Tuesday, December 4, 7-9 pm FREE

Featuring presentations by: Ansuman Biswas, Russell Reza-Khaliq Gonzaga, Dhaia Tribe

The LAB is pleased to present Interculture a performance/roundtable discussion led by London-based performance artist Ansuman Biswas. Interculture will examine how artists define their cultural arenas, and how they break the boundaries of cultural space to interact and collaborate across traditions. The event will feature performances and presentations by Ansuman Biswas, Russell Reza-Khaliq Gonzaga, Dhaia Tribe and other artists, and an artist-led roundtable discussion.

Biswas will be completing a residency in December sponsored by the Arts Council of England's International Artists' Fellowship Program as part of The LAB's Gateway Project, designed to facilitate international dialogue and collaboration between artists, cultural and scientific researchers, and new audiences. The discussion will focus on the cultural traditions and idioms artists claim and use, the place these have found in the arena of international art, and the artists' definition of and interaction with the foreign.

Ansuman Biswas was born in Calcutta, India. He trained in music and in theatre in Europe and now bases his international practice in London. His work ranges across a wide variety of media including poetry, installation, film, music and performance. The LAB presented the first and second parts of a trilogy of new work: CAT, in April 2001 and Self/Portrait in November 2001.

even the birds were on fire
A performance by Marshall Weber and the Booklyn Artists Alliance

Tuesday, November 13, memorial rituals from dawn till sunset, performance at 7 PM
$7-10 sliding scale admission at all times

Even the birds were on fire is an abject meditation on the bombing and its spoken and unspoken forces. The title of the performance is borrowed from the observations of a child who had unknowingly watched people jumping out of the burning World Trade Center.

Reconstructing a disparate narrative from elementary school letters, personal email and street poster texts found in the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing, the piece goes beyond the fatalities, casualties and physical damage of the bombing to evoke the specters and passions raised by the incursion on the territory and psyche of the United States of America. Proximity is the shared issue. What can be spoken and what cannot be spoken of such an event? How does Primo Levi's proscription, "There is no poetry after Auschwitz." weigh in here? Is there performance art after the World Trade Center bombing?

Prior to the evening performance Weber will open The LAB's gallery at dawn for a sunrise to sunset ritual to contemplate the concept that "all anger is suffering." Visitors are encouraged to bring memorial offerings for quiet meditation and engage in preparations for the evening performance.  After the performance, Weber will host an open dialogue with audience members and special invited guests to discuss the concepts of peace and revenge, and the question of whether to honor the dead with either peace or war.

Marshall Weber is an artist and teacher currently living in New York. He was a co-founder of Artists Television Access in San Francisco and recently co-founded the Booklyn Artists Alliance in New York City. Weber has spent the last decade working on a body of public artworks that evoke the tensions between theological and political identities. The Booklyn Artists Alliance is a national artist run, non-profit organization that publishes, distributes, and curates exhibitions of artists' books and related installation and performance art work.

Read more about Weber at booklyn.org.

Saturday, November 10, 7-11pm
$10 admission, no one turned away

The Po' Poets Project is a national spoken word project organized by Poor Magazine because “until low and no income adults and youth get to tell their stories, written by them, in their own voice--we will not be able to make change happen.” Come to celebrate the Po Poets Project's first CD release!  The event will feature guest hip hop artists The Prophets Of Rage and D.J. SAKE ONE. There will be food, dancing, and Ed-U-Ka-Shun! All ages welcome! All voices heard! Open mike to speak back to all "wars" on communities of color and low and no-income folks locally and globally. All proceeds go to support POOR Magazine, a non-profit grassroots arts organization providing media access, creative arts and vocational education to low and no income communities. Check them out on-line at www.poornewsnetwork.org

The Po' Poets are low-income mothers and children, elders, hip hop artists, poor youth and youth of color speaking back to race and class oppression through poetry and spoken word, including: George Tirado, Tiger Walshe, Jewnbug, Mari, Tanyica, Simmons, Ananda, Leroy Moore, Dharma, Tiny, A. Faye Hicks, Anna Morrow, Leroy Moore, Belen, Joseph Perryman, Joseph Bolden, Dani Montgomery, Aldo Della Magiorra, Taisol Lopez, Marlene Sanchez, Helen Campbell, "Tita," and special guests from The Homeless Prenatal Program, Coalition on Homelessness, Center for Young Women’s Development, Youth Speaks, 3rd Eye, and more.

