Royal Nonesuch Gallery, Oakland
November 9 – 10, 2019
A film program curated by Amanda Nudelman and Rosa Tyhurst
Assembled into thematic groupings, the selection of films form a series of generative bonds that foster, at times, an unpredictable kinship. Structured as four sessions over the weekend of November 9th and 10th, Unruly Alliances explores a divergent set of visual, conceptual, and technical approaches to the medium from the last ten years. Many of the works have never before been shown in California and for some this will serve as their American premiere.
The selected films feature settings that journey from Disneyland Paris and the Colombian Amazon, to an apocalyptic North Berkeley and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House in Los Angeles. Cultural, intellectual, and psychological references are as varied and dynamic as the disparate physical places: baseball and emo music from the early millennium sit alongside Vietnamese mythology and the 80s television soap opera Dynasty. Together, the works build towards an incisive critique through humorous observation, and earnest engagement with the conversations and conflict that embody our contemporary moment. In one session, works by Yetunde Olagbaju, Patrick Staff, and Connie Zheng consider contamination in different circumstances: the fraught relationship between racism and cultural imagery, physical illness, and ecological devastation. And in another session, works by Tuan Andrew Nguyen and Nina Wakeford, mine myths, archives, and personal histories to develop tender narratives on significant issues. Other participating artists include Morehshin Allahyari, Franco Ariaudo, Melanie Bonajo, Lili Huston-Herterich, Laura Huertas Millán, Jacopo Miliani, Nkiruka Oparah, Pilvi Takala, Clarissa Tossin, and Guan Xiao.