What the World Needs Now Is…Brian Singer

Part cultural anthropologist, part creator, Brian Singer (someguy) is a San Francisco artist whose projects range from installations and participatory projects to intimate works with books. What the World Needs Now Is… brings together Singer’s artworks from the last decade to examine censorship, American history and social movements, and his own mixed ethnicity.

Attention to language and materials are central to Singer’s practice. Whether he is revealing word frequency in the Bible, reenacting censorship by cutting books, or wrapping items with the threads of unraveled flags, his works interrogate historical texts and emblems. Similarly, Singer’s installations combine familiar objects with word play and games to further explore the complicated relationship Americans have with land and property, citizenship and the American Dream. This cultural critique continues in two of his most recent projects, both informed by childhood activities. In the first, Singer grapples with ideas of masculinity by presenting Asian characters from 1970-80s popular films as romance novel heroes in a color-by-number format. What the World Needs Now Is…, the installation at the center of the gallery, invites visitors to fill in the blank to this hopeful song lyric. Its form–a life raft slowly becoming a ball pit–asks: is this play or survival?

From the artist statement:

This exhibition presents three interwoven bodies of work, each rooted in cultural mythology, institutional control, and personal identity within the American landscape. Across various media, I recontextualize the symbols and narratives that shape perceptions of the nation, ourselves, and one another. Together, they operate as a form of cultural archaeology, unearthing the buried contradictions that shape American identity. They serve as an expression that the personal and political are inseparable, and individual identity is continually formed in relationship to larger systems of power and representation. I invite viewers to sit with discomfort, to recognize patterns, and to consider the stories that have been suppressed, distorted, or left untold.

About the artist

Brian Singer, also known as someguy, is a San Francisco based fine artist whose projects have received international attention. The 1000 Journals Project, launched in 2000, was turned into a book, a feature length documentary, and has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. He has shown in group and solo exhibitions as well as public art projects throughout California, including the Torrance Art Museum and Yerba Buena Center. Singer is also an award-winning graphic designer.