Nina Karavasiles - Art Work

ART PRODUCE

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"The question is what is going on here?"

"The question is what is going on here?" is a window installation which poses various questions. It asks who is Stone Paper Scissors and what do they do here?

The next question, posed in the large window, is can synthetics reproduce nature?

The mostly - white window asks how thoroughly do you have to look to see it all?

And finally, the video tape loop questions whether you can represent movement in a still life?

The Art Produce Building

Art Produce is a renovated produce and grocery market which houses the offices and studio of Stone Paper Scissors, the public art team of Lynn Susholtz and Aida Mancillas. It's street front gallery shows a rotating series of commissioned art installations by artists, architects and designers.

Art Produce animates a public space along a heavily traveled urban commercial corridor. It presents pedestrians with art works and ideas intended to generate discussions or even debates. It will propose solutions, evoke amusement and skew common visual representations The street front gallery is always open for viewing.

Art Produce is located at 3139 University Avenue in the North Park community of San Diego. It also houses Caffe Forte, an Italian coffee bar, and Light Zoo, the studio of poet/artist Pasquale Verdicchio.

3139 University Ave. is located 3 blocks west of the 805 freeway on the corner of University and Herman Ave.

photo by Pasquale Verdicchio

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The physical descriptive of the installation

There are 3 small windows, 19"x19"x19" and one huge ground to ceiling window. There is no walk in gallery space, the show is viewed from the side walk. University Ave. is a busy street. Art Produce is close to the 805 freeway. There is a bus stop. The street is a bit scruffy and yet there is an Anne Mudge public art piece two block away. Facing the Art Produce building, Caffe Forte is on the left, the large window in the middle and the small windows are on the right.

The small window on the left has a dimensional floor plan which introduces the viewer to the Art Produce interior space. (See the Stone Paper Scissors Design studio web link for more info on their public art projects.) The box is black and the "blueprint" is white painted balsa wood. Small abstracted figures walk by and stand in the same spot as the viewer.

The middle small window is a one minute video loop. It is a cropped image of the still life in the big window. The still life cut in half looks more normal. The background is the same reddish pink color. In the video a fly lands on the fruit and then leaves. This movement is synchronized with a bus soundtrack. Amplifying speakers are set in the wall.

The small window to the right has a white squash section in a white basket. This still life is tipped, so you look down onto it in an unusual way. Mirrors are angled in the back. The mirrors allow one to see text written backwards, which reads forwards - words about investigation and looking. The viewer is also compelled to take a look at themselves.

The large window has two bannerswhich read "Art Produce" and "The queswtion is what is going on here" ana installation by Nina Kavasiles. There is a wooden table that is made to look like a table in awkward persepective. it is taller and smaller in the back and is pushed right up against the window. On top of the table is a still life of fruit and vegetables which gives the viewer a very close feel. The still life is arranged in perfect symmetry.

There are panels along the back wall. They are wood with a printed pattern of reddish pink leaves.
There are three iny chandeliers in a row. They are lighted.
There are three artificial cardinal birds in a vertical row. Suspended from the ceiling the rotate slowly. They are perched on sticks that are half natural and half dowel.
Red light illuminate the large window.