In this Episode of Art is Awesome, Host Emily Wilson spends time with Libyan-Yurok artist Saif Azzuz.
Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with Pacifica based artist Saif Azouz, discussing his journey in art, inspiration from nature and literature, his current exhibition 'Cost of Living', and his reflections on boundaries and displacement. Saif's experience with art, his use of materials, and his perspectives on creativity and community are highlighted throughout the episode.
About Artist Saif Azzuz :
Saif Azzuz is a Libyan-Yurok artist who resides in Pacifica, CA. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and Drawing from the California College of the Arts in 2013. Azzuz has a forthcoming solo exhibition at Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, TX in 2025 and has exhibited widely in the bay area including exhibitions at 1599dt Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Adobe Books, San Francisco, CA; Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA; Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, FR; ICA SF, San Francisco, CA; Pt.2 Gallery, Oakland, CA; Ever Gold [Projects], San Francisco, CA; NIAD, Oakland, CA; Rule Gallery, Denver, CO; Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY; Jack Barrett, New York, NY and K Art, Buffalo, NY. Azzuz is a 2022 SFMOMA SECA Award finalist and has participated in the Clarion Alley Mural Project and the Facebook Artist in Residence program.
Selected public collections include de Young Museum - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Facebook, Menlo Park, CA; Gochman Family Collection, NY; KADIST, San Francisco, CA; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Rennie Museum, Vancouver, Canada; Stanford Health Care Art Collection, Menlo Park, CA; UBS Art Collection, New York, NY; and University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, MN.
Learn more about Saif, CLICK HERE.
Follow on Instagram: @SaifAzzuz
Check out Saif's current exhibit "Cost of Living" HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women’s Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
The Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
2024-0507 - AIA - EP025 - Saif Azzuz-1
Artist Saif Azzuz: [00:00:00] Maybe there's certain things that I would pass by that now I think about, like, what is the history of that object, what is the location in which it came from, and it makes me pay more attention to the world.
Host Emily Wilson: That's Saif Azzuz on how being an artist makes him more aware.
Welcome to Art is Awesome. I'm your host, Emily Wilson. I'm a writer in San Francisco, often covering the arts, and I've been meeting such great people that I created this biweekly podcast to highlight their work.
Art is Awesome is now carried on KSFP LP 102. 5 FM, San Francisco on Fridays at 9am and [00:01:00] 7pm. You can listen live or stream it there.
Last year, I went to see a show at the Anthony Meyer gallery. What's that about? in Mill Valley? I live in San Francisco and I don't really drive. So getting there in the bus felt like a big deal. It was totally worth it. Libyan Yurok artists Saif Azzuz had curated a show, asking the viewers to look at the materials used, and the emotions evoked, rather than asking what the work was about.
But also, he just wanted to show the work of artists he liked, almost all with a Bay Area connection. Many had been students or teachers at the California College of the Arts, where Saif got his BFA in painting and drawing in 2013. The artists I talked to, like Cliff Hengst and Libby Black had so much affection for Saif and talked about how thoughtfully he curated this show.[00:02:00]
Saif has exhibited all over the Bay Area, and he was the 2022 SFMOMA SECA Award finalist. His work is in museum collections, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the North Carolina Museum of Art. SAFE has an exhibition, Cost of Living, at the Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA in San Francisco through May 19th. The show has paintings, sculpture, and installations considering gentrification and settler colonialism. I went to his San Francisco studio and we talked about the vulnerability of not being good at something, art making and pay attention to the world, and Octavio Butler's parable books.
The way he makes his work mostly about family and land.
Artist Saif Azzuz: I mean, I was primarily making paintings. So [00:03:00] for a long time, maybe that felt like the most comfortable thing to do. And when I was in school, I was also studied painting and drawing. So thinking in this 2D plane maybe came most naturally, but then I started to realize the limitations of painting, whether it be like as it relates to art history or what you're able to express with it.
And you have this. one to one kind of relationship and staring at a painting and it presents the space versus sculpture you're interacting with it and the body. So I think maybe where it started with painting it then evolved into installation because there's the ability to have like a more whole conversation.
Host Emily Wilson: And they have two kids. Sometimes when he's out with them, he'll gather materials and it's in piles in his studio.