The Gateway Project
Ansuman Biswas
Self/Portrait

Wed, Oct 31st–Sat, Nov 3rd
Gallery hours, Wed-Sat, 1-6 PM
Culminating Performance on Sat, Nov 3rd, 6:30 PM

In the Foyer Gallery Oct 5–27:

Wed's - Fridays, 1-6 PM
(and Saturdays by apt)
Opening reception: Friday, October 5, 6-8 PM
After creating a vocabulary through a series of drawings, Amy Rathbone does a concentrated study of The LAB’s Foyer Gallery. Responding to the play of light, inconsistencies of walls and structural surfaces, she extends their inherent qualities by accentuating or mimicking them. Emphasizing humor, line, and extremes of scale, her installations utilize a range of materials, from medium-gauge wire and paper napkins to sandbags and drilled holes to create a self-contained universe. Rathbone describes her recent work as “an attempt at manipulating light using weight.” Her site-specific installation at The LAB will encourage similar conceptualization on the part of the viewer, alternately bending one's focus in as close as the shadow of a hair, and extending it up to a high architectural detail. See her work at http://www.yamrathbone.org.

Stop Making Sense

Featuring: Compomicro-Dexall, Cenk Ergun & Alvin Curran, Kattt Sammon with Peggy DeCoursey & Andrew Harkins, Blevin Blectum (aka D84)

An ongoing series of mid-week salons featuring artists working in all disciplines and designed to inspire provocative dialogue in unusual contexts. more...

Featuring: Los Cybrids: La Raza Techno-CrÌtica, Miya Masaoka & Randy Nordschow, "Rethinking Live Art: Collaborative Processes and Improvisational Strategies"

The LAB hosts two nights of scintillating performance art, kick-butt spoken word, and other sinful artistic pleasures, featuring students, alumni and faculty of San Francisco State University's Inter Arts Center. Tucked away in the bowels of the San Francisco State University is a small program called the Inter Arts Center. In 1983, The LAB was founded by students of the Inter Arts Center. For more than twenty years, the Inter Arts Center has produced and nurtured the burgeoning talents of many cutting-edge and visionary artists. In her 1995 commencement address, Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton, then First Lady, singled out the Inter Arts Center for its exemplary program. It is the oldest and most prestigious interdisciplinary arts program in the United States and currently offers two MAs: one in Interdisciplinary Arts practice, the other in Creativity and Arts Education. Recently, with budget cuts and university restructuring, the program has been marked for extinction.
These two nights of performance and protest are part of a series of events that is a rallying call to save the Inter Arts Center and all that it stands for, and to assure a place for emerging artists in the future of the San Francisco arts scene. Featured Artists include: Carolyn Cooley, Susan Greene, Dale Hoyt, Scott Macleod, Shelly Smith, Matthew Perfiano, Maureen Futtner, Robert Glick, Trey Jackson, Eva Koenig and many others.

The LAB presents
The Mysterious Underwater World
an exhibition of children's art produced by The Imagine Bus Project

The LAB is pleased to collaborate with The Imagine Bus Project in presenting The Mysterious Underwater World, featuring original artwork by children from nine urban neighborhoods in San Francisco. The body of work was produced by the children with the assistance of art instructor Marie Rogers over six weeks, culminating with a three-week residency and installation period in The LAB's gallery space. Most of the works in the exhibition will be for sale.

