Description

Far from being a book of laws, [...] IT’S THE LAW is an inquiry on awareness. It asks the question: “Are we reactionary or dissident?”

Born in Italy and living in Seattle since ‘94, Alessandrini is an architect and artist. It is the intersection between these two creative expressions – art and architecture – through which her work moves. Her public art installations use dynamic light and invite people’s interaction with both light and space.

Instructions

Please ask gallery sitter for assistance, [To read the book, you must be strapped in] [...] IT’S THE LAW.

[...] IT’S THE LAW is part of a collective exhibition at SOIL Gallery entitled: Becoming American

Exploring how artists engage the ongoing challenges of American iconography, identity, history, and formal inheritances, Becoming American is an international group exhibition taking place on the historic grounds of the American and English camps on San Juan Island, Washington, and across satellite venues in the city of Seattle. Hosted in collaboration with the San Juan National Historic Park, the exhibition ranges from site-specific works responsive to the layered dynamics of the primary venue—including its history as the location of the Northwest Boundary Dispute between the United States and the United Kingdom, and the ecological reality of its current terrain—to works across medium that further examine the perhaps permanent, never-to-be-resolved nature of the larger understanding of the Americas.

Featuring works that rehearse, analyze, and deconstruct the ideologies of American heritage rather than reiterate confrontational stances, the exhibition delves into themes of race, gender, place, and identity while maintaining a connection to the formal approaches embedded within the larger practice of participating artists. With our empathic cultural ethics now under greater threat than ever before, the show provides an opportunity to step into direct relations with the cultural imaginary of what it means to strive toward becoming American.

Challenging the rhetorical demagoguery of our moment, the exhibition moves beyond constantly updated information, the flatness of visual compression and image production, and the atomizing nature of networked communication, to encourage an active looking on the part of visitors in both rural and urban contexts.

Becoming American is a multi-venue exhibition taking place on San Juan Island and in the city of Seattle. Engaging the architecture and layered dynamics of the historic English and American Camps located in San Juan Island National Historic Park as its primary venue, the exhibition extends its inquiry and presentation into the urban context of Seattle, including a central group exhibition at Georgetown’s Studio e gallery, a solo presentation of Korakrit Arunanondchai hosted by Specialist, located in Pioneer Square, and a September show from members of the artist collective SOIL that responds to themes of the exhibition.