The Possible

The Possible is an experimental catalog/artist's book created in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name on view at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in the spring of 2014. Combining studio, classroom, library, gallery, and stage, The Possible offered a new model of museum exhibition. Rather than bringing together a group of existing artworks, artist/curator David Wilson hosted a convergence of over one hundred artists and collectives--with "artist" understood in the broadest sense. The BAM/PFA galleries were transformed into studios--ceramics, dye, recording, and print--as "platforms for making" that were actively used and reshaped by both guest artists and museum visitors. The exhibition made itself during its four-month run, as works made in the studios were put on display in an adjacent gallery. The catalog is conceived in a similar vein, as one of the experiments of The Possible created by guest artist Lauren Mackler of Public Ficiton, a Los Angeles-based project space and journal. Created partially onsite, the catalog is inspired by the exhibition's spirit of improvisation and collaboration. Within a narrative structure imagined by Public Fiction, the catalog brings together a curatorial essay BAM/PFA Director Lawrence Rinder, a conversation between artist/curator David Wilson and artist Jim Melchert, photographic documentation, and printed artifacts generated in the exhibition itself.