WONDERLAND

Wonderland on SFAC Culture Wire

2009-11-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

November 2009 sees over two dozen new pieces of art in downtown San Francisco. In the Tenderloin, Wonderland presents both installations and performances.

Culture Wire: Wonderland, Art in Storefronts, Lux from San Francisco Arts Commission on Vimeo.

Fwd: Wonderland brightens Tenderloin, artists' spirit

2009-11-08T12:19:00.001-08:00

This just in! In today's Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle in the Bay Area section, Wonderland was featured on the front page. Follow the link below for the whole story!

"San Franciscans have an endless supply of museums, galleries and exhibit space to visit when they need their art fix. But over the past few weeks, some of the city's most eye-catching, conversation-sparking art has been available free of charge and in perhaps the city's unlikeliest space: the streets of the Tenderloin."

Artist Organized Art highlights Wonderland...

2009-11-05T16:38:00.000-08:00

"The Tenderloin is a neighborhood marginalized to the point of reputation. Yet surprisingly, the title “Wonderland” correctly identifies and responds to a hidden cultural dilemma facing any group of artists approaching this historic community."

The Mister Geoffrey Interview

2009-10-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

Mister Geoffrey Show: Tenderloin Wonderland from Paige Bierma on Vimeo.

Wonderland on the News!!!

2009-10-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=7069365

Local photographer

2009-10-15T15:16:00.001-07:00

Keeps an eye on Wonderland's progress!!

http://thetenssf.tumblr.com/

JKM

7x7 blog article!!

2009-10-15T12:18:00.001-07:00

Welcome toWonderland, a month-long, multi-site art exhibition in the Tenderloin. Curated by Bay Area native Lance Fung, this project is the result of a collaborative effort between the neighborhood's residents, nonprofits and city organizations like the North of Market Community Benefit District and groundbreaking local, national and international artist teams. More than just an art exhibit, this project is a platform for social engagement in true grass-roots fashion. Make no mistake—Lance states very clearly that the Wonderland Project is no attempt to gentrify a vital SF neighborhood. It's simply, in the vein of all his work, a chance to stimulate the existing community from the ground up. Without further ado, a few words about the project by Lance Fung himself.

http://7x7.com/blogs/clamour/wonderland-project-people-people-people

Wonderland - The Art Newspaper

2009-10-10T11:58:00.001-07:00

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/whatson/results.asp?id=1111255

San Francisco, USA

Wonderland

Dates: 17 Oct 09 - 14 Nov 09
Categories: Contemporary (1970-present)
Address: Various venues San Francisco
Tel: Website

Independent curator Lance Fung is staging a month-long exhibition in San Francisco’s rundown Tenderloin district, known for both its historically diverse community as well as its poverty and crime. Fung says the aim of organising the show is to present art directly to the working-class residents of the Tenderloin. “We chose the Tenderloin to work in as it remains one of the most authentic areas in the USA,” says Fung. “Despite the mythology of its dangerous nature, there is an ease about the community.”

You are cordially invited...

2009-09-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

Hope to see you there!

Wonderland in the NYT!

2009-09-28T19:53:00.001-07:00

Great things at San Francisco Rescue Mission

2009-09-24T17:59:00.001-07:00

Great things at San Francisco Rescue Mission

A message from one of our neighbors in the Tenderloin:

Please check out my first giving page. I am raising money for the San
Francisco Rescue Mission Health and Wellness Center. Please send my page on
to anyone who might be interested! In addition I am looking for any Doctors
or nurses who would like to volunteer.

http://www.firstgiving.com/sfrescuemission

2009-09-24T17:33:00.001-07:00

Public Symposium, 10/18, Warfield Theater, SF, USA

2009-09-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

Warfield Theater, SF, USA

Recently Confirmed! We are very excited to finally have our location for a public symposium confirmed as now we will have a live conversation face to face with our audience. The symposium will be from 2pm until 4pm with the artists, curator, and principle staff in attendance.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thoughts from the public art corner

2009-09-09T12:01:00.001-07:00

Adrienne writes on one of the sfmoma blogs:

http://blog.sfmoma.org/2009/09/wonderland-a-world-turned-upside-down/

JKM
www.johnkmelvin.com

"In the popular novel, Alice and her Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, a young girl follows a rabbit down its rabbit hole to find herself in a place that, from her perspective, is full of nonsense and chaos. In Wonderland Alice meets a cast of characters, anthropomorphic plants and animals and travels through a fantasy land that is far from the hum-drum bore of the world she just left behind.

