Currently on view at the Asian Art Museum is Threshold, a new work by the Iran-born, San Francisco-based artist Sanaz Mazinani. The installation is an impressive development for the artist, and engages both the museum’s architecture and the visitor’s experience.

Mazinani, whose work is rooted in conceptual photography, has created a mesmerizing video by splicing together sequences of helicopters and explosions from Hollywood action films. The resulting work pulses with the movement of kaleidoscopic patterns that draw on Islamic ornamentation; these patterns are also evident in the laser-cut mirrored panels along the gallery walls. In the center is a large, mirrored sculpture that reflects the viewer and further fragments the images. Completing the immersive experience is a six-channel sound installation that responds to movement. Threshold’s repeated visual and sonic fragmentation is seductive and intense.

In a conversation at the opening, the artist told me that Threshold is about the beauty of fireworks, her ambivalence over her love of Hollywood action films, and the pull and push of power. “Power can be tantalizing and exciting, and at the same time it can be an issue because of how it’s exerted over others. Threshold is about the cusp of the sublime, and the disastrous negative energy [of it]. I really hope that with all the fragmentation that happens, we might be able to think about those issues in a new way.”[1]

Unlike some works that explore political content, Mazinani’s work never preaches, but instead recognizes complexity and makes viewers question their experience. The installation uses contemporary culture to tell a visually compelling story. It draws the viewer in while directly questioning ideas of perception and place. Watching an action film may never be the same again.

In conjunction with Threshold, Mazinani invited contemporary dancer Bobbi Jene Smith to perform a dance that engages Threshold both thematically and physically. Smith has danced with the Batsheva Dance Company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, since 2006. The performance, Crossing Threshold, will take place on April 16, 2015, at the museum.

Sanaz Mazinani: Threshold is on view in the Asian Art Museum’s Vinson Gallery through May 3, 2015.  

Nancy Garcia is a freelance writer and television producer. She writes on arts and culture for multiple outlets, and resides in San Francisco.

[1] Sanaz Mazinani, conversation with the author, March 27, 2015.

Tessie Barrera-Scharaga. Nahua-Pipil, the Forbidden Language of El Salvador, 2014; mixed-media installation;
10 x 7 x 11 ft.

In Living with Endangered Languages in the Technological Age, curated by Hanna Regev at Root Division Gallery, thirty artists respond to a global crisis: One language becomes extinct every two weeks when its last speaker dies.

The works in the exhibition cover six continents and consider languages such as old Macedonian, Tati (Iran), Mayan (Mexico), Nahuat Pipil (El Salvador), Sindhi (India), and even notes used in Gregorian chant. Regev, who is developing a reputation for uniting cutting-edge technology and art, also encouraged artists to examine less-commonplace categories such as artificial and computer languages. This elevates what could be a UNESCO cliché into an innovative, dense show that is also interactive—works have a QR code under the wall texts so the viewer can hear the language on their mobile devices.

During the opening I interviewed some of the artists. San Francisco-based Naomie Kremer created a video of ghostly fingers typing on a keyboard, which is juxtaposed with a drawing depicting samples of her handwriting. Kremer expounded on the idea of the uniqueness of handwriting, as opposed to typing, which all looks the same. Her elegant piece illustrates the abstract, disembodied action of typing against the very human marks of handwriting.

Artist Phillip Hua collaborated with soundscape artist Taras Mashtalir to create a multimedia work that weaves Hua’s mother’s voice, reading a poem in Vietnamese, with the “voice” of Google Translate transcribing the same poem into an eight-minute song. When I asked Hua how well Google Translate did with the poem, he said, “Horribly. One of the reasons we brought it in was the thought of asking: Does technology help, is it a substitute for humans yet? At this time, it’s not.”

Philip Alden Benn, an artist who works with data visualization, created a video of a map of the world that moves with the path of the sun. Color-coded indicators appear across the different continents and then dissolve, indicating the disappearance of languages on the Earth. “I realized that the 7,000 languages that are endangered are actually cultures that the world is losing.”

Living with Endangered Languages succeeds on many levels and brings awareness to a subject that deserves more attention. Regev has brought together formidable talents who not only deliver a deft communication of the subject matter without sentimentality, but also provide solutions.

Living with Endangered Languages in the Technological Age is on view at Root Division through January 31, 2015.

Nancy Garcia is a freelance writer and television producer. She travels extensively, and happily calls San Francisco her home.