Who are we going to be now?

Embedded in the idea of transformation is the sense that while the form or appearance of something may be changing, the essence, or some central element of it stays the same. The contradiction of sameness and difference remaining alongside each other can be challenging to hold on to– and it becomes even more difficult to comprehend when we know that change is taking place but we don’t know what the result will look or feel like. This opens up a looming sense of the unknown and the many emotions that accompany it. 

While we are perhaps always in a time of change– as they say it is the only constant, there are times when it feels more potent and present than others. This is true for me at this moment – nine months pregnant and therefore in many ways already transformed, but still waiting for the ultimate shift into motherhood. While for others this political moment, and the aggressive efforts being made to change our government is the shifting ground they are most aware of. 

The works in this exhibition represent transformation in their physical forms and express some of the complex emotions that it may evoke. Jason Powell-Smith elicits the fear of irreparable damage and loss, while Guadalupe Soto floods the paper with a “BIG TIME RUSH” of deep red love. Shantae Robinson’s two figures intertwine inseparably while Nakiesha White’s ebullient mixed yarns coalesce around a few solid colored pom poms– seemingly celebrating the messiness while also finding organization within the chaos. Maria Rodilla and Chris Vassell have literally transformed material items to create something that looks and functions in a completely new way while still celebrating their original form.

Claire Frost is Senior Project Manager for the Art Program at Stanford Health Care. She has previously held positions at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, ArtSpan, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She received her MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is co-founder of the curatorial project COLLABO, and founder of the sporadically active apartment gallery Claire Frost.