The Wonderland that curator Lance Fung refers to in his upcoming public, collaborative project is far from the fantastical space of Carroll’s novel. Fung’s Wonderland is the Tenderloin. Tucked between wealthy neighborhoods like Nob Hill and Union Square, the Tenderloin is a small, densely populated neighborhood. The Tenderloin, like many urban areas, is a difficult place to describe and categorize. The Tenderloin has the highest percentage of families, children and immigrants living in any area of San Francisco. Its residents are largely low-income people who are marginalized due to class, citizenship status, race, gender and sexuality, many of whom do not get the social services they need.

Fung has curated ten collaborative groups to create projects in multiple sites throughout this neighborhood including public venues and community organizations. The project features forty-six artists, including those currently living in San Francisco, and other artists both nationally and internationally located. Wonderland began as a graduate level course taught by Fung at the San Francisco Art Institute. According to the press release, Wonderland is “born of and responds to” the diversities of the Tenderloin. The show’s primary audience is cited as those who live or work in the Tenderloin. Later the press release states that it will transform the Tenderloin into a destination for tourists, opening on October 17th with a block party in Boeddeker Park, the projects will remain open for one month. Wonderland is sponsored by the North of Market Community Benefit District and several galleries in the area including the 1AM Gallery and Ever Gold Gallery.

Those are the facts: the title, the neighborhood and the project. To be honest, my research about Wonderland has raised a lot of complicated feelings and concerns for me—many of which are difficult to articulate and relate to many broader issues I have attempted to address here on Open Space; questions related to public art, to socially engaged art practices, to gentrification and specifically to San Francisco’s uneven economic and social landscape."

read the whole article here.

Wonderland Map in Progress!!!

2009-09-08T02:05:00.001-07:00

Fwd: SF Bay Guardian 8/26/09

2009-09-02T15:23:00.001-07:00

Wonderland is listed as part of the "Fall Arts Preview: 10 strong currents within bay area visual arts"!!

5. "Wonderland" Lance Fung's curatorial idea to bring together 52 artists (43 from San Francisco and nine from other countries) for 10 site-specific projects in the Tenderloin has greater potential than any museum or gallery show. Oct. 17-Nov. 14, various sites, www.wonderlandshow.org

http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?page=2&entry_id=9057&catid=85&volume_id=398&issue_id=447&volume_num=43&issue_num=49

WOO-HOO!

Wonderland press!

2009-08-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

http://studycenter.org/test/cce/issues/92/ccx.92-cp3.pdf

A great article from a local paper focused on the tenderloin. A sign
of more to come for the Wonderland Show!

http://studycenter.org/test/cce/index.html

Article in this months issue, page 3 & 8.

WO Flyer

2009-07-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

SF Recovery Theater

2009-07-16T00:16:00.000-07:00

A local partner with Wonderland. Please check out their current programming as they do some wonderful deeds for the Tenderloin community.

SF Recovery Theatre
www.sfrecoverytheatre.org
P.O. Box 883213
San Francisco CA 94188
415.643.6011

WO flyer!!!

2009-07-15T11:53:00.001-07:00

We will be revising this in the coming days but here's a sneak peak.

JKM
415.694.9368
www.johnkmelvin.com

>>>
>

About: Lance Fung

2009-07-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

For those interested in knowing more about Mr. Fung, please read his bio below:

LANCE FUNG

With the encouragement of video/Fluxus artist Nam June Paik, Lance Fung left his directorship begun in 1989 of the Holly Solomon Gallery to open his own gallery in 1996. The Lance Fung Gallery became a leading contemporary gallery in New York, working with many pioneering artists from the Fluxus, Minimal, and Conceptual periods such as Nam June Paik, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Barry. Additional artists such as Shigeko Kubota, Peter Hutchinson, and Robert Morris joined his unique gallery focusing on installation and the avant–garde.

