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V19 2016 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 19, Number 32, August 7, 2016, Article 33

SAN FRANCISCO MINT CHIMNEY SOOT PRESERVED IN ART

An article about an art exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco describes a work using the soot and grime found inside the chimney of the United States Mint in San Francisco. -Editor

The Ethics of Dust

The final part of the group show is a spectacular latex cast of the old United States Mint created by Jorge Otero-Pailos as part of his ongoing series The Ethics of Dust. Layers upon layers of latex are actively gathered by Otero-Pailos’s team as they extract the actual dirt and dust that has accumulated over time on the mint—materials that have become a part of the makeup and history of the building.

What would normally be thought of as the opponent in the preservation process—the visible and unwanted pollution and grime of the building—becomes a thickened, draped, semi-translucent form echoing the multidimensional themes of the exhibit in phenomenological and poetic harmonies.

Visitors pass between these “newly” hung walls of the existing building, walls that have been translated and dispossessed of their physicality. Somewhere in the middle of painting, installation, and architecture, this series of experimental preservation artifacts is able to capture an unspoken essence, an architectural potential, and an environmental actuality with a deft hand and an elegant spirit of means and materiality.

By cleaning the walls in this profoundly contrasting style to how traditional conservation would act to erase the traces of dirt, the passage of time and pollution are able to reveal an intrinsic truth concerning the aging process of buildings, allowing the copy, both interpretation and original, to move to the forefront.

How did the artist acquire the material? If I read this correctly, the walls in the exhibit are just latex casts of the originals, which remain in place. But soot cleaned off the walls during restoration is used in the exhibit. So, how much gold and silver went up that chimney, and is there any present in the soot? Did anyone test it? -Editor

To read the complete article, see:
Boundary-pushing exhibition explores time and scale in architecture and the arts (http://archpaper.com/2016/08/slow-dialogues-time-space-scale-ybca/#gallery-0-slide-0)

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Wayne Homren, Editor

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