Artist Grows Pot Plant for Gallery Exhibition

[illegal smiles]

Artist Grows Pot Plant for Gallery Exhibition
By Kim Curtis, Associated Press

San Francisco -- With its pointy, jagged-edge leaves, it could simply be a robust houseplant. But in this hip downtown gallery, placed under a display case, it's art. It's also illegal.

Michele Pred's "Marijuana Project" is part of a new show at the Frey Norris Gallery called "Who's Afraid of San Francisco?" The 2-foot-high cannabis plant stands in a plain, plastic pot on a square, white podium.

It's covered by a clear, Plexiglas box with air holes. On the wall nearby is the artist's medical marijuana card and grower's permit, which she obtained for this project.

California is one of 11 states that allow medical marijuana, though it remains illegal under federal law.

Also displayed are buds encased in resin and mounted in petri dishes, which Pred calls "Marijuana Culture." She recently stopped by the gallery to sign a set of three dishes that sold for $1,200.

"This symbolic five-leaf imagery that you see on T-shirts or caps - you associate that with a certain kind of person or lifestyle," says the 41-year-old Berkeley artist. "I wanted to demystify it. It's a plant. It's a weed."

The show was the idea of gallery owners Raman Frey and Wendi Norris.

"We were talking about current events, social issues in San Francisco that take on a much larger national context," Frey says, rattling off a list of San Francisco-centric issues such as gay marriage and anti-war activism. "They begin here as social experiments then diffuse out to the rest of the country. At first, when they arise, they freak everybody out."

Lawrence Rinder, dean of the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, called the show "intriguing." He said Pred was clearly trying to make a point with "Marijuana Project."

"I smelled it and that was interesting," he said. "Most people would look at this and ask, 'Why is this art?' ... Art in our society is extremely broadly defined."

Frey and Norris solicited proposals from about two dozen Bay Area artists who were engaged in social issues, settling on the 26 works by nine artists that make up the show running through Nov. 16.

Frey, whose ground-floor, unpretentious gallery that showcases local artists is a few blocks from Union Square, wants to spark discussion about everything from medical marijuana to legalizing all drugs among his clientele, roughly split 50-50 between locals and tourists.

The work shown here isn't always this edgy, though it is contemporary. In the coming months, it will feature the work of Hisashi Tenmyouya, a "reformed" graffiti tagger and Susannah Bettig, whose paintings of women, on the surface, are full of pastels and flowers, but underneath, are fiercely feminist .

In its current exhibition, hanging in the center of the gallery is a silver chandelier decorated with plastic syringes and colorful garlands of empty pill capsules.

"Blood Money and Tears" by Laurel Roth and Andy Diaz Hope is "meant to mimic the allure of the drug culture," Frey says. Attractive, yet dangerous. Other works illustrate Chinese and Mexican immigration, gay marriage and sexuality - paintings and drawings with much genitalia and leather.

Frey calls Pred's "Marijuana Project" a "comprehensive catalyst for discussion."

Pred, a mixed-media artist who specializes in working with everyday objects, insists she smoked pot only once, in high school, and didn't like it. She also isn't a hard-core advocate for legalization. While she believes the drug should be legalized, she dislikes the current underground nature of obtaining it.

Pred went to a doctor in August, complaining of headaches and sleep problems. He charged her $150 and gave her an identification card. She called his clinic "sleazy."

"Here's this doctor, making a mint, churning out all these people," she said. "They don't even listen. They don't care."

She then applied for and received a grower's permit, allowing her to grow six plants for personal use.

She did some research on the Internet and at a local hydroponics supply store, then bought a clone, or small starter plant, from a pot club for $15. She bought grow lights and special fertilizer, spending about $1,500 altogether on the project. Her electric bill alone increased by $100 a month, she says.

"I wanted to have it grow in the gallery as a living piece of artwork," says Pred, whose previous works included sculptures made of items confiscated at airports and shown at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York. "People can come back and see it taller and bigger."

Despite the gallery's tourist friendly location, the plant, which the artist plans to donate to a local pot club, hasn't generated much controversy. Pred wasn't surprised.

"It being California, and it being San Francisco," she laughs. "Controversy? Nah."

Complete Title: Artist Grows Pot Plant for Gallery Exhibition Showing SF Fears

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Author: Kim Curtis, Associated Press
Published: October 13, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Associated Press

[illegal smiles]

just found these pics of her exhibit on yahoo....

