Samara Golden at the YBCA

A Trap in Soft Division, Samara Golden, 2016

Soooo, there was a lot to see at the Yerba Buena Center for the arts. I thought I'd write a bit about what else is currently up. Samara Golden's A Trap in Soft Division is alone worth the visit to the YBCA.  The installation is in a large ballroom with floors covered in pristine mirrors reflecting a series of small staged rooms some 40 feet over head. Each room is complete with everyday objects: furniture, lamps, take out boxes, and open laptops. The rooms are completely enclosed, and while there are similarities between them, none are the exact same.  In each corner rumbles a white noise machine giving the whole room a vague hum that is both soothing and lonely. 

 It feels like we have all the information, but nothing is clear. The space is devoid of life, and we are kept remote. We view the rooms from either the mirrors on the floor, or by craning our necks up.  Viewing the work by looking up or down changes the interpretation.  As one looks down at, it elicits a sense of omnipotent voyeurism. As you look up, it's a surreal topsy-turvy reality that almost causes vertigo. 

View of the floor

Looking up 

The installation is thought provoking, delicate and fascinating work. The clinical compartmentalized nature of the rooms starts to evoke a feeling of cells, no matter how comfortable they appear. The installation is multi-layered and complex and my friend Tracy and I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what we were feeling. 

 Golden is interested in expressing our increasing isolation in a technology saturated world. As social media brings us closer together online, our physical lives retreat into the safety and insulation of the tiny spaces we can define.  I personally know the feeling of not wanting to leave my house and face the grinding external reality of Sacramento.    

This surreal space and the complex spectrum of emotions that it draws out in a minimal way, is highly inspiring.