Retrospective: 4 Decades of Socially Engaged Art

January 27 - March 4, 2012 Thacher Gallery at the University of San Francisco, where Richard Kamler is an art professor emeritus.

Show highlights SF Artist's Work with Inmates by Lauren Gallagher, Special to The SF Examiner 01/25/12

Richard Kamler, the San Francisco artist has been creating provocative, socially engaged art. 

What was the turning point that made you want to create socially conscious work? My time as an artist-in-residence at San Quentin State Prison changed everything. I made art with prisoners daily. It changed how I look at art, what I wanted to do with it, and made me think about the placement of art.

What is one of your favorite works that is on display? I’m very proud of “Table of Voices.” I interviewed parents of murdered children and the perpetrators, and recorded their voices, and used those side by side in an installation. It prompted a victim/reconciliation program at the San Francisco County Jail.

What made you choose art as a career? My mother took me to museums and taught me a lot. I apprenticed with Frederick Kiesler, and he said, “Art can change the laws of the world,” and that stayed with me. Art is not supposed to hang above a green sofa. It should be actively engaged in the world.

Additional Press:

Jesse Hamlin of SFGate, February 23, 2012

Richard Whittaker of works & conversations, August 10, 2011

1993 SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION: SAN FRANCISCO JAIL #3, SAN BRUNO, CALIFORNIA. WOOD, PAINT, AUDIOTAPES.

In collaboration with inmates of the San Francisco County Jail and Milestones: a recovery center for recently released parolees. A site specific installation of 100 life size painted plywood bison moving across the grounds of the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno. Along with the visual part of the installation were two audio tapes. One, environmental scale, was a three minute continuous loop sound emerging from speakers within the herd. Filling the area was the sound of a bison stampede, ambient sounds of the jail, i.e., keys jangling, metal doors slamming, TV sets blaring,  etc. and the sound of a harmonica playing "Oh Give Me A Home Where The Buffalo Roam." Visitors could stand About 150-200 feet away from the herd and view the herd and hear the tape coming from it. The second tape was more private, more internal.  One could pick up a Walkman at the jail gate and listen to interviews with inmates, jail administrators and ambient sounds from the jail while wandering around the installation viewing area in front of the jail.

"When Richard Kamler decided to place one hundred painted buffalo outside of San Francisco Jail #3 in San Bruno he had my blessing. At the time we hosted a real live herd of infirm buffalo who were being penned on the grounds of the jail for their own safety. Richard saw the unmistakable irony, the buffalo being kept at the jail for their own protection along side hundreds of prisoners supposedly being held for our protection.

"Richard’s art asks questions. His piece at the jail forced us to confront the injustices that plague the criminal justice system. Sometime in the not-so-distant past we started euphemistically calling jails and prisons “correctional institutions.” In reality, these facilities do not come close to correcting our society’s ills.

"Is it unusual for a Sheriff to support the efforts of an artist who is a self-described 'prison abolishonist?' Yes it is. But Richard and I have one significant thing in common. We both agree that traditional jails do not work. As San Francisco’s Sheriff since 1980, I have fought to offer alternatives to traditional jails. These alternative programs offer a way out to those caught in the endless loop of crime and punishment.

"The fact is that these men and women are only in jail for a short time. We must think about how this society benefits from locking people away only to turn them back on the streets in worse shape than when they entered. Jails have becomea finishing school for criminals. Richard asks that we think about the places where we warehouse those who break our laws.

"Most of us would rather not think about jails at all, much less the men and women incarcerated there. Richard’s work draws our attention, and forces us to think about the growing numbers behind bars. In today’s atmosphere of 'lock’em up and keep’em there,' Richard’s art, his vision, is needed more than ever.

"Art should be about hope and hope is important to us all, particularly the incarcerated. Every year a higher percentage of our fellow men and women end up behind bars. Every year California spends more on prisons than on colleges. I share Richard’s hope that one day we will see the trend toward more freedom and hope, not less."

- Sheriff Michael Hennessey

1994-1996 SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION: ALCATRAZ ISLAND. LEAD, WOOD, GOLD LEAF, SAFETY GLASS, CDs, PHONES.

