LOT-EK

Opening reception for the artists: Saturday 9 December, 3-5pm

An entire shipping container - chopped into 29 pieces and exploded throughout the gallery to create sculpture, furniture, and architectural elements - is the centerpiece of an installation that calls attention to systems of global production and transportation and proposes the re-imagining of materials that otherwise become waste.

SPILL / from 1 to 29 is the first West Coast solo exhibition of LOT-EK, the New York-based architect/artist team that pioneered the upcycling of decommissioned intermodal containers as building material in their architectural projects, environmental interventions and discreet artworks. This installation is augmented with a multi-channel video and an intervention into the architecture of the gallery.

There are at least 50 million and perhaps 180 million shipping containers in the world. No one seems to know exactly how many, or where they all are. But they are the heart of the global supply chain, pumping consumer products from factories in China to the Amazon delivery vans that deposit what you buy at your doorstep. Ubiquitous and mundane, they are both the vehicle moving products for consumption, and the vehicle LOT-EK utilizes to explore our complicity in the environmental, political, and human costs of a global economy.

Founded in 1993 by Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, LOT-EK is renowned for reimagining sustainable approaches to construction and living. Their work has been exhibited at venues including SFMOMA, MoMA, the Whitney and Guggenheim Museums in New York, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and MAXXI in Rome.

The feature-length documentary, WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND: a LOT-EK Movie, by Thomas Piper, will have its California debut at the Roxie Theater on Tuesday December 12, followed by Q&A with Thomas Piper, Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano. Doors open at 5:30 and the screening starts at 6:00. $25 general admission. Tickets may be purchased here: https://www.eventbee.com/v/we-start-with-the-things-we-find-san-francisco-premeire/event?eid=273617994#/tickets.

At FOG Design+Art on Saturday January 20 at 1:30pm, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design at SFMoMA, will lead a conversation with Ada Tolla, Giuseppe Lignano, and filmmaker Thomas Piper, along with a presentation of excerpts from WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND. This program is sponsored by Christie's. For more information or tickets, click here.