Relics at San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art

Many of the art works in Relics indirectly allude to the environmental waste associated with the disposal of old technologies and serve as poignant signposts of how we collect, store, and dispose of data (see MANUAL’s prints of Polaroids and slides as well as Lucy Puls’ stacks of music playback technologies). Indeed, even the SJICA itself is addressing this directly through an engaging e-waste sculpture comprised of visitors’ donated technological relics. In thinking about the passing of time and technology, many of the artists as well, in one form or another, poignantly touch on the collection, recording, and dispersal of our individual and collective histories and memories. Victoria Mara Heilwel’s 45 years is both a still-life of obsolete technologies as well as a touching portrait of her mother, and Nicola Vruwink’s crocheted piece evokes not just her personal connection to a song, but also a collective memory of buying our first cassette tapes. In this timely exhibition, technology can be meaningful at that point in which we decide to record a moment or associate a record album with a certain time in our lives. Taken together, and with a little bit of abstraction and anonymity, they are almost meaningless, and indeed, replaceable by the newest new thing.

Relics, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, California, through 24 January 2015.

Jim Campbell, Glimpse, custom electronics, slides, and projectors, Relics, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose

Victoria Mara Heilwel, 45 Years: my mother never learned how to drive or use a computer, archival pigment print, Relics, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose

Nicola Vruwink, I Wish I Knew What I Was Looking For, crocheted cassette tape and cartridge, Relics, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose

Genevieve Hastings, Twitterbox, trunk, obsolete technical devices, glass, earth, light source and arduino, Relics, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose