Chung 24 Gallery presents Ghost Ships and Mourning DovesI.
“The two artists in this exhibition, Robin Lasser and Sydney Brown, propose that perhaps, to live with and through trauma and loss at the global scale we must first reengage with the body and the senses and get closer and more intimate with the fears and emotions that threaten to overwhelm us. The body of work presented in this exhibition features Lasser’s films projected within, and adjacent to memorial structures in the form of homes and water towers created by Brown. Brown’s delicate, semi abstract copper structures both contain the films and engage in conversation with them, pointing towards the fragility of manmade structures and perhaps mankind itself all the while standing as keepsakes and markers of humans and nature at a critical moment in time. What remains and what gets remembered, kept, treasured and carried through disaster and loss is all at stake in this installation as together, Lasser and Brown gesture at the core concerns, dreams and nightmares of humanity facing the brink of severe ecological changes and the inherent uncertainties of human made disaster.”
— Excerpt from What Remains? by Alena Sauzade, PhD (Full essay is published in the exhibition companion book.)
Doors at 2 PM for LIVE PERFORMANCE by Awele Makeba along with Bay Area musicians Gil Guillermo and Alie Halla, who worked with Lasser on original music for her short films, will precede the talk.
Artist talk moderated by Terri Cohn. Terri Cohn is an independent curator, writer, and art historian dedicated to preserving and contextualizing the contributions of women and under-recognized artists in the Bay Area and California. Her work focuses on oral histories, ecological practices, and the legacy of community and artist-run spaces.
Cohn has contributed to numerous publications including Art in America, Art Practical, Artweek, caa.reviews, Frieze, Public Art Review, Sculpture Magazine, SFAQ, and Stretcher. She has authored or edited books and catalogs including Pairing of Polarities: The Life and Art of Sonya Rapoport (2012) and co-authored the book Sonya Rapoport: Objects On My Dresser (2022, with Alla Efimova), a deep dive into this underrecognized early feminist computer art project. Central to her work are in-depth interviews with artists including Betsy Damon, Terry Fox, David Ireland, Tom Marioni, Linda Montano, John Waters, Pippilotti Rist, and Bonnie Ora Sherk. She has curated numerous exhibitions for museums and galleries, including the de Saisset Museum, Kala Art Institute, Mills College Art Museum, San José Institute of Contemporary Art, the Berkeley Art Center, and the Berkeley Art Museum, where she served as interim Matrix curator. She has lectured widely in the US and abroad, and taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and the University of California, Berkeley’s Art and Design Extension Program.
Through Terri Cohn Art Services she advises estates, and offers comprehensive consulting services, supporting artists, institutions, and collectors with her research, writing, curatorial expertise, and professional appraisals.