The Swimmer

   
   
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The Swimmer 2013
Steven Wolf Fine Arts
October - December 2013

Solo Exhibition featuring photos, sculptures, and videos at Steven Wolf Fine Arts.

Watch installation VIDEO walkthru VIMEO

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Sculpture
   
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Shopping Cart 2013

Metal, barnacles, oyster shells, sea foam.
48" x 24" x 48"

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Fixed Gear 2013

Mission Creek Motebecane bike frame, barnacles, with sourced bike parts rebuilt as working fixed gear bike.
69" x 39" x 17"

     
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Monkey Fist 2013

Knotted found nautical rope, yoga ball
30" diameter

     
 
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Shovel 2013

Sun Bleached driftwood, sand dollars, and rebuilt shovel, with fiberglass.
40" x 22" x 10"

     
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Drift Cone 2013

Drift wood, traffic cone, metal.
71" x 15" x 15"

     
 
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Hepworth 2013

Sea-carved foam
31" x 16" x 20"

     
 
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Street Sign 2013

Displayed on the Street
Wood, Barnacles, Metal
44" x 24" x 24" diameter

     
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rudder

Rudder 2013

Found Drift wood, modified handle, clamp, projector & Shoreline video. Driftwood found at Candlestick Point and walked along the coast to the Pacific Ocean.
53.5"' x 9" x 5"

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Thin Blue Line 2013

San Francisco Coast Line straightened & pulled taught
1" x 125"
Blue Tape, Map

     

Photos

   
 
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Phased 2013

Sand dollars as lunar phases
Dimension 7" x 48"
Framed archival inkjet print

 
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Points along the Edge 2013

Points from the SF Shoreline a Spring walk of 2013.
Dimension 61" x 23"
Framed archival inkjet print

 
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Wet Blanket 2013

Photograph of Sollars holding Photo Blanket of Islais Creek dipped in Islais Creek.
Dimension 20" x 30"
Archival Ink Jet on Aluminum floated with rounded corners

     
Videos
   
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The Swimmer 2013 - 18 minutes

Video of John Cheever’s short story The Swimmer, with Sollars traversing the city through pools and fountains in a Speedo from Bay to Ocean. Installed with Pool Bench.

     
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Shoreline 2013 - 69 minutes

Walk of entire San Francisco coastline from Candlestick Point to Ocean Beach drawing a line with found driftwood Rudder. Like a phonograph needle the rudder amplifies the landscape. Watch Excerpt

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Holding Water 2013 13 minutes

Found street objects used in attempts to hold water.

     
Trailers & Press
   
 
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The Swimmer Exhibition Trailer
Steven Wolf Fine Arts
October 26 - December 20, 2013

The Swimmer features photos, videos, and sculptures that intertwine street and sea through endurance actions and the transformation of objects. Sollars created a waterfront studio in the Bayview and repurposed a series of barnacle-encrusted objects pulled in from the bay for use back in town.

WATCH on Vimeo

 
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The Swimmer Trailer
Steven Wolf Fine Arts

Sollars revisits John Cheever's short story The Swimmer, traversing his way across San Francisco from Bay to Ocean via a network of pools and fountains in a Speedo.

WATCH on Vimeo

 
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REVIEW: “The Swimmer” by Chris Sollars
By Kathryn McKinney for SFAQ November 2013

“The Swimmer,” Chris Sollars’s first solo show for Steven Wolf Fine Arts, features photos, videos and sculpture, all in homage to the San Francisco coastline, and its duality of water, Ocean and Bay, that shape the city. The sculptures in the show are all pulled from these shores; shopping carts, bikes, 40 oz bottles and cinderblocks meticulously cleaned to exhibit the saltwater’s own addition–colonies of barnacles living on our trash, like so many low rent tenants filling in the converted studios and improvised accommodations of coveted real estate, only to be yanked up and out, evicted by the fate of their discovery.
 
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Behold the Mission's Sea-Sourced Fixed Gear Barnacle Bicycle
By Kevin Montgomery Uptown Almanac Nov 2013

But one local Mission artist is reviving the lost art of "custom builds" via a bike frame reclaimed from the Bay. Chris Sollars of 667Shotwell explains how this gruesome shipwreck in the making came to be:
 
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Bicycle encrusted with SF Bay barnacles in Chris Sollars' "The Swimmer"
By John Angelico SFChronicle / SFGATE Nov 20 2013

Inspiration can come from many places, and in Sollars’ case it came from San Francisco Bay. As in literally from the bay: He dragged something from the water and used it in his work. The thing he dragged out was a bicycle frame, beautifully encrusted with barnacles. It was being kept in Davy Jones’ bicycle locker, apparently.
 
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Steven Wolf Fine Arts: Chris Sollars - The Swimmer
By Anneliese Vobis for Art Business SF 2013

Sollars' sculptural practice overlaps with photography, video, collage and installation work. The Swimmer reflects on journeys and investigations along the Pacific coast. Story telling and altered sculptural objects constrast clean, geometrical driven video work. Both directions melt together and weave a narrative in Robert Smithson style.