The Imagine bus is a retired airporter van equipped with tables and art supplies. It follows a route each week to nine neighborhoods where kids go aboard to draw, paint, sculpt, create collages and jewelry, put on puppet shows, or just play with the staff and volunteers. The Imagine Bus Project helps to break the isolation many inner-city children face by introducing them to the wonders of art, culture and nature in a way which makes these things accessible to them now, and desirable in their futures.

For further information visit http://www.imaginebusproject.org.

The Gateway Project London to San Francisco: Phase Two

read about Phase One

Anne Bean RADIANT FIELDS June 13-June 16 An evening of sound performance by Chiara Giovando, Recursive Heretics and Pamela Z RADIANT SOUNDS Friday, June 15 at 9 PM $5-$10 sliding scale admission Biosimulation and sculpture by Dr. Aaron Wolf Baum and Michael Christian THE POST-LOGICAL ZOO June 20-June 30 Moti Roti FRESH MASAALA July 11-14 Los Cybrids: La Raza Techno-CrÌtica HUMAQUINA: MANIFEST TECH-DESTINY Friday, July 20

The Third Annual Altoids Curiously Strong Collection
May 4 - June 2 Gallery Hours: Wednesdays-Saturdays, 1-6 PM Opening Reception: Friday, May 4th , 6-9 PM Curious, strong and original artwork by 25 of America's most talented emerging artists, including paintings, photography, sculpture, works on paper, videos and digital media.

Eric Glick Rieman plays momentarily structured improvisations on a 70's vintage Rhodes electric piano that's been added to with plastic, metal, wood, and wire. He attacks this instrument with mallets, rocks, and tools, creating a fog of electro-acoustic texture. Tokyo native and ambient experimental musician Mickey T is the founding guru of San Francisco's Drum Machine Museum, home to his massive collection of analog synthesizers and drum machines. He is a member of Gone Postal, whose first full-length album "Shotguns & Sedatives" is due out this summer on the label Mode 3X.

Join three Bay Area virtuoso performers for an evening of short solo sets and an extended collaborative improvisation. Beth Custer is the band leader of Beth Custer Doña Luz 30 Besos and the composer for the Joe Goode Performance Group. Past ensembles include Club Foot Orchestra, Trance Mission and Eighty Mile Beach. Custer proudly composes for a myriad of local low-budget theater and film productions including the works of Campo Santos, Camera Obscura, Melinda Stone, and Craig Baldwin. A North Carolina native, Alexander Kort relocated to the Bay Area in 1996. He plays cello, electric cello, and double bass, performing regularly in both experimental and more traditional idioms. Writer/performer Beth Lisick is also a gossip columnist and sometimes backup singer. She is the author of Monkey Girl and the forthcoming short story collection This Too Can Be Yours. Her first short film will screen at the Roxie on May 31st if she finishes editing it in time.

