ARCHIVE > The Way Things Go | Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Naceriman Field: A Topography of Inventions (detail)
Ceramics, fur, steel, and table
46” x 46” x 68” (approximate height)
2015
Partially produced while in residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, NE and support from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
Ceramics, fur, steel, and table
46” x 46” x 68” (approximate height)
2015
Naceriman Field: A Topography of Inventions (detail)
Ceramics, fur, steel, and table
46” x 46” x 68” (approximate height)
2015
Partially produced while in residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, NE and support from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
Akserban cow bones, ink, oak, fox pelt, osprey feather, coral, sisal, and Nacireman artifacts
37” x 42” x 21"
2015
Xylophoneme (Kulintang Buto)
Akserban cow bones, ink, oak, fox pelt, osprey feather, coral, sisal, and Nacireman artifacts
37” x 42” x 21"
2015
Xylophoneme (Kulintang Buto) [detail]
Akserban cow bones, ink, oak, fox pelt, osprey feather, coral, sisal, and Nacireman artifacts
37” x 42” x 21"
2015
Xylophoneme (Kulintang Buto) [detail]
Akserban cow bones, ink, oak, fox pelt, osprey feather, coral, sisal, and Nacireman artifacts
37” x 42” x 21"
2015
Xylophoneme (Kulintang Buto) [detail]
Akserban cow bones, ink, oak, fox pelt, osprey feather, coral, sisal, and Nacireman artifacts
37” x 42” x 21"
2015
Xylophoneme (Kulintang Buto) [detail]
Akserban cow bones, ink, oak, fox pelt, osprey feather, coral, sisal, and Nacireman artifacts
37” x 42” x 21"
2015
The New Colossus (a translation)
Nacireman artifacts and wood
2015
The New Colossus (a translation)
Nacireman artifacts and wood
2015
The New Colossus (a translation) [detail]
Nacireman artifacts and wood
2015
The New Colossus (a translation) [detail]
Nacireman artifacts and wood
2015
The New Colossus (a translation) [detail]
Nacireman artifacts and wood
2015
The New Colossus (a translation) [detail]
Nacireman artifacts and wood
2015
The New Colossus (a translation) [detail]
Nacireman artifacts and wood
2015
Lexical Borrowing: Saw Horse by the Sea Shore- Understanding Manifest Destiny
Mat board, wood, found plastic bottles, river water, and mixed media
4' x 7' x 3'
2015
Lexical Borrowing: Saw Horse by the Sea Shore- Understanding Manifest Destiny
Mat board, wood, found plastic bottles, James River water, and mixed media
4' x 7' x 3'
2015
Lexical Borrowing: Saw Horse by the Sea Shore- Understanding Manifest Destiny
Mat board, wood, found plastic bottles, James River water, and mixed media
4' x 7' x 3'
2015
 [detail]
Mat board, wood, found plastic bottles, James River water, and mixed media
4' x 7' x 3'
2015
Lexical Borrowing: Saw Horse by the Sea Shore- Understanding Manifest Destiny
Mat board, wood, found plastic bottles, James River water, and mixed media
4' x 7' x 3'
2015
Lexical Borrowing: Saw Horse by the Sea Shore- Understanding Manifest Destiny
Mat board, wood, found plastic bottles, James River water, and mixed media
4' x 7' x 3'
2015
[detail]
Mat board, wood, found plastic bottles, James River water, and mixed media
4' x 7' x 3'
2015
[detail]
Mat board, wood, found plastic bottles, James River water, and mixed media
4' x 7' x 3'
2015
 [detail]
Mat board, wood, found plastic bottles, James River water, and mixed media
2015
2015

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Fri, Feb 13, 2015 to Sun, May 24, 2015
Curated by Rikrit Taravanija and Betti-Sue Hertz


For this exhibition, contemporary artist Rirkrit Tiravanija invited artists from Asia and Europe, as well as from the San Francisco Bay Area, to contribute works related to the circulation and anthropology of seeds, plants, food, recipes, and related materials of kitchen culture that have circulated across regions and time. Featuring 12 artists projects and a wide range of work, from mixed-media installations to film, video, archive-oriented art, The Way Things Go explores how personal effects, gourds, seeds, a recipe, and sugar all yield stories that go beyond each artist’s personal intention, and creates a larger story of interwoven meanings embedded in cultural geography and spatial history.

In Tiravanija’s artworks, “things” often function as props for visitors to create something of their own, creating cultural products, which in turn, foster social production, and demonstrate how origins, journeys, and the stories that surround them are catalysts for bringing people into a more intimate understanding of themselves and the interdependence of cultures. In the exhibition, featured artists share personal and focused stories that open up to larger scenes of human interaction and engagement by redrawing boundaries of trade and labor, colonization, political affiliation, and war—all of which have a profound impact on vernacular, local, and indigenous experiences. Participating artists are: Maria Thereza Alves, Michael Arcega, Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Camille Henrot, Luc Moullet, Museum of Gourd, the National Bitter Melon Council, Pratchaya Phinthong, Arin Rungjang, Thasnai Sethaseree, Shimabuku, and SUPERFLEX in collaboration with the Propeller Group.