“how we are in time and space: Nancy Buchanan, Marcia Hafif, Barbara T. Smith” at Armory Center for the Arts

In 1969, Nancy Buchanan (b. 1946), Marcia Hafif (1929–2018), and Barbara T. Smith (b. 1931), met as college students within the inaugural class of the College of California, Irvine’s MFA studio artwork program. The three artists, all divorced moms, shortly discovered kinship of their mutual penchant for experimental genres and feminist points. After graduating in 1971, Smith and Buchanan turned concerned with the Southern California feminist artwork motion, whereas Hafif moved to New York to pursue her profession as an summary painter. Regardless of their diverging paths, the trio remained lifelong pals. Curated by Michael Ned Holte, “how we’re in time and area” spotlights their intersections through an eclectic mixture of movies, work, drawings, efficiency paperwork, and archival supplies.
To peruse this exhibition is to meander by a labyrinth of non-public and inventive particulars that, given time, result in all method of discovery. Works are grouped into three thematic sections—“our bodies/embodiment,” “communication,” and “dwelling”—that merge seamlessly into each other. From college days to latest years, every artist has pushed the boundaries of conventional media whereas sustaining a dedication to mining the quotidian material of her lived expertise and environment, gathering threads of perception to weave into artwork.
Included within the present are a number of twin collaborations; however just one, a mail-art venture initiated by Buchanan, immediately concerned all three. But the presentation’s most intriguing revelations are the serendipitous visible and conceptual affinities educed amongst works they created as people. For example, the wry humor and fanciful narrative of Buchanan’s WOLFWOMAN, 1976—{a magazine} unfold during which the artist imagines herself because the titular creature, preying on male artists when she menstruates—finds its counterpart in Smith’s wall set up, The Conspiracy, 1972/2022, that includes a sensationalistic array of semifictional character sketches, similar to “Van Man: A hunted legal,” based mostly on snapshots of her assistants and cohorts.
Three items tackle these quintessential Californian themes: banality and the ocean. Put in aspect by aspect on the exhibition’s terminus, they make an enduring impression. These are Buchanan’s kitschy panorama print, After California: William Wendt, 1999–2017, depicting dismal up to date beachfront condominiums; Smith’s introspective The Westside, A Blessed Time, 2011–15, a photomontage that splices collectively city scenes, seascapes, and home interiors; and Hafif’s contemplative hour-long video Seashore Rocks, Winter, 1999, which options an all-star forged of seaside stones. Taken individually, these works won’t have appeared so important; however in unison, they resonate powerfully.
— Annabel Osberg