CLARK BUCKNER, PhD
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
(curator / producer)
Galactic Scale Inquiries into the Nature of the Cosmos: Robotics, Lasers, and Sensor-Based Systems by Kal Spelletich, Telematic Media Arts, November 4th, 2022 – January 28th, 2023.
Play † Prey: The Old Testament, Leila Weefur, with offerings from Sandy Williams IV, Telematic Media Arts, presented in conjunction with Play † Prey: A Gospel, commissioned by the Minnesota Street Project Foundation, SF, CA, October 9 – December 11, 2021
The Virion Transit, New Work by David Bayus, Telematic Media Arts, September 4 – October 2, 2021
Bound and Boundaryless, Performance / Video / Art, Cathy Weis, Moe Satt, Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, Stuart Shugg, Co-curated with New York choreographer Jon Kinzel, Telematic Media Arts, July 10 – August 21, 2021
Architectures of Violence, Caroline Sinders, An Expanded Documentary Exhibition, Telematic Media Arts, May 15 – June 26, 2021
When Dreams Are Reality, Cristóbal Martínez, A Generative Sound Art Installation, Telematic Media Arts, March 6 – May 1, 2021
Responsive Eye, Augmented Reality, Generative Art, and Digital Animation by Peter Burr,Telematic Media Arts, January 15 – March 27, 2021, with collaboration from California College of Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Minnesota Street Project
The Archive to Come, An Exhibition of Short Time-Based Works by more than 50 Artists. Co-curated with Carla Gannis, Telematic Media Arts, On-Line, In the Gallery, and in Social VR, October 22nd – December 17th, 2020.
EVENTS
(organizer, host, contributor)
House of Reasoned Truths, Artist Talk #1, featuring Victor Mutelekesha, Nyancho NwaNri, Minnette Vári
House of Reasoned Truths, Artist Talk#2, featuring Halida Boughriet, Djibril Drame, Haythem Zakaria
House of Reasoned Truths, Artist Talk#3, featuring Harold Offeh, César Schofield Cardoso
2023 San Francisco Art Book Fair, where we hosted a book signing and debuted the exhibition catalog for Kal Spelletich’s Galactic Scale Inquiries into the Nature of the Cosmos.
Voices from the wwwunderkammer, Pop-Up Exhibition and NYC Book Release at ONX Studio (New Inc: New Museum and Onassis Foundation). Celebrating the publication of two catalogs: Carla Gannis’ wwwunderkammer and The Archive to Come. Thursday, June 1st, 645 Fifth Ave (at 51st Street), Olympic Tower, New York, NY
Laneya Billingsley: In-Conversation. Organizer and interlocutor. Telematic Media Arts. Saturday, May 20th, 2023, 2:00 – 3:00pm
Carla Gannis In-Conversation with Vanessa Chang (Director of Programs, Leonardo / ISAST), Telematic Media Arts, Saturday, February 25th, 2:00 – 3:00pm
Galactic Scale Noise Performance, Kal Spelletich and instrument inventor Bryan Day, Telematic Media Arts, Saturday, January 28th, 6 – 7 pm
Kal Spelletich: In-Conversation with Karen Marcelo, (SRL artist and Dorkbot SF Curator), Telematic Media Arts, Saturday, December 10th, 2022.
