“There is another world, but it is in this one,” said Surrealist poet Paul Éluard. In this exhibition, artists look to the future, imagining how we move forward from the tumultuous events of the past year. [read more]
Art in the Plague Year is an online exhibition organized by UCR ARTS: California Museum of Photography and curated by Douglas McCulloh, Nikolay Maslov, and Rita Sobreiro Souther. UCR ARTS’s programs are supported by UCR College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, the City of Riverside, Altura Credit Union, and Anheuser-Busch.
All works in this exhibition are reproduced with permission of the artists/copyright holders. Works (images, video, audio or other content) must not be used or reproduced for any purposes other than fair use without prior consent of the artists.
Ghost City lives. As the pandemic spread in early 2020, artist Jody Zellen began to build a new ‘neighborhood’ in her sprawling Ghost City website (www.ghostcity.com). She calls it “Avenue S.” “Suddenly the world was like a ghost town: the streets were empty, the beaches and parks closed. As we stayed at home or walked alone wearing masks, I wanted to provide an alternative experience.”
Week after week, Zellen added images, rollovers, animations, hundreds of unique webpages. “Avenue S,” she says is a poetic meditation on disconcerting times—a reflection on isolation, nature, walking, politics and protests. It is an active viewing experience. The red boxes at the bottom of each page are links to the next page, yet there are also hidden links and many surprises. “Avenue S,” states Zellen, “is meant to be a fragmentary experience, just like life today.” “Avenue S” is a maze within the pandemic and also, just possibly, a path out.
