What Vanishes

Image of an artwork by John Herschend.

What Vanishes

Artworks by Jonn Herschend
Exhibit
Tuesday, Oct 25, 2005 12:00 am -

An MFA Candidate at UC Berkeley, Jonn Herschend has exhibited at locations around the Bay Area, and in Portland, Nashville, and Norway. In 2002 he was artist in residence at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Hershend’s works have been critiqued in The New York Times Magazine and the San Francisco Examiner. He serves on the board for Out of Site, the center for art and architecture in San Francisco.

“I like my stories badly told. I like what happens when someone gets off the subject and tries to figure out how he got there. I like the phrase, “Where was I going with this?” This is the moment when the story seems to rock between going over the edge or going back to where it was before it went off track. When it goes over the edge, the story is no longer about a plot. It’s about the bare elements of narrative. It’s about letting everything collapse into a grayness in the hopes that there will be a way out. It’s a little like that and a little like trust. But it’s not about relying on any pre-established structure for reading or writing. It requires the reader, viewer, listener to rely on his or her wits, which—politically—is the most important act anyone can be asked to do these days. But I can’t remember where I was going with this.” - Jonn Herschend