Carla Gannis’ wwwunderkammer , Preview Book Release at the Peréz Art Museum Miami (PAMM). Hosted in conjunction with the opening of Gannis’ AR-Installation at the museum, “Welcome to the wwwunderkammer,” curated by Kehlani Nicole (Transfer Gallery), and produced by Jay Mollica (PAMM). Pérez Art Museum Miami , Miami, FL, Wednesday, December 1st, 2022, Miami Art Week
2022 San Francisco Art Book Fair, a preview screening of Telematic’s exhibition, Works on Paper, featuring “hand-crafted” animated films by Meghana Bisineer, Martha Colburn, Jennifer Levonian, Peter Millard, Johan Rijpma, Paloma Trecka, Selina Trepp. Co-curated with artist Sarah Klein. Presented in the Media Room of the Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco. July 14 – 17, 2022
Moving Images: Pause… Restart, Curator’s Talk, Cabrillo College, Hosted by… November 2021
Play / Prey: A Performance, A Book Release and Performance at Saint Joseph’s Arts Society. Featuring work by writers, Elena Gross, Creighton Baxter, Ngozi N/A Oparah, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Gelare Khoshgozaran and special guest Emji Saint Spero, along with Leila Weefur and Sandy Williams IV, reflecting on their relationships to God and the structures of religion. Co-presented by Telematic Media Arts, Saint Joseph’s Arts Foundation, Minnesota Street Project Foundation. Saint Joseph’s Arts Society. Saturday, Nov. 4th, 6pm
In-Conversation with David Bayus, In-Person and Streaming On-Line, An interview with the artist, presented in conjunction with his exhibition The Virion Transit, Telematic Media Arts, September 25th, 2021
Book Launch and In-Conversation with Caroline Sinders A walk-through and discussion of Caroline’s Sinders expanded documentary exhibition, and celebration of the release of Architectures of Violence – the book!, Telematic Media Arts
Name It For What It Is: Creating Art and Research in Response to Violence, featuring: Caroline Sinders (Artist / Human Rights Researcher); Chris Schiano (Unicorn Riot Journalist; Nic Brierre-Aziz, (Artist and Curator, New Orleans Museum of Art)
But Where Were the Spiders? Curatorial Walk-through and Artist Talk with Ben Venom, Presented in conjunction with Spiders from Mars: Video and Textiles by Sabrina Ratté and Ben Venom, St. Joseph’s Arts Society San Francisco, February 5th, 2020
RECENT PUBLISHED WRITING
(author)
Galactic Scale Inquiries, introduction to the catalog for Kal Spelletich’s Galactic Scale Inquiries into the Nature of the Cosmos, with an additional essay by art critic Max Blue. June 2023
Wonder, Hybridity, and Speculative Invention, a catalog essay in five parts, published as a chronicle of Carla Gannis’ on-going wwwunderkammer project, along with additional writings by novelist Bruce Sterling, cultural critic Charlotte Kent (Montclair State) and critical theorist Natasha Chuk (Parsons/SVA). February, 2023.
The Crisis of the Archive, a catalog essay in six parts, published as a critical record of The Archive to Come, an exhibition of short moving image works by more than 50 international artists, which developed out of Carla Gannis’ wwwunderkammer project, in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests, and the crisis of the republic. Release date: February, 2023.
Illusion, Impasse, Intensity, a catalog essay published as part of Peter Burr’s Responsive Eye, along with an additional essay by Vanessa Chang (Leonardo / ISAT) and an Interview with Peter by Daniel Glendening (Headlands Center for the Arts). May, 2022.
Moving Images: Pause… Re-Start, an extended exhibition essay, published on-line in conjunction with the exhibition of the same title, which I juried for Cabrillo Gallery at Cabrillo College in Monterey, CA. November, 2021
Send Off, a catalog essay, documenting Sarah Klein’s Lost Holidays, an exhibition of animation and prints that celebrate life’s flowering in the face of its passing away. Telematic Media Arts, August, 2019
The Intelligence of the Body to Come, a catalog essay, published as part of If AI Were Cephalopod, a four channel video installation by Orphan Drift (Ranu Mukherjee and Maggie Roberts). May, 2019
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
(editor / publisher)
forthcoming
40 ACRES: Weeksville
When Dreams Become Reality (Record Album). Cristobal Martinez.
House of Reasoned Truths
recent past
Kal Spelletich’s Galactic Scale Inquiries into the Nature of the Cosmos
The Archive to Come
Carla Gannis’ Wwwunderkammer
Peter Burr’s Responsive Eve
Architectures of Violence. Caroline Sinders. A collection of essays, interviews, and artistic pieces, exploring the architecture of digital platforms and the harms these platforms cause. Sinders interviews experts like researchers and activists Sydette Harry and Emily Gorcenski, and includes new essays on her projects documenting YouTube’s algorithms, and harassment campaigns like Gamergate.
