Suzy Kellems Dominik “Bear Attack – The Urban Bear”
Onishi Gallery
This event has ended.
Onishi Project presents Bear Attack – The Urban Bear is the first of three installations by emerging San Francisco artist Suzy Kellems Dominik who deconstructs human interaction.
A beauty-filled journey into the shadow world, Bear Attack is a window into the subversive nature of, and intentions underlying, male/female relations. It is an indictment of the state of play and of the institutionalized acceptance of the tragic, convoluted, and public outcome of the urban “Bear Attack.”
The seed of the exhibition’s concept was planted when Kellems Dominik was hiking in Jackson, W.Y. and saw a Nation Park sign that stirred her imagination. It read, “Be Alert. Make Noise. Carry Bear Spray. Avoid hiking alone. Do not run.” Kellems Dominik interpreted the sign as a message about men as changelings, the bears who walk among us.
To capture this terrifying realization, Kellems Dominik penned an essay that served as the genesis for Bear Attack – The Urban Bear. In it, she states, “terror is explored through three phases of a young woman’s life: college, young adult, and established womanhood. Despite the young woman’s intelligence, worldliness and command of her environment, she is unable to protect herself emotionally and/or physically from the insidious nature of the ‘Bear.’”
Love, hope, desire, need, and longing are perverted into something dangerous, terrifying and unexpected. This perversion violates our Innocent understanding of the danger until it is too late.
The multi-sensory installation integrates a large-scale photographic triptych, the written word, a multilayered soundtrack, video, taxidermy, and “The Cabinet of Curiosities” (accoutrements of the “urban bear”).
Media
Schedule
from January 23, 2014 to February 08, 2014
Opening Reception on 2014-01-23 from 18:00 to 20:00