Door Knob (hand held)-Ilana Crispi

Ilana Crispi made Door Knob (hand held) (threaded steal, fired soil) for the art/archaeology exhibition Ineligible at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture (MIEC) in Santo Tirso, Portugal (March-September, 2020). With Door Knob Ilana presents the viewer with two objects of intimate utility, objects that we hold in our hands, and that lead us towards thresholds, across which we move from room-to-room, from inside-to-outside, from domestic to public, and back again. Two door knobs, one on either side of a door. At one end, the knob is as expected (indeed, it is the original object from the Ineligible materials that Crispi received): a solid, impersonal door knob. At the other end, is a knob fashioned out of dirt which Crispi shoveled out from under her home in San Francisco. This created knob, made from soil, bears the impression and shape of the human hand that made it: intimate, human, of the house, of the home, of this grounded place, and not of that more sterile one. The other, manufactured, knob carries no memory of who held or turned it, let alone who made it; it appears disconnected to the lived reality of human movement into and out of private space. One (organic) object is alive with hand print and impression; the other remains static, out of time and out of touch.

Door Knob is part of a larger project that Ilana is pursuing: the Mission Dirt Project. She describes her work for Ineligible and that larger project this way:

“Door Knob (hand held) connects a 19th century object with my own grip and the  impression of my own hand. It has been placed in the door marked by layers of paint and dents from all the inhabitants of my apartment who were here before me. The door knob, an object of utility, is an intimate object. We hold it in our hand. It leads us towards the threshold – a handle on liminal space. For now it marks the hold I have on my home and the land where I live.”

“In a kind of guerrilla land grab I am taking soil from under my apartment to share with my neighbors. I am testing the land itself – processing, firing, mining it for gold and questioning its meaning and ownership. I’m using local soil to make ceramics, grow native plants and build furniture – to sit and have a cup of tea and conversation. I investigate landscape – how we imagine and perceive our environment, and the physical material of place. Through a tactile experience of the material of land I invite exchange and a shared re-experience of place, history, and human connection.”

“The soil used to create the Mission Dirt Project is from the Mission District of San Francisco. With this iteration of the Mission Dirt Project I have combined the soil from under my home with an artifact from the excavation that preceded the construction of the San Francisco Trans Bay Transit Center. The door knob recovered from under the new transit center – 3 miles from my home – is one of many mundane objects that reflect life during San Francisco’s gold rush era. The Transbay Transit Center, now the Salesforce Transit Center, is a reflection of so much of San Francisco – subject to change and up for sale. It is a place of arrival and departure – as metaphor and literal transition. The door knob, an object of utility, is an intimate object. We hold it in our hand. It leads us towards the threshold – a handle on liminal space. This door knob from the Transit Center excavation fits the antique mechanism of the door in my own apartment – built before the 1906 earthquake. It references what is left from a different era – something we may still hold onto.”

“Our imagining of what came before and our own lived experience of place are sometimes contentious. I have set up a sluice box and pans on Valencia Street and invited my neighbors to mine for gold with the soil taken from under my home. This has been a reference to the gold rush that drastically altered the land and grossly impacted the Ohlone and other indigenous peoples. It is also a response to the current role of speculation and real estate – our contemporary gold rush. I have shared cups of tea on the street made from native Yerba Buena plants and ceramics from the local soil. Door Knob is returning to a more personal space. It has been installed in my own home, rather than on the street – bringing a specimen from a public excavation and place of transition into my own rent-controlled apartment. The soil has been a vehicle to explore meaning, value, and ownership. My constructed door knob connects the 19th century object with my own grip and the impression of my own hand. It has been placed in the door marked by layers of paint and dents from all the inhabitants of my apartment who were here before me.”

For more information about Ilana’s work check out these links:

www.ilanacrispi.com

www.instagram.com/ilanacrispi.

The Ineligible exhibition at MIEC that was one part of the Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/archaeology show co-curated by Doug Bailey and Sara Navarro. For more information about Creative (un)makings, follow these links:

Museum exhibition description

Portuguese TV spot about opening of Ineligible

Other Featured Work from Ineligible that have been featured on www.artarchaeologies.com include the following:

José Pedro’s Toolbox (Rui Gomes Coelho)

Remember Wounded Knee (Laurent Oliver)

Omission: Sterile Landscape (Tiago Costa)

Decadence (Jéssica Burrinha)

L OST and FOOUND (Shaun Caton)

The catalogue from the Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/Archaeology exhibition in which Ineligible was installed is available as a free pdf download through the following link:

Bailey, D.W., Navarro, S. and Moreira, A. 2020. Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/Archaeology. Santo Tirso: International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture.

One part of the Creative (un)makings exhibition was a conference addressing the issues of the installation. Free pdfs are available of the conference book through the following link:

Bailey, D.W., Navarro, S. and Moreira. A (eds). 2020. Art/Archaeology: Beyond the Archaeology of Art. Santo Tirso: International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture.

If you are interested in participating in the Ineligible Project and using disarticulated (former) archaeological materials to create original work that has disruptive social and political impact, then email dwbailey@sfsu.edu with the subject line Ineligible Contributor Request.