Play * Prey. Poetry Collection. Edited with images by Leila Weefur. Featuring writing by Elena Gross, Creighton Baxter, Ngozi N/A Oparah, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, and Gelare Khoshgozaran. Published as a compliment to Leila Weefur’s multi-channel film experience, Play † Prey.
Sarah Klein’s Lost Holidays
Orphan’s Drift’s If AI Were Cephalopod
My Seaside Adventure. A short story and photo essay by writer and video game designer, Porpentine Charity Heartscape, published in conjunction with her exhibition Black Cherry Locusts with Sterile Fudge Swirl.
PERFORMANCES
(composer / performer)
Accumulated Tuning: 14 Phases in the Regeneration of the Body, Jennifer Perfilio Movement Works. Dance artists: Maya Mahsinn, Julie Crothers, Irene Hsi, Shareen DeRyan, Juliet Paramor Ainsley Elizabeth Tharp. Sound Score composed and performed by Clark Buckner. Choreography by Jennifer Perfilio. Presented at the Exploratorium as part of San Francisco Trolley’s Dances 20th Anniversary program. October 21 – 22, 2023
Small Dances, SF Botanical Gardens, Jennifer Perfilio Movement Works, Golden Gate Park. Dance artists: Styles Alexander, Emily Hansel, Phoenicia Pettyjohn, and Samuel Melecio-Zambrano. Sound Score composed and performed by Clark Buckner. Choreography by Jennifer Perfilio. September, 2022
As Is Series, by Jennifer Perfilio Movement Works, a series of six free, outdoor, interdisciplinary, public art performances, produced amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic, which activated the expansive urban landscape of the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park. Dancers/Performers: Shareen DeRyan, Emma Lanier, Samuel Melecio-Zambrano. Sound Score composed and performed by Clark Buckner. Choreography: Jennifer Perfilio. April, 2021
OneTwo5Four7, by Jennifer Perfilio Movement Works, an evening length work, featuring Dance Artists: Shareen DeRyan, Kelsey Gerber, Stacey Yuen, and Hannah Westbrook. Sound score composed and performed by Clark Buckner. Rehearsal Direction by Jon Kinzel. Choreography by Jennifer Perfilio. The piece was created during a residency at SAFEhouse Arts. It was previewed as a work in progress at the Green Room in the War Memorial Building of San Francisco, as part of RAWdance’s Concept Series, and it was premiered at the Joe Goode Annex, July of 2019.
Exterior, by Jennifer Perfilio Movement Works, an evening length work, created for Safe House for the Arts in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, which overlaps process and performance, to explore questions of precarity, interdependence and the fragile body. Featuring Dance Artists: Shareen DeRyan, Courtney Hope, Leyna Swoboda. Sound Score composed and performed by Clark Buckner. Choreography by Jennifer Perfilio. 2018.
Tracing the Line, Jennifer Perfilio Movement Works, a formal study of line, pathway, and place, featuring Dance Artists: Meegan Hertensteiner and Leyna Swoboda. Sound Score composed and performed by Clark Buckner. Choreography by Jennifer Perfilio. The piece premiered at Dance Mission Theater in 2017, and was presented as part of LEVYdance’s performance showcase in early 2018.
- The Experimental Conditions of Exhibition Practice: On the Curator’s Role in Contemporary Art
- “Continental Rifts: Contemporary Time-Based Works of Africa,” at the Fowler Museum
- Beyond the Hermeneutics of Desire: On the Vicissitudes of Lacan’s Concept of the Death-Drive
- Shop Talk at SFMoMA, Part I: Where is the Shadow in the Shop?
- Nicholas Nixon: About Forty Years
- “100 Artists See God,” at the Contemporary Jewish Museum
- ImPossible! Eight Chinese Artists Engage Absurdity
- 400 Words on Erwin Wurm’s Conceptual Scupture
- What, For The Coens, Does It Mean To Be “Blood Simple”?
