APRIL— Ju L y 2 013 - Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

ARTIST SPOTLIGHTARTIST SPOTLIGHT:SCOLI ACOSTAMCASD Intern Jewel Goodesat down with artist ScoliAcosta to find out what makeshim tick. Turns out it’s travel,totems, and pentagons.Scoli Acosta, Levitating the Pentagon (at the Pentagon), 2012, C-print.Courtesy the artist and Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris. Photo by Randy Peterman.Years of extensive travel and an intimaterelationship with language and literature haveenabled Los Angeles-based Scoli Acosta totranslate his personal experiences into worksof art. This is one of the many fascinatinginsights I gleaned when I sat down to speak withthe artist while he was installing his work inMCASD’s downtown galleries.Using a variety of media including painting,drawing, photography, sculpture, performance,and installations, Acosta encouragesa transformative and often metamorphicprocess involving humble materials and foundobjects from his immediate environment. The“aesthetics of resourcefulness,” a phrase heoften uses to describe his work, pays tributeto the necessary resourcefulness of materialshe employs during his travels. “There is alwaysa natural inclination to make something withnothing, bringing into focus that which previouslyexisted in the periphery,” the artistexplained.When asked about his creative process,Acosta said that nearly everything around himacts as a source of inspiration: the ocean, thesoulful music of Nina Simone, literature, theMoroccan adventures of Paul Bowles, or encouragementfrom family members and friends.For his current exhibition, Acosta presentswork made during a four-month residency inMorocco, evidencing his profound connectionto geography, landscape, and music. Many ofthe objects on display are inspired by MoroccanBendir drums, such as his (Peripheral) DotRibbon Totem. What was most memorableabout his residency? He was continually pushedout of his comfort zone. This meant battlinginsect infestations, poor sewage and sanitationconditions, as well as the sweltering 120 degreeheat. In the end, he found that “surrendering tothe natural elements, instead of fighting them,”was essential to his artistic practice.So what is the meaning of the unusual exhibitiontitle, Scoli Acosta: ELEMENTALISTHMUS?Acosta explained its etymological root: in Greek,isthmos means neck, and isthmus is a landbridge. The artist liked the whimsical soundof the made-up word, which he jokingly saidsounds like an art movement. The title alsoreferences the symbolic passage linking thephysical, psychological, and emotional statesof mind and body while celebrating the Earth’snatural elements. In Medieval alchemy andPaganism, the pentagon—a recurring motif inAcosta’s work—represents an idea or the spiritas the fifth element, a concept that is prevalentin this body of work.Acosta first took notice of the pentagonalform after viewing Chris Marker’s film, The SixthSide of the Pentagon, which documents the1967 march in protest of the war in Vietnam.There he learned about Yippee activist AbbieHoffman’s performance during this protestto try to use psychic energy to levitate thePentagon, at which point he believed the war inVietnam would end.At last month’s TNT (Thursday Night Thing),Acosta staged a performance referencingHoffman’s attempt to levitate the Pentagonin 1967, linking the past with the present. SeeAcosta’s exhibition in the downtown galleriesthrough June 23.SCOLI ACOSTA: ELEMENTALISTHMUSON View ThrOUGH 6/23/2013> DOWNTOWN, JACOBS BUILDINGSee PAGE 6 for more information.10 11