For this week’s episode of The Side Woo, I talk with Bay Area artist Rachelle Reichert. We originally recorded this episode for Art Date, but I thought this was such a great conversation that I wanted to share it with The Side Woo audience as well.
In this episode we jump around a lot - from the metaphysical properties of rocks in Las Vegas (super interesting) to the limitations of gendered language to why Under Pressure by Queen is the best karaoke song. I love conversations like this because they wander off to unexpected topics and remind me how interesting life is if you pay attention.
Rachelle is a visual artist based in the Bay Area, but she does land-specific projects all over the US. In our conversation we talk a lot about nature and how Rachelle’s work is influenced by nature: water, rocks, the atmosphere. While the medium and material approach of Rachelle’s work changes depending on her project, I found one of the throughlines is storytelling.
Through the use of rocks and minerals, we learn the history of all the places and all the people who inhabit the sites where she works, and how those spaces have been influenced by industrialization and colonization. But what I think is most successful about the work is that instead of telling others’ stories, Rachelle has found a way to put the viewer in a place and time through her materials, and invite them to be curious to learn more.
Rachelle talks about the use of salt in her work:
If I show salt from the bay here in the San Francisco Bay, it's gonna have a different context then if I show it in another city. Just because it does have that direct relationship to where you're standing.
And so I love that about [salt]. But then again, everyone has a relationship with salt because you need to eat it to survive, you know? It’s required as part of our diet. We would die without it. We wouldn't be able to absorb water or our muscles wouldn't be able to move. So we, we need it essentially, and it's the only rock we eat, which I kind of love because I love rocks and I love eating.
One of the random things I discovered while researching Rachelle is that she and I share a love of the song Under Pressure by Queen, specifically as a good karaoke song.
When I perform it, I typically like to do Under Pressure as my first karaoke song of the night. The reason I do this is because it really breaks the ice, both for my own nerves and to warm up a room. It is deeply humbling to try and perform any Queen song, but especially one that starts out with scatting as Under Pressure does. Plus it is a duet so it means that while you may feel embarrassed, you will not be alone. And really that’s what karoake is all about: giving people the chance to shine, and be vulnerable together.
Below is a live version of the song performed by Queen at Wembley. Freddie does some really amazing call-and-response crowd work before the song, so enjoy!
Show Notes
Serpentine / Serpentinite under San Francisco
Art Happenings
I have a couple shows opening this month. California folks, check out if you can.
Moving Mountains with The Pit Palm Springs opens July 22nd.
Salad Days opens as the inaugural show of Personal Space, a new artist-run gallery in Vallejo July 30th