Sheri Simons: Interactive Sound Sculpture Featured

An interactive kinetic sound sculpture by Sheri Simons (BFA 1979) is on view in Contraption: Rediscovering California Jewish Artists at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco through July 29, 2018. 

In Simons’ piece, a microphone invites viewers to speak into the long cone. Their voice is electronically processed, causing the delicate arm at the far end to move in sync with each syllable as it hops across the rotating charcoal-coated drum. As it moves, it pulls up small amounts of charcoal, erasing in response to the voice. 

Contraption: Rediscovering California Jewish Artists is a group show that presents the work of sixteen California-identified artists of Jewish descent — both historical and living — whose work refers to the machine either literally or metaphorically. Some of the artists are rarely seen now. Among the living artists, there will be large-scale mechanical installations by Bernie Lubell and Sheri Simons, as well as ceramics, drawings, sculpture and paintings by Ned Kahn, Bella Feldman, Howard Fried, and Annabeth Rosen. This original exhibition was co-curated by Chief Curator Renny Pritikin and Mark Dean Johnson, Professor of Art at SFSU.