REVOLVING DOORS
Chris Fraser
February 5 - March 21, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 5, 2015, 6 - 8 PM
Artist talk: Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 6 - 8 PM
Closing Reception: Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 6 - 9 PM

SF Camerawork is pleased to present Revolving Doors, a new installation by Oakland-based artist Chris Fraser, on view in the gallery from February 5 - March 21, 2015.

For this unique work, Fraser has carefully considered the history, geography, and architecture of SF Camerawork's gallery in the design of a large, camera obscura-like structure comprised of pivoting doors. The installation is interactive, inviting viewers to enter and manipulate the structure which further mimics the internal mechanisms of a camera. The structure and its design stand as a metaphor for the rapid demographic changes in SF Camerawork's immediate Mid-Market neighborhood.

In the artist's own words: Visitors will rearrange the space as they move through it, altering the architecture for future patrons. The rich and well connected are moving in; the poor and disenfranchised are being kicked out. A city must change to remain vital. But this transition seem particularly cruel. My hope is to highlight this disparity through an architectural intervention.

Revolving Doors, Installation view. Images courtesy of Chris Fraser.

Fraser works in an individualistic and conceptual mode. His practice has its roots in straight photography but is evolving into increasingly theoretical engagements with photographic concepts. Fraser creates relational environments and sculptures in which viewers’ bodies interact with and transform effects of light, and explore the boundaries of action, movement, and perception. A lecturer in the studio art department at Mills College, where he received his MFA in 2010, Fraser participated in the 2013 Venice Biennale, is currently a Lucas Artist Fellow at the Montalvo Arts Cente, and has received the Eureka/Fleishacker Fellowship, artist residencies at Djerassi, KALA, and Headlands, and The Jay DeFeo Prize.

SF Camerawork extends deepest appreciation to the volunteers who worked to make this installation possible: Evelyn Aponte, Jeremiah Barber, Jennifer Brandon, Elaine Chen, Char Colton, Rachel Davis, Joseph De Mario, Eric Dyer, Bryan Edwards, Jeanne Friscia, Kristina Graber, Sonia Havel, Benjamon Hoffman, Josh Keller, Ken Miller, Alex Nguyen, Marie Nobematsu-Le Gassic, Christine Peterson, Ashlei Quinones, Anna Rotty, Holden Schultz, Minna Smith, Joseph Thurin, Jonathan Wallraven.

Revolving Doors is funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Watch a teaser clip below from a forthcoming short film documenting the installation of Revolving Doors.