Richard Barnes: Exhumations

For the past five years, Bay-area photographer Richard Barnes has examined the concepts inherent in the practices of archeology. This installation, utilizing work made at sites in Egypt, as well as San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor, addresses the ways we deal with the past, the value we place on objects, and the historical significance of the human body.

During the construction and seismic upgrade of the San Francisco landmark, Palace of the Legion of Honor, a gold rush-era cemetery was discovered beneath the museum. Barnes’ project documents the archeological excavation and the process of installing the collection in the museum, in an exploration of the simultaneous existence of different California histories.

The show will coincide with “Still Rooms and Excavations,” an exhibition at San Francisco Camerawork, which juxtaposes Barnes’ photographs of the excavation of a gold rush-era cemetery discovered beneath the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, with the reinstallation of the museum’s collection of European artworks.