The RECOLOGY Artist-in-Residence
Nunca No (Claire Dunn & Charles Lee)
Nunca No is a collaboration between two interdisciplinary artists, curators and romantic partners: Charles Lee and Claire Dunn. We began collaborating on paintings as a way to learn about each other’s cultures. With Claire being from Argentina and Charles, a Black man from the U.S., we focus on cultural differences and similarities that we are eager to learn about and incorporate into both of our daily lives, deepening our understanding of one another.
“The Act of Opening”
Written by Weston Teruya
Nunca No’s The Act of Opening welcomes us into the sculptural dialogue between the two artistic collaborators, Claire Dunn and Charles Lee. The exhibition posits a series of questions and speculative proposals channeled through their interconnected and reconfigured artworks. While gathering materials, the artists were struck by the markers of class stratification and division throughout the pile of disposed goods. If everything eventually ends up discarded in the same place, scarred by being roughly tossed into the big pile of our material excess–luxury decor, modest home goods, personal correspondence, an old magazine–entrenched ideas about monetary value become irrelevant. And in the end, the divisions between us are collapsed into the same heap of trash. Dunn and Lee therefore ask, “What do we have left with us after our belongings make their way into the dump? What impact have we had on the world beyond our consumption and accumulation of stuff?” Through their work, Nunca No challenges us to consider how the symbols of material value socialized us within capitalism. Whether the ornate fixtures of an old mansion or a rough hand carved frame, these things teach us desire and alienation–the parameters within which we are expected to navigate in proper society.
Dunn and Lee’s mysterious sculptures invite new interpretations that encourage generosity, support, contemplation, and spiritual fulfillment. A number of pieces in the installation have been painted gold, a tint that often brings to mind accumulated wealth and environmental extraction, but also a color that the artists note has symbolic value in their meditative study and practice, suggesting energy, spiritual power, and enrichment beyond material. One of the sculptures takes the form of a damaged mirror with a rebuilt, ornate frame, evoking the magic mirror of fantasy fiction–the reflective object called upon for narcissistic consultation by an evil witch. Here Nunca No flanks the mirror with two small cabinets, one an intake box where visitors can leave their questions, and the other with small messages of affirmation that audiences are free to take with them. A mirror doesn’t have to inherently be a tool for vanity or corruption, so what questions do we want to be asking of ourselves when we step up to our reflection? Nunca No’s work offers up tools for introspection with the hope that self-knowledge will be a step toward connection across the class stratification reinforced by the products we’ve accumulated and thrown away.
Nunca No is a collaboration between two interdisciplinary artists, curators, and romantic partners: Charles Lee & Claire Dunn. They began collaborating on paintings as a way to learn about each other’s cultures. With Dunn being from Argentina, and Lee, a Black man from the U.S., they focus on cultural differences and similarities that they are eager to learn about and incorporate into both of their daily lives, deepening their understanding of one another. Lee, originally a lens-based and assemblage artist, learned painting from Dunn. Dunn, originally a painter, learned about analog photography from Lee. Their work is about exchange and perspective. Claire Dunn transforms cells into galaxies (or have they always been one and the same)? Charles Lee lingers on the delicate borders between interior and exterior, self and world. Lee and Dunn are both current M.F.A candidates at California College of the Arts.
About the Artist in Residence Program
The Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence (AIR) Program is an art and education initiative that awards Bay Area artists access to discarded materials, an unrestricted stipend, and an individual studio space. These resources, along with comprehensive support, are provided to artists while they create a body of work and host studio visits during their four-month residency at the San Francisco Transfer Station.
Since 1990, over 150 professional artists and 50 student artists from local universities and colleges have completed residencies. Selected artists have worked across disciplines—including new media, video, painting, photography, performance, sculpture, and installation—to explore a wide range of topics.
The Recology AIR Program encourages the conservation of natural resources by providing artists with time, space, and reusable resources to create a new and impactful body of work. The Program further aims to create a more diverse and inclusive residency that amplifies perspectives from Bay Area communities and inspires children and adults who engage with the program to re-imagine their role in creating a just and sustainable world.
We also did a collaboration with Everlane, who featured us in their social media for Earth day. We had different interviews and videos, a photoshoot, and deep conversations.
