San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery Presents FORBIA

San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery is proud to present FOBIA, a participatory project with internationally acclaimed artist Shinpei Takeda. Part performance art, part site-specific installation, FOBIA will debut on April 6 as a completed collection of works after 3 weeks of process driven artistic production. Takeda has woven a safe space structure inside the gallery and invited attendees to meet with him and divulge their deepest fears, phobias and anxieties, conversations which guided Takeda's artistic process. Each encounter with an attendee resulted in the production of a physical, tangible visual manifestation of the stories shared. Through layering of images, words, projections, ink, photography, and the literal and metaphorical carving of trauma into wood, Takeda seeks to transmutate fear and memory into art. The gallery has remained open for regular hours during this process, and the community is welcomed to visit and observe or participate.

Takeda is best known for his large scale weavings, so when asked what led him to envision FOBIA, he responded that "often irrational, sometimes even biological, our phobias are deeply rooted in our history and memory. They manifest in social, health, psychological, religious, political dimensions... Xenophobia, Claustrophobia, Homophobia, Bacteriaphobia, Anuptaphobia, the list goes on with their seemingly complicated scientific wordings, and yet they play an important role in our society today."

Gallery Director Alessandra Moctezuma is thrilled to be hosting Takeda's latest creation at the San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery. "It is such a great opportunity to expose our student body and the community at large to artwork in process. These participatory projects allow a level of engagement that is unparalleled, literally bringing the audience into the artwork, and allowing them the opportunity to shape the direction of the work. Takeda is also a phenomenal artist to be working with, as he has a long trajectory in San Diego and around the world producing work of impact. We are honored to have him here."

Born in Osaka, Japan, Shinpei Takeda is a multi-national, multi-lingual visual artist and film-maker who lives and works in Tijuana, Mexico & Düsseldorf, Germany. His works involve a wide range of themes regarding memories and history. He uses multi-media installations, sound interventions, documentary films, large-scale photography installations, and collaborative community projects in various public contexts. Shinpei is also a Founder and Creative Director of The AJA Project, a nonprofit dedicated to working with resettled refugee children in San Diego and displaced youth in Colombia and Thailand using a participatory photography. As a documentary filmmaker he works on films with diverse topics including pre-WWII Japanese immigration to Tijuana, Mexico and the atomic bomb survivors living in the Americas (Atopus Studio). As a performance artist, he directs Ghost Magnet Roach Motel, a noise performance unit from Tijuana, Mexico. Takeda arrives at SD Mesa College Art Gallery fresh off his 2016 San Diego Art Prize win and a feature as the cover story on San Diego Citybeat (March 8, 2017).

A completed exhibition, consisting of works made by Takeda as direct responses to his conversations with participants will be revealed to the public during the artist reception onThursday April 6, 2017 from 4:30 to 6:30 to be immediately followed by an artist lecture. The full exhibition will be on view at the San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery until April 13, 2017.

NEW Gallery Hours: MTW 11-4 pm, TH 1 - 8 pm. Closed Fridays, Weekends and School Holidays.
For parking info during regular gallery hours go to http://www.sdmesa.edu/parking

Artist Reception: April 6 4:30 - 6:30pm
Artist Lecture April 6 6:30 - 8pm
Free Parking in Lot 10 during Reception ONLY

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