{"id":106315,"date":"2023-02-15T19:13:13","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T03:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106315"},"modified":"2023-02-28T07:02:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T15:02:41","slug":"cara-levine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/cara-levine\/","title":{"rendered":"Cara Levine’s exhibit at Contemporary Jewish Museum probes racism, grief, trauma"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Archived items from \u201cThis Is Not a Gun,\u201d a collaborative work in which Cara Levine and community participants created wood sculptures of objects that police mistook for weapons being carried by civilians whom they shot, are shown. (Courtesy Cara Levine)<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Injustice. Guns. Mourning.<\/p>\n

Climate change. COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Healing.Los Angeles artist Cara Levine ties them together at San Francisco\u2019s Contemporary Jewish Museum in a solo exhibit apt to touch \u2014 and disturb \u2014 many people.\u201c<\/p>\n

Cara Levine: To Survive I Need You to Survive,\u201d on view Feb. 16 through July 30, is intended \u201cto deepen awareness of injustice and inequity, create space for communal grief and mourning, and encourage informed action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using video, sculpture and installations, Levine, 39, explores systemic racism, anti-Semitism, climate change and the ongoing trauma of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The exhibition is trifurcated.<\/p>\n

The most prominent part is \u201cThis Is Not a Gun,\u201d an ongoing work created in 2016 in collaboration with activists \u201cto grieve victims of police violence and share their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

It consists of wood carvings that Levine made, and ceramic objects community members made, of items civilians carried that police claimed to mistake for guns.<\/p>\n

The work stemmed from a list of 23 items mentioned in a Harper\u2019s Magazine article called \u201cTrigger Warning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CJM issued a statement in connection with the work: \u201cWhile this exhibit has been long planned, we recognize that it is opening against the backdrop of the recent acts of egregious police brutality and gun violence, the most recent in a long line of tragic and horrific instances of senseless violence in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grief is a crucial component, too, of \u201c<\/em>Carve: The Mystic Is Nourished from This Sphere,\u201d a kindred segment of the exhibit curated by Qianjin Montoya, CJM assistant curator. The site-specific installation created for the museum takes the form of a hole carved into the gallery space.<\/p>\n

In the week before the exhibit\u2019s opening, Levine has been etching into the hole notes of grief submitted by the public. Throughout the run, she\u2019ll do more. The hole serves as a starting point for a symbolic adaptation of the practice of shiva, the seven-day mourning period in Judaism following the death of a loved one.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo Survive I Need You to Survive\u201d was inspired by communal grieving in an interfaith service following mass shootings. (Courtesy Cara Levine)\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The title part of the exhibit is a large-scale sculpture created in response to mass 2018 shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky.<\/p>\n

It was inspired by communal grieving in an interfaith service that featured collective singing of Hezekiah Walker\u2019s gospel melody \u201cI Need You to Survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyrics included:<\/p>\n

\u201cI need you, you need me<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all a part of God\u2019s body\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are important to me, I need you to survive.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Cara Levine, whose exhibit \u201cTo Survive I Need You to Survive\u201d is on view at San Francisco\u2019s Jewish Contemporary Museum, is pictured in her L.A. workshop. (Photo by Ashley Randall, courtesy Cara Levine)\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Regarding \u201cThis Is Not a Gun,\u201d the artist \u2014 who earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Michigan and a master of fine arts degree from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco \u2014 said the list of objects in the magazine story gave no context for the killings, leaving her feeling empty, powerless and angry. \u201cSo, I set out to meticulously carve each object from wood as an act of prayer, respect and remembrance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She partnered with local people of color, artists, activists and healers focused on race equity, and began holding collaborative workshops.<\/p>\n

Levine, whose work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions and participatory events in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Anchorage, Tel Aviv and Kyoto, received pushback after previous incarnations of \u201cThis Is Not a Gun.\u201d That, she said, was \u201cabout being a white woman and what do I know about police brutality, and that\u2019s a fair criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, she added, \u201cThough I\u2019m the founder, it\u2019s been a vastly collaborative project\u2026[TINAG] is about \u2026 something you can take away and share with your loved ones. \u2026 investigate your own biases. We begin with a conversation around a table, and bring it further outward and further outward and further outward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levine, an adjunct associate professor at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, also links chronic pain and disability with her artistic endeavors. In part, it\u2019s because she suffered for more than a decade after tearing a tendon in her left ankle and spending four years trying everything but an operation. \u201cBy the time I had my first surgery [of two],\u201d she laments, \u201cthe tendon had completely shredded.\u201d<\/p>\n

A portion of her pain has also been debilitating migraines.\u00a0\u00a0She laments that her \u201cpain is not only physical, but part of my life-path \u2014 a constant opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a nine-month internship with Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development (NIAD) art center in Richmond more than a decade ago helped her cope. She remembers her first day, when a blind artist walked by her and proclaimed, \u201cOh yeah, I used to be a butterfly.\u201d<\/p>\n

That opened her up. She said, \u201cI felt a kinship with her. I\u2019d felt like an outsider as a child, having had a mother who was sick a lot and brothers with whom I fought a lot, so I spent a lot of time making up games and stories. I felt a familiarity. You are expressing things I\u2019ve been told not to express but that are in me too.\u201d<\/p>\n

In considering how Jewishness informs her work, she said,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate to be raised by parents who exposed me to the privilege I was raised in and how that contrasted to the inequities in our society. [I also was taught that being] part of a people who have escaped from slavery and who have spent generations being persecuted meant an interest in social justice with a priority, a focus on caring for the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n

A high school teacher jumpstarted an interest in art for Levine, who said she identifies as queer.<\/p>\n

She fell in love with clay. Now, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s important for me to make things as a sculptor. The handmade process gives me a connection to the work that\u2019s important to the subject matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, in an interview on the ThisIsColossal website, she said, \u201cWhen Trump was elected, it compounded a lot of the fears I had. \u2026 I was having nightmares all the time. \u2026I felt like [marginalized people were] going to be exterminated in a really disgusting way\u2014immigrants, disabled people, women, trans folks, people of color, like everybody now was having to protect themselves like their lives were on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the Harper\u2019s article. And she was motivated.<\/p>\n

Levine said she hopes the CJM exhibit \u201ccan transcend the woke mentality. I think everybody experiences the blahs. This exhibit hones in on shared suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCara Levine: To Survive I Need You to Survive\u201d opens with a free reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, 738 Mission St., San Francisco. Registration is required; visit rsvp@thecjm.org<\/a> or call (415) 655-7824.\u00a0 Tickets to the exhibition, which runs through July 30, are $14-$16; free for ages 18 and under.\u00a0 Go to thecjm.org<\/a> or call (415) 655-7800.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A free \u201cThis Is Not a Gun\u201d workshop at 2 p.m. April 22 at the CJM features Levine and Angela Hennessy, an Oakland artist and a survivor of gun violence. Participants will create replicas in clay of objects mistaken for guns that will be added to an archive of more than 300 objects.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This story was first published on <\/i>LocalNewsMatters.org<\/a>, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News\u00a0Foundation http:\/\/www.baycitynews.org\/contact\/<\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Woody Weingarten can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or on his websites, https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a> and https:\/\/vitality press.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Injustice. Guns. Mourning. Climate change. COVID-19. Healing.Los Angeles artist Cara Levine ties them together at San Francisco\u2019s Contemporary Jewish Museum in a solo exhibit apt to touch \u2014 and disturb…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"