ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM                       Click thumbnails to enlarge                                       
Focus Gallery, San Francisco


Why is the exhibition called "Elephant in the Room?"
 
It summarizes my "Peoplescapes;" colorful, humorous and exaggerated narratives that address social and political issues facing society.  Our culture is designed to ignore the truth, and deny certain fundamentals which cause difficulties in our existence.
In Good Life, I use the luxury liner's easeful cohabitation with an oil rig to highlight our conformity with circumstances against our best interest, exemplified by the recent Gulf oil spill. 

In Check, Please, iconic symbols of Good and Evil play chess;  knowing Evil defies the rules, Good is winning. 

In Elephant in the Room, the post 9-11 airport hysteria is depicted; police search a traveler, purse sits unaccompanied as masses rush to their destination.  Above the fray, sitting with an armed soldier, is Ganesh, the Hindu elephant-faced God, remover of obstacles, invoker of a higher consciousness, beyond the dog-sniffing paranoia, and fear driven society we have become.  No longer concentrated on customer service, transportation has been stripped. 

No Free Lunch highlights the future of commercial travel:  advertisements blare on the  overhead compartments, while the air hostess sells oxygen, toilet paper and water.  Bernie Madoff sits beside a woman studying up on his corruption in Madoff Gate.
in Flaps of Angels, I invite the angels to the table for protection after Toyota's recalls reveal the dangers of driving a new car.  We've become powerless in the shadow of bankrupt car industries, and the self-serving systems in place to oversee them.

I threw away my fear of irritating the public when I created Pile of  . . .  and It Goes With theCouch Chair. I take on torture by putting the Bush regime in the naked pile, while Abu Zubaydah, one of the terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay, is leaning on Cheney's heart machine, obviously his moralless substitution for a heart.  People often buy artwork to match their couch, and given the delicate subject of capital punishment and California's planned execution of Albert Greenwood Brown, along with the media, and public opinion, It Goes With the Couch Chair also considers the karmic implications of a society that legally kills.

In Cafe 420, caffeine and marijuana become two sides of the coin with pot's legalization, socializing naturally grown drugs served locally any time of day, and relieving various forms of suffering. The camera (click the side button) reminds us that we are never free from being observed, even when feeling safe and liberated.

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nancy@nancycalefgallery.com
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