SHOULD THE CURVE CONTAIN MYTH, LEGEND, FABLE, OR TRUTH (2022) is a sculptural installation that places contemporary 90° wall framing over one of the historic San Francisco Victorian-era curved walls in the upstairs hallway of the David Ireland House at 500 Capp Street Foundation. Acting as a visual, conceptual, and practical framing device to reconsider alternative ways of seeing, the work, consisting of Douglas fir 2x4s is a response to the widely-fabled story that the home was built in the late 1800s by a sea captain, a myth which David Ireland fabricated and upheld until the end of his life. The work enacts a threshold through which to see an interaction between the old and new, to experience the house’s walls for what they truly are, and to reverse the spectatorship of myth-making.
This work was developed during a year-long research residency and for the solo exhibition AS ABOVE SO BELOW at the 500 Capp Street Foundation in San Francisco’s Mission District. Artwork constructed by Sherwin Rio and Dan Ake, with advising by Paco Prieto, Dan Ake, and Charlene Tan. Additional lighting support by Lian Ladia.
Photographs courtesy of Sherwin Rio.