{"id":2069,"date":"2010-10-21T10:47:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T18:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=2069"},"modified":"2012-11-20T14:23:25","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T22:23:25","slug":"non-fiction-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/21\/non-fiction-art-2069\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-Fiction Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on October 21, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In her introduction of artist Jon Kerpel, Alameda Free Library art exhibit committee member Ruth Belikove said, \u201cGo upstairs and you will be knocked for a loop, as we say.\u201d Indeed, when was the last time you saw a child walk into an art exhibit, stop in her tracks, and murmur, \u201cOooh\u201d?<\/p>\n

As you ascend the stairs to the second floor of the library, Kerpel\u2019s \u201cEarth Temples\u201d rise into view. I was reminded of Frank Capra\u2019s \u201cLost Horizon,\u201d where survivors of a plane crash enter a passage in the Himalayas and emerge in Shangri-La.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kerpel has transformed the space with his mixed media \u201cearth temples\u201d and shrines, 65 pieces in all. \u201cUpstairs looks magical and wonderful. Life is supposed to be,\u201d the artist said. \u201cIf it\u2019s up to me I\u2019m going to put some of that magic back. I want to change the world, but I\u2019ll settle for the library.\u201d<\/p>\n

His work is constructed primarily of found objects. The deity at the center of \u201cAngels of the Fish,\u201d one of his first small pieces, was purchased at a flea market for a dollar. Many pieces incorporate toy animals, \u201cbecause I\u2019m really a kid inside,\u201d he said, \u201cand I think kids identify with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

"We Are Them" by Jon Kerpel<\/p><\/div>\n

Kerpel doesn\u2019t just find and assemble these materials, though. Some pieces are adorned with dozens of small images of animals. He used a bandsaw to cut each from a piece of masonite coated with laminated aluminum (the material used to make signs), then burnished them.<\/p>\n

These temples and shrines are \u201caffirmations of the earth\u2019s animals and creatures,\u201d and also celebrate Kerpel\u2019s human heroes, such as the members of Greenpeace, \u201cSilent Spring\u201d author Rachel Carson, and Julia Butterfly Hill, who decided she wanted to do something important with her life after a horrific car accident, climbed a redwood tree for a week-long shift to save it from loggers \u2013 and stayed for two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s one of my heroes,\u201d Kerpel said. \u201cShe didn\u2019t do this for a good old time. She did this for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDora Angel of the Amazon\u201d is named for Dorothy Mae Stang, a nun who was murdered in 2005 after receiving death threats from loggers in the Amazon. \u201cSome people die in this battle. They do it for us. And they are saints,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kerpel said he addresses \u201caccidents and incidents that happen in our world.\u201d For example, \u201cTotal Recall\u201d refers to the recall of hundreds of millions of eggs due to contamination by salmonella. \u201cEvery time you turn around, some other of our food is poisoned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiberian Eleven\u201d calls attention to 11 tigers that starved to death earlier this year at Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in northern China after the zoo ran out of money.<\/p>\n

\"\"

"Redundant Lobster" by Jon Kerpel<\/p><\/div>\n

He told of another of his art openings where a mother and child were discussing his work. When the child asked a question, the mother indicated the artist and said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you just go ask the park ranger?\u201d There is definitely something ranger-like about Kerpel, and he\u2019s happy to be thought of that way. \u201cThere is absolutely no stewardship, and it saddens me,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n

He \u201ctries not to get involved in the whole political thing,\u201d but seeing \u201ca change from an organic world to a synthetic world,\u201d he can\u2019t help it. \u201cThis is our planet. This is where we live. The environment is our kitchen. It\u2019s our living room. This is what I try to talk about in my works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerpel\u2019s reception took place on October 3, the artist\u2019s 60th birthday. \u201cI know it\u2019s a really heavy thing to put out on my birthday. But it\u2019s my party, and I\u2019ll cry if I want to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The exhibition runs through October 30. The library is located at 1550 Oak Street, Alameda, CA 94501. Their hours are noon to 8 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on October 21, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor. In her introduction of artist Jon Kerpel, Alameda Free Library art exhibit committee member Ruth Belikove said, \u201cGo upstairs and you will be knocked for a loop, as we say.\u201d Indeed, when was the last time you saw a child walk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[73,222,221,72],"class_list":["post-2069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-raves","tag-alameda","tag-alameda-free-library","tag-jon-kerpel","tag-the-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-xn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2069"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3882,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}