Wild Side Walk: Pt 15.

(Unexpurgated) 1982: Report from the astronaut

photo: General Hershey Bar, peace campaigner, Hollywood (1982), Los Angeles
©1982 www.stuartpage.com

Another Festival that I went to was the 2nd International Arts Festival at the Southern Exposure Gallery- in a part of SF known as 'South of Market'. Market Street cuts downtown San Francisco on a North East angle; the city above Market is largely Finance, Tourism, cable cars, Chinatown and Japantown, with the more respectable apartments, department stores, dealer galleries and museums. The streets all run North-south or East-west. South of Market has that "not as well looked after" feel, the buildings are nearly all old and wooden, the paintwork cracked, empty lots full of litter and decay like gaps after a tooth extraction. At the same time, there are lots with all the bare walls covered by a murals, not planned Mural Resource projects, but extensive graffiti.

It is here amongst the old warehouses and factories that the Southern Exposure Gallery, (part of a larger nest of studios and performance spaces called Project Artaud Building), hosts the 2nd International Arts Festival. The main gallery space was lined with Mail-Art from all over the world, and nearly all the artists were commenting on the state of nuclear fear, political interference and social conditions present in their respective countries. The style of work ranged from black and white illustrations of Brazilian leaders playing with missiles, to a bed of nails made from missiles, an electronic electric chair suicide game, as well as evening performances and discussions.

I was interested to hear Lucy Lippard and Jerry Kearns from New York give their slide/sound performance called 'IMAGE WAR' which satirised hidden meanings in a series of advertisements from American magazines for women and men subscribers. After the performance there was a discussion on the relevance of Whites assisting endangered Blacks and other minorities, when they may not even know it or want to do anything about it. The crowd was quite divided over the issue, and very vocal. I didn't feel like arguing the point, and talked with Jerry Kearns about subliminal advertisements, showing him some I had found myself. He said he knew of them, but didn't seem to think they were too much of a big deal.

Down the road from the gallery was a very worthwhile group of shops called The Compound. Of particular interest to me was Government Records - import and local hard to find records; Alter-Piece Productions - postcards and prints; and Burning Media - magazines, 'fanzines', underground comics, and music/art periodicals. I exchanged copies of some NZ music tapes and 'Plasma Review', a magazine I had published in collaboration with about six other people in NZ, for some of their magazines and records. This was the only place that I saw really interesting print work - colour Xerox, offset, screen and lino printing. The magazine or small-book format seemed to be popular, and most of the publications sold for under $5, some were free.

Five women from San Francisco, New York and elsewhere in USA ran The Compound. They all confessed a desire to leave the States some time, and showed a lot of interest in my images of New Zealand. It sounded like living in USA would be nearly impossible without a full-time job, or at least a part-time job that paid extra well. High rent meant that the unemployed and a lot of artists, musicians have to live in areas they consider unsafe, in cramped conditions. It also sounded terribly unpatriotic not to participate in the capitalist game, almost impossible to do anything without the assurance of regular cash.

(To be continued).

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