The Gateway Project London to San Francisco: Phase One

5 Exhibitions: DNA.CORN | The Sound of Naked Men | CAT | WEBOPTICON | Living Together

The LAB launches The Gateway Project, designed to facilitate international dialogue and collaboration between artists, cultural and scientific researchers, and new audiences in view of a rapidly changing global consciousness.  London to San Francisco: Phase One, entails an open-ended and process-based exchange and presentation of collaborative work by artists residing in San Francisco and London and working at the conceptual frontier of the new millennial culture. London and San Francisco are "gateway cities' with an extensive history of cultural interactivity. Both cities are located at crucial crossroads between continents, and as such they share a complex and extraordinarily diverse cultural make-up and artistic heritage. The featured artists explore issues pertaining to current DNA research, wireless culture, and the quintessential nature of human experience within the context of cyberspace, as well as incorporating concepts and practical research techniques stemming from quantum mechanics, medical science and cultural anthropology. Addressing matters of universal interest, the artists often utilize new technologies in producing their work, while retaining an artistic method of inquiry that is ultimately organic. I t is our hope that The Gateway Project: London to San Francisco: Phase One , will inspire a provocative dialogue about the future of art and global culture. Now in its initial stages, The Gateway Project will soon feature several additional projects involving San Francisco and London-based artists in collaboration and dialogue. Stay tuned for continuing programs hosted by The LAB and collaborating agencies, including an upcoming exhibition at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery in May. Look for new work by participating artists, including Ansuman Biswas (London) in collaboration with Miya Masaoka (San Francisco), Paul DeMarinis (San Francisco) and Anne Bean (London), Moti Roti (London), and others, upcoming this summer. Laura Brun, Curator The London Project is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The British Council, and the San Francisco Grants for the Arts Hotel Tax Fund. Additional support for the project has been provided by The Live Arts Development Agency and Rob LaFrenenais, curator, Arts Catalyst (London), Mrs. Ralph I. Dorfman, Alan Millar, Michael Naimark, Steve Sekiguchi, and The Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California.

Join us for the biggest art bargain in the Bay Area! ART SALE V: The LAB's fifth annual fixed price art sale and live auction. View Auction Items or Fixed price items Event and reception is Saturday March 10 from 6:30 to 9pm.

In the main gallery, video installations Anthony Discenza and Tony Oursler		In the foyer gallery, a wall drawing Jo Jackson
view images from the installations

Exhibition dates: Friday, February 2 – Saturday, February 24, 2001

All events take place at The LAB, 2948 16th Street @ Capp, SF

The LAB is pleased to present an exhibition of video installations by Bay Area-based Anthony Discenza and New York-based Tony Oursler opening Friday, February 2 and running through Saturday, February 24, 2001. Anthony Discenza will premiere Persisting in Some Fashion as Yet Unknown, new video work composed from the electronic remnants of commercial television. Tony Oursler's Hole features a large skull with a video projection of a moving mouth. The opening reception will take place from 6 to 9 PM on Friday February 2, with gallery hours Wednesdays through Saturdays from 2 to 7 PM.

In conjunction with the exhibition, The LAB will present several live events. Transcinema, an evening of audio and visual performances featuring artists using time-based media in real-time performance, will be featured on Wednesday, February 7. On Wednesday, February 21, Home Baked, Sliced and Diced Tastee Treats, an evening of sound art curated by Kyle Knobel, will feature sound artist Chiara Giovando, film and video artist and curator Rebecca Barten, and underground hip-hop artists II Sense and Kaotic Souls. Admission each Wednesday evening is $5 to $10 sliding scale. On Saturday, February 24 The LAB hosts the latest installment of Moving Target, a roving series of performance, music, film and movement curated by Margaret Tedesco and David Cook, featuring performance artists Cliff Hengst and Mads Lynnerup, the East Bay's musical performers Mono Pause, spoken word artist Beth Lisick and Austin poet Dale Smith. Admission for Moving Target is $7 to $10 sliding scale. All performances begin at 9 PM.

When: January 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, and 27th at 9:30 PM, 2001
Where: The LAB, 2948 Sixteenth St., SF, CA 94103
Tickets: $7 - $15 sliding scale

GoodGuy/BadGuy is a space western which deals with the juxtaposition of the true grit personality, the mytholigization of old west iconography and the culture of waste. GoodGuy/BadGuy reigns over a flat earth, where everyone has television within them selves and an unquestioning grasp of good and bad. He abandons the town, deprives it of its notions of good and bad, and unleashes a series of absurdly ominous events, climaxing in a revolt by mutant cows. GoodGuy/BadGuy is a live performance/installation comprised of a narrative sequence of photographic images. It features Rajendra Serber as GoodGuy/BadGuy, Kristin Lemberg as Slim Virginia, composer Cheryl Leonard as the Black Band-ita, Bulk Foodveyor (Phil Bonner) as the TownWhore and animatronic master, and Donald Reynolds of Three Day Stubble as the Sheriff.