As an independent curator, Mr. Fung has created important exhibitions such as Crossing Parallels at the SSamzi Space in Seoul, Korea; Going Home at the Edward Hopper Historical Museum in Nyack, New York; Revisiting Gordon Matta-Clark at Next: The Venice Architectural Biennale in Venice, Italy, The Ship of Tolerance by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Siwa Egypt and The Snow Show: Venice at The 50th International Art Exhibition/La Biennale di Venezia, and Dreams and Conflicts – The Viewer’s Dictatorship, in Venice, Italy.

One of his most exiting projects includes The Snow Show exhibition, which was realized 2004 in Lapland and in 2006 in Torino, Italy for The Cultural Olympiad of the XX Olympic Winter Games. The Snow Show presented the collaborative works of over thirty internationally recognized artists and architects, including Yoko Ono, Morphosis, Kiki Smith, Norman Foster and Tadao Ando. These exhibitions were successful in terms of catching the attention of the international press and media and its legacy has been preserved by a Thames & Hudson exhibition catalogue as well as a BBC documentary. The project was unique in artistic terms as well, allowing the participants to explore the collaborative process between art and architecture and to create works by using snow and ice as materials. The Snow Show also generated new technological knowledge about snow and ice building.

Recently, Lance curated in 2008 the SITE Santa Fe Biennial titled Lucky Number Seven and The Beijing Project, the first international large-scale exhibition of public installations in Beijing, China in conjunction with the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. He is also in the process of realizing The Hub for which a “living” museum and cultural center will be constructed in Bali. The first exhibit for The Hub will be SINK, the world’s first art exhibition that will partner artists with scientists to create works of art about environmental issues. Also in planning stages is a large land art exhibition for Dubai and a film based exhibition for Sicily.

WO SOCIAL!!!!

2009-07-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

check us out on Facebook, become a fan, and you be kept up to date on all things Wonderland.

cheers.

Tenderloin community

2009-07-12T01:54:00.000-07:00

a local activist/blogger in the Tenderloin area:

"Basically, a regular guy that’s been in the area for about a decade, in SF for 6 years. Last summer, ‘07, I bought a condo in the Tenderloin — the American dream. From the perspective of a guy who had actually only been downtown a few times — the “dream” was initially more like a psycho-nightmare. Uh, what is that smell? Look at that, a guy using a car mirror to inject (I dunno) into his neck..."

read his blog here.

he also posted an entry on Wonderland here.

enjoy.

2009-07-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

Photos of the area by local artist, Mark Ellinger

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

2009-07-09T14:30:00.001-07:00

The exhibition Wonderland is a large, multi-sited event born of, and responding to the rich diversities of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. The tenor of this project is truly unique, and will call upon the collaborative efforts of the neighborhood’s residents, city organizations like the North of Market Community Benefit District the exhibition’s sponsor, and a large number of cutting edge artist teams from the Bay Area and around the world. As in his previous internationally recognized projects, the exhibition’s curator,Lance Fung is dedicated to the ideas of collaboration, community and social engagement as a means of bringing the highest level of contemporary art to audiences from all walks of life.

Given the recent articles in both the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times on Street Art in the Tenderloin, this is an auspicious time to engage other institutions to help fully realize Wonderland’s pioneering vision. Thus far, the exhibitions organizers have teamed up with nearly all of the arts establishments and community groups in the area and will work with the media, art schools, and local museums leading up to and during this ambitious art event so that over the course of its month long duration, many thousands of visitors will experience the Tenderloin as never seen before. Wonderland is not merely an art project. It is a platform for our shared insights.

The exhibition is free and open to the public from October 17th, with a symposium on the 18th, and will close November 14th.