FOR-SITE and Nathan Lynch Present DEAD RECKONING at Bay Area Now 7

FOR-SITE is excited to be one of 15 Bay Area visual arts organizations selected to participate in YBCA’s signature triennial Bay Area Now 7, which opens this Friday, July 18. BAN7 will deploy an art fair style format wherein selected participants will present curated projects in a shared exhibition space. The aim of BAN7, as it has been for its six predecessors, is to foster an increased appreciation for Bay Area art, artists, and organizers, and to promote a greater understanding of the vast range of practices and individual visions that make the Bay Area such a vibrant center for contemporary art.

As one of of BAN7’s participating organizations, the FOR-SITE Foundation is proud to present DEAD RECKONING, a project by Bay Area-based sculptor and performance artist Nathan Lynch that mines the notion of place as seen through a distinctly regional lens, as well as through the lens of an artistic practice that is steeped in notions of absurdity, hand fabrication, and the dramatic devices of storytelling.

Conceived specifically for the exhibition, DEAD RECKONING considers the evolving regional identity of the San Francisco Bay Area as it relates to the waters that both define and connect its shorelines. As sea levels rise we are prompted to reconsider land use, modes of transportation, and the imminent impacts on our economic, cultural, and natural environment. Rising in parallel, the Bay Area’s technology industry has likewise generated dramatic and lasting shifts in the region’s cultural and economic landscapes. As the shoreline shifts, Lynch considers the ocean buoy, a beacon that is simple in form and anchored to a transitional, and often unstable, physical location. His precarious wood and ceramic floats warn us of unseen dangers, prompting us to consider the way we navigate through these turbulent, uncharted waters.

This is not Lynch’s first collaboration with FOR-SITE. In 2008 and 2009, Lynch was an instructor in FOR-SITE’s education program, leading field-based seminars on land use, earthworks, and ecological interventions. More recently, he participated in Presidio Habitats, the first site-based art exhibition conceived for a national park, for which FOR-SITE invited an international group of artists, architects, and design specialists  to submit habitat proposals for specific animal residents of the the Presidio.

At the core of Lynch’s practice is an investigation of place and and a deep awareness of context, which embodies FOR-SITE’s mission to inspire nuanced dialogue and fresh thinking about the natural and cultural environment.

Please join us this Friday, July 18, to see Nathan Lynch’s installation, DEAD RECKONING, and celebrate the opening of this dynamic exhibition!