Milvia Window Installation: Universal Interdependence, or Alternative Sideshow

Kala is pleased to announce the latest Milvia window installation by Parent AIR, Brian Caraway.

In Brian’s own words below, he discusses the ideas of community and shared experiences.

Universal Interdependence — everything is connected to, and reliant upon, everything else. All past experiences help to define the next. In my art practice (like that of any art practice) everything I have made in the past informs the next piece. Influence from peers, mentors, and cultural heroes all factor into the act of mark making.

Sideshow — 1) A minor show offered in addition to a main exhibition. 2) An incidental diversion or spectacle.

The sideshow as we have come to know it now — a cultural phenomenon as much of a nuisance as they are a thing of beauty, not to mention incredibly dangerous (opinions aside). Born from the love of thrill and excitement and sprinkled with an essence of danger they are on the forefront of organic, social entertainment.

What I am presenting here is the polar opposite — so profoundly static. These pieces are an artistic expression born from the love of combining shapes and colors and sprinkled with an essence of craft. The title of this exhibition includes a play on words for this gallery — being across town from Kala HQ. The window gallery, a place where people may gather at an appointed time to experience together, or one that is happened upon by chance — by being in this particular place while perhaps going from one thing to the next. As far from dangerous as can possibly be, however exciting for the eyes — if I am lucky enough to have such eyes peering in through these windows.

Here is a passage from Hospital of the Transfiguration by Stanislaw Lem — a book I was reading while creating this body of work that spurred this statement; which may lead to an explanation of what it all means. A quote by one of the characters in a very compelling novella:

“…everything contains everything else. The most distant star swims at the rim of a chalice. Today’s morning dew contains last night’s mist. Everything is woven into a universal interdependence. No one thing can elude the power of others. Least of all man, the thinking thing. Stones and faces echo in your dreams. The smell of flowers bends the pathways of our thoughts. So why not freely shape that which has an accidental form? Surrounding yourself with gold and ivory trinkets can be like charging a battery. A statue the size of your finger is the expression of the artists fancy, distilled over the years. And those hundreds of hours are not futile – we can warm ourselves in front of a sculpture as though it were a fire.”

Brian Caraway (b.1975) lives and works in Oakland, California. He earned a BA in art with an emphasis in painting and printmaking at San Francisco State University in 2000, and an MFA in studio art at Mills College in 2009. He was the recipient of the Sustainable Arts Residency at Kala Art Institute in 2014, the Herringer Prize in 2009, and the Nell-Sinton Grant in 2008 while at Mills College. He has shown extensively both nationally and internationally and is held in many private, and public art collections including the Neiman Marcus Art Collection and in the City of San Jose.