Artist Saif Azzuz: I'll do a lot of walks with my family on the beach or in the forest and there will be little things that start to come up, whether it's stuff that's washed in from the ocean or whether it's little pieces of wood in the forest.
And then in the area where my studio is, there's also a [00:04:00] lot of remnants of people's lives, whether they're like, I don't know how it gets there, whether it's like they're being displaced or people are gathering it for whatever reason, but there's like piles of stuff everywhere. And then within that, like, things start to become visually interesting.
So I have kind of all of these piles of different, like little pieces of wood I've gathered or objects that then start to find their way back into the sculptures and assemblages.
Host Emily Wilson: Some of the wood in Cost of Living comes from around Saif’s studio in Bayview Hunters Point.
Artist Saif Azzuz: I think that every material has its own history, so I think it kind of changes depending on what I'm thinking about for the show or how I'm thinking about things, but it initially started with wood and then thinking about how do I, one, honor like wood is a living thing and that it is like an organic object as opposed to the metal, and then also there's so much left over and like detritus from logging.
And creating of sheet goods that it became important to like give story [00:05:00] and acknowledge the trees in a different way. So it started off by just like what pieces of wood can I find at lumber yards and then how do I give them kind of new life. And then lately it's become like how do I gather things from the neighborhood and then also give those things new life
Host Emily Wilson: to make his installations Safe has also been learning some welding and woodworking
Artist Saif Azzuz: I rely on my friends to be like is this safe and what I'm making or not or am I doing this safely?
But I also like the vulnerability of like maybe not being good at something So I think that that shows up a lot and that things aren't always executed in the best way But you're like safe You're seeing the learning process. So maybe this is how it's starting, but maybe 10 years from now I'll be able to do it really well.
And that's kind of interesting to me in terms of material and also like mark making, like there's so many tools for mark making. And I think that maybe that comes back to these ideas of painting, but like the welder is also a mark making tool. And, um, the saws and other things are [00:06:00] also mark making tools and how to utilize them.
Host Emily Wilson: Safe talked about a large piece behind him at the studio that reflects how he's thinking about boundaries.
Artist Saif Azzuz: In my work lately, I've been thinking about these ideas of ownership and land and then fences as kind of being these barriers in between like what you're able to access and how that prevents like housing or the ability to steward the land or gather things.
So this, this fence is comprised of a lot of different like wood that I've found in the area. And then it also has, I have this issue of like going on to eBay or Etsy and typing in like cowboy in India, and then I'm kind of buying these little trinkets that are kind of part of this like general conflation of Western and indigenous culture.
And then in my head becomes kind of part of this longer legacy of manifest destiny and colonization and kind of what becomes like the What are the pieces left over in the visual language that comes off of those things and like what is [00:07:00] lost and what is claimed from them?
Host Emily Wilson: Saif is used to being around people who create things.
Artist Saif Azzuz: I grew up around like making and craft, and my mom would do bead and basket stuff and my family as well, and my dad did illustration and graphic design stuff, but I never grew up around fine art and it was a conversation that was outside of me until I ended up going to. To art school and like kind of going to a museum for the first time.
But this idea of making things as always, as an extension of yourself has always been there.
Host Emily Wilson: Going to art school didn't occur to Saif as a kid.
Artist Saif Azzuz: I still think of myself as just making things and answering questions or, or asking questions rather than having the answer to anything. I. I didn't intend to go to art school.
I never really thought of myself as an artist. I got in trouble for graffiti when I was younger as a teenager. And that kind of transitioned into needing to [00:08:00] figure out one where that energy was going to go, but then also like figuring out what I was going to do.
Host Emily Wilson: The California College of the Arts changed this practice.
Artist Saif Azzuz: I never spent all day being in the studio. So when I transferred to CCA from the Santa Rosa Junior College, I went from kind of like making art during classes to making it full time, or during the time I was there and in the studio, and for me it was transformative. Like I was saying earlier, I had no idea what the art world was, or even what fine art world was for me.
It was up. Like doing drawings for skateboards or comic books and that's kind of what art was. So I think it was transformative for me in just being around art and people making art and these different conversations. Um, and I don't know that I like figured out what art was or what I was doing at that time.
