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The Oakland
Firestorm
Jan Eldridge, Arts editor for The Fairfield Times
Have you ever seen art that touched you so deeply you were left speechless?
The Solano College Gallery exhibition of Arthur Bacon’s photographs
of the recent firestorm in the Oakland/Berkeley hills will alter your
concept of both the event itself and the art of photographic documentation.
One art student, Beverly Jackson states it this way: "The magnitude
of what happened did not touch me or even enter my consciousness until
I saw this exhibition. The actual ashes of these people’s lives,
their reaching out to each other, their desperate search for loved ones
and pets, their sorrowful losses and anger at the senselessness of it…
shown so compassionately through this exhibit made these people real to
me."
Our regular diet of TV horror stories almost necessitates the cultivation
of an emotional immunity, but this artist’s vision has the potential
to penetrate even the most jaded coping mechanism.
Actual charred and melted remnants from the scene accompany the photographic
essay. Patio table and chairs, a melted typewriter that reminds us of
Oldenburg, a toaster, and sewing machine are part of the installation,
which includes actual ashes. The presence of these objects reinforces
the sense of surrealistic hell that pervades the photographic images.
Our empathy is shared pain. Arthur Bacon’s exhibition reaches us
on a more intimate level than any TV or newspaper.
That the prints are not Zone System perfect is clearly a mechanism the
artist is using to call attention to the calamity in much the same way
that they are simply tacked to the wall sans mounting, frames and the
usual accoutrements of gallery fine art exhibitions. The giant 4 by 6
foot prints reinforce this effect. This is an artist’s experience
of tragedy, not a time for technical virtuosity. These prints are the
direct result of days of intense experience among the ruins of "The
Burn." A gallery management student who worked on the installation
said, "This is an urgent message – something that is raw. Beautifying
it in any way would not be appropriate."
The exhibition continues through January 31. The gallery is open from
9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.
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