The Institute Drawing

Like a mischievous child, Dan Perjovschi draws on walls. Armed with a black pen or white chalk, the Romanian artist pairs bold pithy puns with crude straightforward illustrations on the austere walls of museum, galleries, and institutions. While the subject matter is often weighty—world politics, economic issues, social injustices—the spontaneous and ephemeral nature of the work dilutes any pomposity. Perjovschi simply coaxes his audience to question the world around them. The artist’s installations are inevitably varied in scope and effect, based on their locale. His latest project, “The Institute Drawing,” at San Francisco Art Institute’s Walter and McBean Galleries, includes Perjovschi’s signature wall drawings and text, as well as a more participatory element particularly well-suited to San Francisco’s reputation as a hub of political activism. While the surfaces of the main gallery space are filled with Perjovschi’s work, the walls of the back two rooms function as chalkboards, where visitors can contribute their own musings, prodded by free chalk and a written encouragement from the artist.

The front gallery integrates commentary on current events such as immigration policies and the Iraq War with witticisms specific to the Bay Area. The Gulf Coast oil spill gets significant coverage, which mirrors its pervasiveness in the media. In one drawing, a stick figure asks another “How do you spell disaster?” and is answered with the letters, “BP.” Elsewhere, Perjovschi takes on San Francisco. For example, the first word in “Flower Power” is crossed out to leave the more sinister “Power” alone.

Installation view of the Artist at work, 2010. Image courtesy of Walter and McBean Galleries at SFAI, San Francisco.

The chalk contributions in the two back rooms offer a unique insight into visitors’ personal reactions to the artist’s work. Three weeks into the exhibition, the walls were littered with motivational quotations, predictable penis drawings, and some attempts at mimicking Perjovschi’s wordplay. However, the artist’s invitation had not yet produced any provocative thoughts related to world news, suggesting a local audience desensitized to social and political statements, which appear in windows around the city, written on protest signs, and broadcast from megaphones. Even the subversive act of drawing directly on the walls loses its punch in a city known for its murals. Perjovschi’s work may lack a rebellious quality in its current incarnation, but it succeeds in interrogating global, national, and local issues with clarity and humor.

"The Institute Drawing" is on view at Walter and McBean Galleries at San Francisco Art Institute through September 18. 2010.

Jeanne Gerrity is an independent curator and arts writer currently based in San Francisco. In August she will participate in the Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course.