socialwork: gifts, exchanges, and other projects April 7, 2006

The collection of video, sculpture, photography, performance and other documents in Sara Thacher?s solo exhibition, Socialwork, explores what it means for an artist to have a public voice and what the public has to say back. Thacher picks at the edges of public life and creates a dialog with her audience and those who participate in her projects. One piece, Fourteen Miles in Other People?s Shoes (http://borro.ws/shoes), begins as a literal enactment of a clichéd phrase and becomes a serious tool for social intervention. Wearing another person's shoes as your own is a very intimate gesture on many levels for both parties.

That spirit of intimacy also permeates BART Sleeps (http://borro.ws/BARTsleeps), a pillow-lending program enacted on the Bay Area?s commuter trains. Thacher cast herself in the role of the BART Sleeps Facilitator, offering pillows with fresh pillowcases to anyone who wanted a more comfortable ride. These and other projects bring this investigation of exchange into the gallery, providing opportunities for visitors to become collaborators.

Socialwork opens on April 7th at Ego Park, 492 23rd St. (at Telegraph), Oakland. Stop by the reception from 7 to 10 pm and have a banana, pre-sliced from the inside (all you need to do is peel it!).

http://borro.ws
http://www.egopark.org/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/02/DDGU9GJ6G51.DTL