November 4th, 2004, 4:00 - 7:00pm
At California College of Art {CCA}, San Francisco, CA

with CCA graduate students:
Sasha Anderson
Lamia Bensouda
Charles Beronio
Valerie Davis
Roy Delgado
Erika Figel
Cassandra Kegler
Kathleen Maloney
Ryan Mulroney
Joseph del Pesco
Jodi Paper
Robin Powlesland
Dina Pugh
Emma Tramposch
Sarah Wagner

AMATEURS UNITED
Despite the liberal academic climate of the San Francisco Bay Area, where experimental curricula and progressive hybridity are generally encouraged, career specialization tends to mean departmental isolation. And in the graduate programs of art schools, where the overabundance of criticality can be divisive, having a productive conversation about academic topics external to your chosen profession may be encouraged but it's not necessarily common. It could be the result of a need for a creative initiative to get individuals from multiple fields working on the same project.

Echoing the multidisciplinary spirit of the Black Mountain College, Fritz Haeg's visit to California College of the Arts (CCA) involved assembling an array of graduate students nominated from each discipline: including Architecture, Photography, Visual Criticism, Sculpture, Design, Writing and my camp: Curatorial Practice. After our first meeting, the consensus was to focus our energy toward transforming a derelict courtyard adjacent to the MFA studios. Already slated for redevelopment, this group would push the administration to develop a vision for this de facto multi-purpose site, and stage an event that, at least for a moment, integrated the efforts of participants from all corners of the institution.

Our conversations wandered in many directions, eventually leading to a semester-end event. We decided to combine a pragmatic architectural response to the courtyard with an array of performances. When our hope of planting a giant tree in the middle of the courtyard became too complicated, we redirected the funds available for the project toward the purchase of two fiberglass bench-blocks, offering seating on four sides and a planter in the middle. One was occupied with a dry garden (succulents, grasses etc.) and the other became a temporary site for a solar-paneled fountain by Charles Goldman, CCA Artist in Residence.

The final event included a spread prepared by a nearby taco-truck, bins full of beer and an array of live bands. In addition to the seating blocks, two vehicles were added to the courtyard for the duration of the event. One was an oversized school bus with an interior converted into a lounge area and video projection in the back, and the other a "mobile backyard" of sod and a garden rock laid into the bed of a pick-up truck (a project by Marc Horowitz and Jon Brumit). Another standard-sized food service truck made repeated appearances at the large metal gates of the courtyard, delivering accordion players, an opera singer, a chorus of spoken word. Later in the evening a car skinned with painted paper delivered two students, one enclosed in a modified mattress and another in a naked suit. This strange variety show arose from our collective discussions, and the realization that perhaps the amateur and off-hour activities of our future professions are what united us all!

- Joseph del Pesco