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Artist Talk | Anna O'Cain: There's Never Just One

  • Athenaeum Art Center 1955 Julian Avenue San Diego, CA 92113 (map)

Saturday, September 9, 2023

6 PM

The Athenaeum is pleased to welcome Anna O’Cain for a special presentation of her career, process, recent projects, and AAC exhibition There’s Never Just One/Nunca hay sólo uno. The lecture begins at 6 p.m.

There’s Never Just One is an exhibition by Anna O’Cain, who considers everyday observations, events, and vernacular speech potent sources of inspiration. She collects images, fragments of conversation, children’s science books, objects, and maps. In this exhibition, O’Cain delves into diverse subjects and disparate materials ranging from the history of the apple, the adverse role of CO2 in climate change, to collage, and sculptural, photographic sets. Soap boxes placed in front of fragmented photographs, a string of keys spilling onto a table, a collage honoring a friend, and a cloth transcription of artists’ zoom meetings during the pandemic are included in There’s Never Just One. Additionally, her installations often feature performative elements inspired by dreams and domestic activities, such as sewing surrender flags, creating felt book covers, mending clothes, and baking pies. From a broken table to a family letter, a note found on the street, or building a bookshelf, O’Cain’s creative process embraces unexpected starting points with quirky ideas about learning, recollection, and organization found in daily experience.

 

There’s Never Just One es una exhibición de Anna O’Cain, quien considera las observaciones cotidianas, los eventos y el lenguaje vernáculo como potentes fuentes de inspiración. Colecciona imágenes, fragmentos de conversaciones, libros de ciencia para niños, objetos y mapas. En esta exhibición, O’Cain profundiza en temas diversos y materiales dispares que van desde la historia de la manzana, el adverso efecto del CO2 en el cambio climático, hasta el collage, pasando por conjuntos escultóricos y fotográficos. Cajas de jabón colocadas frente a fotografías fragmentadas, un collar de llaves derramándose sobre una mesa, un collage en homenaje a un amigo y una transcripción en tela de las reuniones de zoom de los artistas durante la pandemia forman parte de Nunca hay sólo uno. Además, sus instalaciones presentan a frecuencia elementos performativos inspirados en sueños y actividades domésticas como coser banderas de rendición, crear portadas de fieltro para libros, remendar ropa y hornear tartas. Desde una mesa rota hasta una carta familiar, una nota encontrada en la calle o la construcción de una librería, el proceso creativo de O’Cain abarca puntos de partida inesperados con ideas excéntricas sobre el aprendizaje, el recuerdo y la organización que se encuentran en la experiencia cotidiana.

Artist Talk Tickets: $10/15/5

The lecture will be in person at the Athenaeum Art Center. There are no physical tickets for this event. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. This event will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of the lecture.

Masks optional. If you have a fever, cough, or flu-like symptoms, please stay home.

 
Earlier Event: September 9
Book Sale
Later Event: September 11
Malvyn Lai, solo piano