SOUVENIRS: Montalvo Historical Fabrications & Souvenirs
These are a few of the hand-crafted and/or modified souvenirs that were fabricated and sold at Montalvo Arts Center's Project Space Gallery.
Vending and production installation (two month duration) in collaboration with artist Stephanie Syjuco as "The Marianas." Commissioned by the Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA. On view from May 20 - July 20, 2012.
Located at the Montalvo Arts Center, a historical site at Villa Montalvo, California, this project presents to the public a souvenir shop that is a "front" for re-examining the complex issues of commerce, empire, and the repackaging of historical narrative. Rough-hewn display tables hold an array of strange and contradictory products such as bottled water ("Hetch-Hetchy Elixir"), false precious stones ("Genuine Faux Fool's Gold"), as well as salvaged remnants of other artists artworks. Viewers are able to peer through and walk around the lattice-like sales counter made of recycled pallets, to see the production space where everything is explicitly made.