Carolina Caycedo: ‘Aesthetics of Commodity’
Visual art
The scope of artist Carolina Caycedo’s work is broad and often touches on environmental and social justice, with complicated sculptures, performance and installation works. The Los Angeles-based artist was born in London to Colombian parents, and has shown work around the globe.
The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) San Diego’s north campus will open an exhibition of Caycedo’s digital collages made from historical stocks and bonds.
The financial documents are from Puerto Rico, Virginia and Pennsylvania, and Caycedo’s works explore and reveal the origins of the term “bonds” in slavery, as bonds began as a way to further capitalize off the mortgaging of human slaves.
In a series of collages, the artist follows the origins and path of debt, oppression and capitalism. This regional artist exhibition opens on Saturday,
Details: On view Friday, Aug. 26 through Oct. 30. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. ICA San Diego: North, 1550 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas. Free.
‘The Lion King’
Theater, Music, Dance
Who among us hasn’t held out our cats, arms outstretched, as we surveyed our shared kingdoms? Broadway San Diego brings the touring production of Disney’s “The Lion King” to the Civic Theatre for the next two and a half weeks.
Courtesy of Deen van Meer
The show is a six-time Tony Award winner, with a delightful Tim Rice/Elton John soundtrack, and the choreography and set design is vivid and impressive.
Details: On stage through Sept. 11, 2022. This weekend’s performances are 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown. $35.50+.
Tchaikovsky’s Symphonic Tales
Music, Literature
This concert is a special edition of the San Diego Symphony’s annual performance of Tchaikovsky. Due to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, the symphony has pulled the “1812 Overture” from the repertoire.
They will still perform Tchaikovsky, just not that particular piece, written as a celebration of Russian war victory.
“When you understand that this was commissioned to really showcase Russian imperialism and aggression and that it is the canons of war, it feels to us highly inappropriate to perform it this year under the certain circumstances — when this unprovoked war in Ukraine is literally decimating that country, and people are fighting for their lives. It did not seem that it is appropriate for us,” said San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer. KPBS spoke with Gilmer in early July when they announced the change.
Instead, they’ll add “The Tempest Fantasy Overture, Op. 18,” Tchaikovsky’s moody and pensive tone poem that was inspired by Shakespeare’s play. Also on the program are Tchaikovsky’s “Francesca da Rimini,” and selections from “Eugene Onegin, as well as Rimsky-Kosakov’s “Russian Easter Overture.”
The concert will also feature live narration of the classic literature that inspired these works, from San Diego-based actors Jesse Perez and Shana Wride.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, 222 Marina Park Way, downtown. $40-$90.
NextGen Performance: Gideon Sawyer and beck haberstroh
Visual art, Movement
Graduating artists from UC San Diego’s visual arts program have their work on view at ICA’s central Balboa Park campus, now through Sept. 4. This Saturday afternoon, two of the works will be “activated” with performance, movement and interactions with the pieces.
Gideon Sawyer’s work, his “skins,” are textile sculptures made from clothing, built to resemble bodies and limbs, though representing a sense of struggle and restriction. The performance speaks to the process of finding freedom from such restrictions.
Courtesy of ICA San Diego
Another work, “You took my impression without ever touching me” by beck haberstroh, is a massive, hanging, light-up textile work that features “impressions” of multiple faces. The work features a 15 minute performance.
Details: 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022. ICA San Diego Central, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. Free.
‘Essential San Diego’
Visual art, Outdoors
Artist David White’s Park Social project will be installed at Kate Sessions Park in Pacific Beach on Saturday afternoon. “Essential San Diego” is a sculpture and virtual reality video installation that looks like a seemingly innocuous set of tourist overlook binoculars. Instead of the sweeping panoramas from Kate Sessions, viewers will see videos of essential workers doing the everyday tasks of their jobs in San Diego, and also expressing a series of emotions as they work. The piece feels like a commentary of what’s at the heart of this beautiful place, and a reminder that they’re human beings.
Details: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022. Kate Sessions Park, 5115 Soledad Rd., Pacific Beach. Free.
Courtesy of Oolong Gallery
‘Sunblock 5000’
Visual art
A new group exhibition opens at Oolong Gallery in Solana Beach on Sunday, featuring work by twelve artists, including Brian Lotti, Amelia Baxter, Sam Keller, Mauricio Muñoz, Taylor Chapin (who will also be featured as a solo regional artist at ICA San Diego next spring), Jerry Hsu and more.
The works explore the weirdness on the fringe of beachy and sun-drenched aesthetics, possibly best described by their promo video, an edited clip from “Robocop.” I hear there’s a pile of oversized Cheetos involved.
Details: Opening reception is noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28. On view through Oct. 9, 2022. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Oolong Gallery, 349 N Hwy 101, Solana Beach. Free.
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