[illegal smiles]

Artist Obtains Permit, Grows Pot for San Francisco
By Kristin Bender, Staff Writer

San Francisco -- The first reaction to the thriving marijuana plant encased in Plexiglas in a San Francisco art gallery is to its pungent odor. Then come the questions.

"They say, 'Is it real and is it for sale?' The plant is not for sale, but the photos are," replies Wendi Norris, an owner of Frey Norris Gallery on Geary Street where the "Marijuana Project" is on display through Nov. 16.

The pot plant, accompanying photos of another plant, and buds encased in resin and mounted in petri dishes, as well as Pred's grower's permit and medical marijuana identification card, are part of the "Who's Afraid of San Francisco" exhibit, which includes installations on gay marriage, immigrants, anti-war movements and racial justice by artists from Oakland and elsewhere.

The pot plant was grown by Michele Pred, a 41-year West Berkeley artist,who last year displayed her patriotic artwork made of scissors, razor blades, cigarette lighters and knives that had been confiscated from airline passengers at San Francisco International Airport following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

This time around, Pred chose to create art around marijuana because it's a "San Francisco-centric topic" likely to get people talking about medical marijuana, legalization, addiction and other issues. Marijuana is illegal under federal law but allowed in 11 states, including California, for medical use.

"It's really to ignite a dialogue on all levels, to make it more of an acceptable everyday topic where we can talk about it. It's just a weed," she said.

But not everyone agrees that a pot plant should be sitting out in the open for everyone to see. The gallery, said Norris, has received a few complaints about the exhibit.

"(One man with an anti-drug organization) does not like this at all, but I thanked him for all his input because this is exactly what (the artist) wanted," Norris said.

Norris believes Pred wants to demystify marijuana by putting it in the public eye. "Maybe if parents see that it is just a plant, they'll be able to find common ground (and) talk to their children about it."

Lawrence Rinder, dean of the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, called the exhibit "intriguing," saying art in this society is extremely broadly defined.

To grow the plant, Pred first paid $150 for a visit to a shabby and jam-packed Oakland clinic where she saw a doctor and complained of stress, headaches and trouble sleeping, which are all ailments Pred said she suffers from.

"I wanted to make it clear that I was coming in with honest and true medical issues," she said.

During the four-hour process, she was interviewed, but never examined physically. She was later issued an identification card and grower's permit that allows her to grow up to six marijuana plants for personal use.

To grow her first plant, she did research on the Internet and at a hydroponics supply store, and then bought a clone, or starter plant, from a Berkeley medical marijuana club.

Pred bought grow lights and fertilizer and started growing a plant, which she photographed for the gallery show. The plant on display at Frey Norris is the second plant she has grown.

"There's actually a lot you need to do, you have to know what you are doing ..." she said.

As she was working on her art, the project took a turn she never expected.

Several weeks before the show opened in early October, Pred's father, Allan Pred, a 70-year-old retired University of California, Berkeley professor who never smoked cigarettes and rode his bike to work nearly every day during his 44-year career, was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.

"When I conceptualized the piece, I never thought it would hit home with me," she said.

Her father has undergone chemotherapy and — to deal with the nausea and loss of appetite — ate a marijuana cookie bar that Pred, as a caregiver, legally purchased for him.

"It calmed him down," she said. He may try it again, but Pred isn't certain.

What she does know is the debate she set out to ignite became decidedly personal when her father got sick.

"It's affected me on a level I never expected."

Wire services contributed to this report.

Note: Controversial display includes encased plant, pictures.

Complete Title: Artist Obtains Permit, Grows Pot for San Francisco Exhibit

Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
Author: Kristin Bender, Staff Writer
Published: October 30, 2006
Copyright: 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Contact: triblet@angnewspapers.com
Website: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/

[CHQ Princess]

"It's really to ignite a dialogue on all levels, to make it more of an acceptable everyday topic where we can talk about it. It's just a weed," she said.


It's Just Weed.

[illegal smiles]

i think its great she's doing this, what a great way to make marijuana a bit less taboo

[CHQ Princess]

I think its beautiful! I agree with it totally. I think that mixing art and weed is a great way to get it to go mainstreamm...the next best think would be to have MTV VJ's toking up on TRL.

[ubersmoker!]

Yeah i agree thats a good way to show other people that even though people say weed is bad for you its also got its possitive side...anyways,best of luck with that and im willing on supporting this idea if need!
Interesting!

[UncleBud]

I'd do her