An installation on Alcatraz Island for four months that brought together the real voices of parents of murdered children and perpetrators in an effort to create a common ground around The Table; a context for communication to occur. Visitors to the installation would pick up a phone on one side of the 6'x5'x54' table and hear the voice of a parent of a murdered child, real voice, real time; move to the other side of the table and listen to the voice of the perpetrator, real voice, real time "talking" to each other. An attempt to create a common ground, a context for communication to occur. Surrounding the table are memorabilia hung on the wall from perpetrators and victims. A library was also created to provide the range of research available around these issues as well as a small edition (8) of Artist Books. In conjunction with the installation a series of "Community Conversations" take place that bring together parents of murdered children, survivors of violent crime and ex-offenders to dialogue around issues raised by The Table.

1995 SITE SPECIFIC ACTION: SAN FRANCISCO BAY. IN COLLABORATION WITH GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL AND THE PEACE NAVY.

During fleet week, Oct 1995, in San Francisco Bay, we created an event to draw attention to the nuclear testing of France in the South Pacific. A plastic, inflatable loaf of french bread (75' long, 15' wide, 20' high), modeled after the famous "PARISIAN" brand of french bread, was created. In place of the brand name was the phrase "MAKE BREAD NOT BOMBS." This loaf of bread was then towed around the bay by Greenpeace so that it could be viewed by the thousands of people lining Crissy Field and Aquatic Park who had come to view the Naval ships coming into the Bay as well as the politicians and Admirals aboard the reviewing ship, the USS Dartmouth. The intention was to point out ecological damage to the bay by the US Navy and the damage to our planet by the nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

1992 SITE SPECIFIC AUDIO INSTALLATION.

On April 21 at 12:01AM, Robert Alton Harris was scheduled to be executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison. Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered in front of the East gate of the prison. I had coordinated with Amnesty International, Death Penalty Focus and the Peace Navy, that when they concluded their minute of silent meditation, THE SOUND OF LIONS ROARING exploded out of the night from a series of speakers placed on boats anchored in the Bay around San Quentin. This roar of protest represented our collective sense of rage, sorrow and anger we felt towards the barbaric practice of state sanctioned murder. The roar was heard by the warden inside the walls of the prison who sent the US Coast Guard to take control of our boat and deliver us to the custody of the Marin County Sheriff's Dept.

For the audio heard all around San Quentin, Click here.

1982 "AN ECOLOGICAL CLOSURE." PHOTO MONTAGE. TEMPORARY INSTALLATION IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY.

The intention is to take a material out of the earth, put it through a series of transformations, and then return it to the earth. There are 11,232, 3-wire bales of straw. Each one 2'x2'x4' long. Stacked up much like the pyramids in Giza. They are 60+ feet tall. They are installed on ocean going barges. Views of the Pyramids being towed out to sea with the City in the background and passing under the bridge.

217 pairs of empty white shoes waiting, and walking into the ocean at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. A series of empty soles.

1983. MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION. 9'x12'x28'

MAXIMUM SECURITY 1. 1981. Overall: 10‚x21‚x45‚. Concrete block, barbed wire, oil stick, lamb carcasses, plastic bags. During the course of the
installation the lamb carcasses in the plastic bags decayed, formed maggots and then hatched flies. Movement occurred in the bags. The flies moved around in the bags. The entire wall of the gallery were painted black and the words maximum security written on them. Viewers stood in back of the concrete block wall topped with barb wire and looked into a space which had two actual size cells drawn on the floor.

MAXIMUM SECURITY 3. 1983. Barbed wire, Marcel Breur chairs, magazines, i.e. House Beautiful, In the Belly of the Beast, Space Planning Standards for American Correctional Institutions, etc. PVC tubing, sheet lead, animal skull, yellow line signifies the closest a staff person can get to a maximum security cell, cardboard boxes, black vinyl plastic, denim clothing and mixed media. Overall dim. 9'x12'x28'

MAXIMUM SECURITY 4. 1985. 8‚x4‚-6x10‚-3. Concrete block, metal bars, metal bed frame, mattress, barbed wire, clock, ceramic toilet and sink, audio tape of ambient sounds of prisons. Cell based upon exact dimension of cell in San Quentin State Prison.

