2nd Look - Hot and Cold: The End is Here

Chris Duncan & Griffin McPartland. Hot and Cold Issue #1, 2009; mixed media.

Hot & Cold co-creators Chris Duncan and Griffin McPartland explain the zine’s concept as such: “usually zines go downhill the longer they are produced, so we plan(ned) to do the opposite by starting with issue ten and get better and better as we count down to one.” Seven years on, that day has arrived. Issue #1 is their most ambitious project to date, its launch coinciding with a show at Baer Ridgeway.

In the exhibition’s poster, protest signs declaring “The End is Here” echo the more political artworks in the show. Pieces by Michael Arcega, Ryan Wallace, Reed Anderson, and Mads Lynnerup speak to the great heights of excess and recession we have recently witnessed. As a counterpoint, Michelle Blade’s watercolor homage to poet Ranier Maria Rilke offers inspiration to look inward and keep creating, even through hard times.

As one of Rilke’s letters reminds us, “Art too is just a way of living…” The final Hot & Cold project takes this idea to heart. A map by Ribbons producer David Wilson inserted in the zine led viewers out of the gallery space and to a well-hidden grove in the Richmond hills. There, Wilson and conspirators constructed a massive fort out of twigs and brush. Swings, ditches, and mild interventions were inserted into the landscape where the public was invited to play, potluck, and enjoy live music on a recent Sunday.

Memorial Fort video courtesy of Adam Cimino.

In the end, Hot & Cold is about creating a community of makers. With the art world rapidly globalizing, far-flung artists are able to form bonds and influence one another through various webs of interaction. I thank the creators of Hot & Cold for seven years of keeping these points of connection authentic and varied.

“Hot & Cold: The End is Here” will be on view at Baer Ridgway Exhibitions in San Francisco through October 17, 2009.

Art Practical Issue 1 will include a full-length version of this review.