I think it took a lot longer for me to start to figure out what I wanted to make and why I was making it.
Host Emily Wilson: Using things he finds in his art, makes Saif aware of what's around him.
Artist Saif Azzuz: Maybe there's [00:09:00] certain things that I would pass by that now I think about, like, you know, what is the history of that object, what is the location in which it came from, and it makes me pay more attention to the world, and also, like, relationships, and what I want to work towards as a person.
Host Emily Wilson: When he goes to his studio, Saif might paint or work on installations or draw or write. Sometimes he reads. I asked him what book he's excited about now, and he said he's re reading Octavio Butler's acclaimed books, The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents, which deal with climate change, authoritarianism, and violence, as well as community and hope.
Artist Saif Azzuz: I brought those back up because they're set, like, the first one's set in 2024 and then the next one's in the future. But, um, she was so on point with, like, so many of the things that happened within those books and, like, that we're kind of going into now. And for me it's, like, both interesting and sad to think about how predictable some of these things were [00:10:00] and how little has been done about it.
But also I appreciate the way she's thinking about community and the future And also, like, I don't find myself to maybe be a religious person, but a spiritual person and thinking about those things in different ways.
Host Emily Wilson: With the exhibition, Cost of Living, Safe Thought about the Dog Patch Area of San Francisco and Boundaries and Displacement.
Artist Saif Azzuz: I was thinking largely about where the ICA is located and then how art washing kind of participates in that. And then the ICA and like Minnesota street projects and other places that are like great for people to be able to access art, but also inevitably participate in kind of the gentrification of neighborhoods.
So I was thinking, within that, I was starting to think about, then, gentrification of the neighborhoods, and I've been seeing the privacy mesh and the chain link fences up in that area and all over that kind of, um, one, want to keep people out, but also are visual [00:11:00] markers of new builds that are happening, and then those new builds as they relate to gentrification, so.
Those fences force the viewer to be like navigating the space in a different way and then they encounter different aspects of the city landscape or the landscape that existed prior or maybe these like effects of carceral policy and how much of like the Bay Area budget and energy goes into like policing and Preventing people from accessing space rather than like working in community
Host Emily Wilson: This is the part of the show Three Questions. I asked the artist the same three things each episode to get to know them better. The questions are, when did you know you were an artist? What's some work that's had an impact on you and what's the most creatively inspiring place in the Bay Area?
Artist Saif Azzuz: I don't think that there was ever a [00:12:00] moment when I specifically knew that I was an artist. If you use like maybe the first time I like showed, but I also, I think that everyone's an artist. I think that whether or not you pursue an art career or being in our world is a separate thing, but I think that everyone is an artist and can think about things in creative ways.
And in that way, I, I think everyone's an artist. And I don't think that I'm specifically made a decision that I'm going to be an artist, but that is what I'm doing now.
The work of AWOC Brian Trip BDT as he goes by, as always. been very important to me and that he's a Yurok Karuk Elder and participates in ceremony and other things, but like the use of material and kind of the, the use of poetry also has always spoken to me. And, um, I appreciate when art feels very vulnerable and true to the person.
And that work has always kind of stood out to me[00:13:00]
being in nature with my family. Because I'm very much inspired by kind of the resilience of nature. And then also it allows you to be kind of present, whether it's present with the people you're with, or also just like present outside of the city and phones and everything. And just being very intentional about being in space.
Host Emily Wilson: Thanks for listening to Art is Awesome. And to our guest, Saif Azouz. His exhibition, Cost of Living, is at the ICA San Francisco through May 19th. The ICA is free. Please follow our show and join us next time when the guest will be Tosha Stimage. She has a floral design company, Saint Flora, and she's creating a large scale public installation at the Presidio Tunnel Tops in San [00:14:00] Francisco,
Art is Awesome is a bi weekly podcast coming out every other Tuesday. It's created and hosted by me, Emily Wilson. It is produced and edited by Charlene Goto of Goto Productions. It's carried on KSFP, LP 1 0 2 0.5 FM San Francisco on Fridays at 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM Our theme music is provided by Kevin McLeod with In Compec Music.
Be sure and follow us on Instagram at Art is Awesome podcast or visit our website till next [00:15:00]time.