- Outland: 400 Words on Roger Ballen’s Photography
- The Artist, the Sage, and the Butterfly: Ideas and Aesthetics in Post-Conceptual Art
- The Sound of the Street: 16th and Mission, San Francisco
- In the Valley: Larry Sultan, the Porn Industry, and the Place Where He Grew Up
- Feedback: Television Against Democracy, by David Joselit
- “Ten Years of Conversations,” Joseph Grigely at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
- Profit Free Zone: A (now dated) Survey of Bay Area Art
- The Supplement at the Origin: Or, Deconstruction in a Nutshell
- Anxiety and Aporia: Or, What for Lacan Makes Deconstruction Reassuring?
- Together We Can Prevent Earthquakes: Wall Drawing by Tucker Nichols
- The End of Art History?: Against Arthur Danto
- Participation, ed. by Claire Bishop
- Shop Talk at SFMoMA, Part II: Would the “Real Artist” Please Stand Up?
- The Surplus Enjoyment in Banal Evil: Arendt After Coppola’s The Conversation
- I – Object: Sculpture, Performance, and Photography by Justin Hoover, Laura Boles Faw, David Peña Lopera, and Kathryn Williamson.
- The Sleep of Reason: Sui Jianguo at the Asian Art Museum
- A Spoonful of Sugar at the Luggage Store
- The Lacanian Real
- Raw Intelligence! The Coens’ Craziness and the Constitutive Inconsistency of the Signifier
- Bling Blasian Bling: Iona Rozeal Brown and Stella Lai at the Luggage Store
- Ant Farm: 1968 – 1978, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
- Jacques Lacan: For the First Time, Now!
- Alice Shaw: Photographs, Drawings, and Cheatings
- The Pluralism of Aesthetic Autonomy in Kant’s Analytic of the Beautiful
- The Pink Show at Creativity Explored
- Superego / Sublimation: Slavoj Zizek, Simon Critchley, and the Ethics of Psychoanalysis
- Version: Video by Kota Ezawa and Michelle O’Marah
- Paper Bullets: A War of Words
- Adrift: Thomas Wrede at Nicholson Gallery
- Meat Show: San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
- Where Vision Gets Built: Lehman Brothers, 745 Seventh Ave., New York
- Fluttersuckers: Chris Finley at Rena Bransten Gallery
- Bodies in Space(s): Negotiating Sites/Sights
- Dislocation: 400 Words on Beth Yarnelle Edwards
- John Bankston at Rena Bransten
- The Pink Show at Creativity Explored
- South Side: Sculpture, Photography, and Video by Tracy Snelling
- We All Must Play Our Parts: Video and Photography by Julia Page
- Places, Sounds, Words: Sound Art and Photography by Sirpa Jokinen
- Jason Mortara, First Artist on Mars
- Chris Dorosz: Paintings
- Un/Freedom: Civilization’s Discontent and the Traversal of Fantasy
- Epic at Southern Exposure
- Motel Cucaracha: Jenifer K. Wofford at A.O.V.
- As Is: Video and Collections by Katherine McInnis
- Anti/Social (Juried Exhibition)
- I.O.U. (Juried Exhibition)
- Jonestown Had A Garden, Karin Smith, Mission 17’s Visual / Cultural Critic in Residence
- Five and a Half Years of Art in San Francisco
- imPossible!: Eight Chinese Artists Engage Absurdity (SFAC / SFCCC)
- Elevation: Installation and Sculpture by Amy Hibbs and Chiei Ishida
- The Red Shadow: Bearing Witness and the Burden of Existence in Rashin Fahandej’s Sahyeh Sorkh
- Superego / Sublimation: Slavoj Zizek, Simon Critchley, and the Ethics of Psychoanalysis
- The Pluralism of Art’s Autonomy: Reflections on Modernity and Modernism
- Above Under Glass: Installation by Gigi Janchang
- John Bankston at Rena Bransten
- Clark Buckner Curates Stephanie Syjuco: An Experiment in Exhibition Practice
- The Land of a Million Cereals: Mixed-Media Installation by Ryan Alexiev
- Robert Arneson: Political Drawings