1999-2001 INSTALLATION. LEAD, PVC, CONCRETE, PRINTED IMAGES, VIDEO PROJECTION.

Video projection: swinging pendulum, bar wall of PVC tubing w/aluminum paint, concrete blocks. Audio: the sound of a clock ticking is synched with the swinging pendulum and plays endlessly; the sound of a heart beat is then layered periodically into the ticking; it beats for 1 and a half minutes, dies out, and then repeats itself every six minutes. The ticking continues on and on.
 

Last Meal: Cast and sheathed lead. A series of last meal requests from 17 inmates in the state of Texas. Etched into each tray is the name of the inmate and their date of execution. Each tray is 11" x 17". Wheel chair.

Lead signs (death watch and execution records) define the space and video monitors beyond play interviews with a mother of a murdered child who opposes the death penalty, with a former death row inmate, and with a mother whose son was murdered and she supports the death penalty.

End Game: The Keepers and the Kept

1988 SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION. LEAD, WOOD, BARB WIRE. 6' x 12' x 12'

An interactive installation on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Viewers to the installation were invited to move the pieces in an effort to forestall the end of the game.

1979 SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION: RODEO, NEW MEXICO. EARTH, WOOD, MIXED MEDIA.

Project award from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Two central concerns: 

1) Environmental: to create an imaginary sun line, when on the summer solstice, as the sun rises over the pass a mile and a quarter distant, it falls into an underground chamber. The underground space is 7' deep and 14' diameter.

2) Personal: the opportunity to say "goodbye" to members of my family, to whom, when they were dead or dying, I did not have an opportunity to say goodbye.

Inside of each box was an object made for nourishment, something for protection for this journey and something soft and something beautiful as well as a specific object made for that person. The face of each box was branded with an appropriate mark. The boxes were then put in the ground and covered up and that was that. The intention was that the piece would never be finished and would be in constant change due to natural forces. The contract with the owners stated that they would document the site every two years.

1991 LEAD, WOOD, GOLD LEAF, GLASS, MATZOH, BLOOD. 3'x4'x8'. CHAIR, 66" H.

Around each disciple's "setting" a phrase is carved into the table describing that disciple's reaction when Christ is reported to have said, "..there is one amongst you who has betrayed me.." i.e., "Judas has just spilled the salt shaker," "..Thomas is ever doubting.." etc. The etching around edge of table showing Leon Rosselson's text of "Stand Up For Judas."

1976. MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION. 84'x96'x252'

OUT OF HOLOCAUST. Full size reconstructed section of a barrack from one of the death camps from the second world war. Wood, barb wire, animal bones, metal bowls, cracked mirrors on back wall reflect drawings at other end of the space as well as the fragmented image of the viewer.

1986. MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION. 9'x51'x10'

DECADENT, UNAMERICAN, MORALLY OFFENSIVE. Line of sand-filled plastic bags, oil stick on concrete, oil and blood in glass vials, lead, wood, barbed wire. The text on the wall is from the UN Charter prohibiting one country's involvement in the internal affairs of another. 

19xx. MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION. 9'x17'x21'

BARB WIRE, CHAIN LINK & THE FIRST AMENDMENT. Lead & gold leaf petitions, engraving tools, wood, text on foam core panels, chain link fence, acrylic on canvas. On the red painting, in back of the chain link fence, is stenciled the first amendment to the constitution. The small lead plaques below the painting refer to a specific insult to the first amendment. Along opposite wall are lead petitions. Viewers to the installation were invited to engrave their comments onto 4 lead petitions (60-72h x 20w) in response to statements above. There are twelve panels of text from a range of people, i.e., Elaine Pagel, author of Adam, Eve & The Serpent, Senator Jesse Helms, Ronald Reagan, etc. At the conclusion of the exhibition the lead petitions were sent to the Reauthorization Committee for the NEA of the US Congress in Washington, D.C. as an expresssion of our sentiment regarding censorship and the arts. 

Recreation of inmates' last meals.