistant

School of the Arts

Brad Peatross, Graphic Specialist II

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Dean DeCocker, Bradley Peatross, Megan Hennes, and the CSU Stanislaus Art department—for their

continual artistic support. Additional thanks—Linda and Darryl Perlin, for always encouraging me to become an artist.

Alana Perlin - Emanations February 11–March 15, 2019 | University Art Gallery, California State University, Stanislaus | One University Way, Turlock, CA 95382 300 copies printed. Copyright © 2019 California State University, Stanislaus • ISBN: 978-1-940753-39-3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

This exhibition and catalog have been funded by Associated Students Instructionally Related Activities, California State University, Stanislaus.

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