18 Sep 2011

The Hatchery Art Spaces: East of Fresno

The Hatchery: East of Fresno is a month-long temporary occupation by forty contemporary artists of a 377-acre ruined compound left by two failed intentional communities, culminating in a free two-day art and performance event on September 24 and 25, 2011, from 12pm to 8pm on Saturday and 12pm to 5pm on Sunday.

The compound is located near Badger, California, which is about an hour east of Fresno. It stands in stark contrast with its setting in the foothills of the spectacular Sierra Nevada mountains. The curators, from the West and East Coasts, hope that by pointing the way 'east of Fresno' the compound can again become a significant site of experience, as it was in its heyday.

East of Fresno is the second exhibition in the ongoing creative use of this property in its present, dilapidated state. Last year's show, The Hatchery: Free Range, was the cooperative effort of twelve California artists with a vision for the site as an arts venue.
This year, drawn to this rural backwater by the pathos of its prior history as a former Synanon drug rehabilitation center and later a Muslim religious community and charter school, US and international artists will make work onsite and in direct (or oblique) dialogue with its unique layered past
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The site has been a veritable ghost town since it was last abandoned in 2001, and visiting it has become a fascinating experience. Ten years of human neglect have encouraged nesting birds, mushrooms and moss, and cattle seeking shade, overtaking structures intended for people. Human histories are physically layered throughout the space—schoolbooks, homework, lesson plans on walls, the remains of a recording studio and a commercial kitchen, carefully chosen design. It is an archeological dig, but the ruins are of our own time. The visitor gets a clear sense that things didn't work out: what happened here? What went wrong?

For artists, it is a venue unlike any other—ruined, huge, open for so many interpretations, no rules, no restrictions—to explore, exhibit in, and interact with. The social, physical, and natural layers become lenses through which art is made. The artists of East of Fresno are invited to confront and elucidate the lingering questions, and possibly invoke new ones. Provocative, disturbing, and eye-opening, it's a sensory and psychic adventure for artist and viewer alike.

East of Fresno will feature installations, paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, video, and texts by artists living and working in Canada, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Germany, and the United States. Selected artists include Sally Apfelbaum (New York), Dori Atlantis (Los Angeles), Lexygius Calip (Oakland/Philippines), Carlos de Villasante (Petaluma), Elizabeth Dorbad (Oakland), Arthur Dyson (Fresno), Wendy Hirschberg (New York), Matthew Hopson-Walker (Fresno), Petra Mattheis (Germany), Sheila Ross and Laura Ten Eyck (Canada), David Sanchez Burr (Las Vegas), James Stark (Sultana), Bruce Tomb (San Francisco), and Rob van der Schoor (Netherlands).

East of Fresno is curated by Bill Doherty (NY), Bachrun LoMele (CA), Anné M. Klint (CA), and Tom McGlynn (NY).
For more information, contact: Anné M. Klint (415)-269-0047 Mahalia LoMele (559)-336-9383
...and watch our campaign on IndieGoGo: www.indiegogo.com/thehatcheryEOF