Audiovisual Art, Photos From Mexico

Berlin artist Rolf Julius uses sound to alter our way of seeing. His show “Flat Music” at Quint/Krichman Projects explores the illusory nature of reality by combining simple objects or shapes, such as rocks or metal squares, with audio compositions. Their subtleties are revealed only if one sits in front of these works long enough.

Among the simpler works is “Bowl,” a Japanese soup bowl, which, when its top is lifted emanates a subtle sound resembling heat rising: a low rumbling noise followed by a whoosh. In fact, the sound was made from a recording of the artist breathing.

“Volcanoes” consists of two small, round speakers coated with graphite that hang from the gallery ceiling. Noise from the speakers makes the graphite irregularly and chaotically jump. Using sound, Julius imitates and recreates a version of what happens with the eruption of a volcano.

As they have done in the past with other artists, Quint/ Krichman Projects invited Julius to spend a month in residence in San Diego, the result of which was the works exhibited here. These also include some whimsical drawings and two additional sculptural works, “Desert Piece” and “Stones Waiting,” which were inspired by the desert.

“Stones Waiting” consists of seven small rocks topped by four tiny speakers. Since the gallery, is a bare space located in an industrial park, there is some irony to seeing these stones sitting on the concrete floor. The irony builds when one learns that the manipulated cicada-like rhythms were recorded by the artist in the Amazon.

There is also nothing natural in “Desert Piece,” a work for which the artist painted speaker magnets white and mottled them with black dots to resemble the surface of the rocks collected in the Anza-Borrego desert. In this work, the speakers sit on rocks and are hooked up to a portable tape player; they emit an irregular jumpy sound that seems far from earthly, yet somehow the combination seems just right.

In form, most of Julius’ works are inspired by minimal sculpture, but they are actually quite complex. For example, “Black and Black” consists of four flat metal squares covered with a fine graphite and resting on top of speakers. A close examination reveals that each of the squares has a tiny incision, like a mini-drawing, of holes or lines.

A closer look reveals that two of the works are a slightly different color of black. One learns all this while listening to the half-hour audio tape that is part of this piece, and while listening one learns that even more is going on. The piece is constantly changing because air from the speaker is continually, although imperceptibly, moving the graphite.

Julius’s work is a true harmony of visual and audio art.

* “Flat Music” by Rolf Julius at Quint/Krichman Projects through May 2. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. on Saturday and by appointment. Call 454-3409 or 453-3560.

“Mirando el Centro/ Looking from Within,” a photograph exhibition sponsored by the Centro Cultural de la Raza on view at the Lyceum Theater, is actually two exhibitions: A series of documentary photographs, primarily of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, by Agustin Casasola and “Companeras de Mexico: Women Photograph Women,” a show organized by the University Art Gallery at the UC Riverside.

It is an odd juxtaposition of one male photographer’s portrayal of a country during war and works by six women photographers brought together because they each had created a body of work focusing on their own sex. But it works because Casasola’s photographs sets the tone.

His sometimes banal, oftentimes moving photos place us at the turn of the century. We see the rugged determination and individualism of men like rebel leader Emiliano Zapata, as well as people fighting for a purpose or fleeing with their belongings.

The show is a mini-history lesson that highlights the revolutionary aspects of Mexico, reminds us of the changes that have taken place during this century, and offers glimpses of the unique heritage and cultures of that country. All these ideas are reinforced in “Companeras de Mexico: Women Photograph Women.”

If it wasn’t for the title of the second exhibition one might never realize that these were primarily photographs of women. Each body of work is so strong and so individualistic that the fact that the subjects are all women is almost incidental.

A premise of the exhibition is that successful women photographers have been working in Mexico throughout this century despite the trials they have had to endure. (Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska discusses this issue in a catalogue essay).

The exhibition highlights this fact by including a series of photos of the painter Frida Kahlo that were taken in the 1940s by Lola Alvarez Bravo (the first wife of renowned Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo), who is oftentimes referred to as the first woman of Mexican photography.

This is not an historical show, however. Although the career span of these artist varies, all but a few of the remaining photographs in the show were created during the past decade.

Lourdes Grobet’s series on women wrestlers best illustrates some of the social changes that have occurred. Grobet treats these women, who work in what was once solely a men’s sport, with great respect.

Most of the photographs were taken at wrestling events--the movement of a swing, the exaltation of a victory, and the pain sometimes endured. But, as is often the case, these women have dual roles, highlighted in “Spirited Lady and Her Son,” a portrait of a masked wrestler lovingly feeding her son a bottle of milk.

Laura Cohen’s urban scenes are also of a modern context. Most of her works expose the alienation often found in large cities.

Although many of Cohen’s photographs could have been taken in any country. This cannot be said of the art of Graciela Iturbide or Mariana Yampolosky. There is no doubt that these are people of Mexico. Graciela Iturbide’s intense photographs of the women of Juchitan, a matriarchal society on the South Pacific coast of Mexico, portrays the unique customs of these people.

Yampolosky also captures rural people, yet she does so at a moment in time when the lighting, the setting and the individual’s posture is most dramatic. Thus, these oftentimes look like regal portraits.

Eugenia Vargas’s photos are an anomaly here, standing out for their highly personal expression. She photographed herself in a desert landscape, her naked body covered with mud. This gesture could be an allegory for the strong identification with the land of many of the women of Mexico, but more than anything her work emphasizes the fact that Mexican women artists are now finding means expressing themselves in any manner they see fit.

* “Mirando el Centro/Looking from Within” at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery in Horton Plaza through April 26. Hours are 9 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.