The Office for the Study of the Ordinary

Photo: Claire S Burke

Objects of Inquiry: The Office for the Study of the Ordinary

February 22 ➽ April 5, 2023
San Francisco State University Fine Arts Gallery
San Francisco, CA

Objects of Inquiry is the culmination of an artist residency with Liz Hernández at SF State's School of Art, sponsored by the Harker Fund of the San Francisco Foundation. Over the last twelve months, Hernández has been serving as the lead researcher for the fictional Office for the Study of Ordinary. Her office focused on investigating the everyday and documenting hidden narratives, creating objects, images, and writing, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration, vulnerability, curiosity, and experimentation. This culminating exhibition features documentation of the physical office, processes, artifacts, collaborations, and printed material of the O.S.O.

In the most austere confines of the public university, where bureaucracy seems to have banished all possibility of wonder, the Office for the Study of the Ordinary materializes. Our office brings together unconventional researchers trained to understand the poet's mission: summoning beauty where it seems to have no right to exist. We are not only committed to finding awe in our surroundings but also to having the courage to explore the hidden corners of our own lives: dreams postponed by dwindling institutional resources, small triumphs hidden between paperwork, and vulnerabilities usually left out of the curriculum.

We are archaeologists of today, uncovering the seemingly insignificant (the places and moments we all experience but no one documents) and our personal stories, turning each discovery into art. Our work connects the institutional and the intimate, the administrative and the confessional. It shows that the driest reality holds secrets only revealed to those willing to look twice at what most people ignore, starting with oneself.

The Office for the Study of the Ordinary has a unique mission: to show that art can emerge even from the dullest corners of the institution, but only if we dare to look closely enough.

-Liz Hernández, Lead Researcher

Researchers in the field #24, 11” x 14”, Silver Gelatin Print

Researchers in the field #17, 11” x 14”, Silver Gelatin Print

Researchers in the field #23, 11” x 14”, Silver Gelatin Print

Researchers in the field #10, 11” x 14”, Silver Gelatin Print

Researchers in the field #25, 11” x 14”, Silver Gelatin Print

Researchers in the field #21, 11” x 14”, Silver Gelatin Print

Researchers in the field #22, 11” x 14”, Silver Gelatin Print

Researchers in the Field

Series of Silver Gelatin prints
2024-2025

In collaboration with Miko Alves, James Gamboa, Sophie Green, Maggie Hellberg, Summer Ingalls, Sisi Ivy, Daniella Krynsky, Breanna Lanney, Heidi Leiva, Sean McFarland, Maria Fernanda Mejia Palma, Maple Stewart, and Angela Valero.

-Liz Hernández, Lead Researcher

March of the Gator

Paintings, sculptures, photography

In collaboration with Coda Concannon, Zach Distefano, Mariela Esquivel, James Gamboa, Liz Haydon, Sisi Ivy, Miles Keeton, Kualii, Breanna Lanney, Heidi Leiva, Maria Fernanda Mejia Palma, Natalia, Clara Sperow, Peyton Thornton, Julian Torres, and Ryan Whelan.

Every university has its myths, but few match the tale of an alligator who became an unlikely symbol of student resistance. This installation explores the 1976 protest where students fought to free Al, their school mascot. Through 36 drawings, recovered artifacts, and the original papier-mache sculpture, the researchers showcase this moment in San Francisco State history. It is part of the legacy of resistance that lives on in every student who walks these halls-whether they know it or not.

That’s how we presented our collaborative work, March of the Gator. The story is fictional, taking inspiration in Third world Liberation Movement and of th 1970s.

National Biographic

In collaboration with Daniela Tinoco.

Coda Concannon, Zach Distefano, Mariela Esquivel, James Gamboa, Liz Haydon, Sisi Ivy, Miles Keeton, Kualii, Breanna Lanney, Heidi Leiva, Maria Fernanda Mejia Palma, Natalia, Clara Sperow, Peyton Thornton, Julian Torres, and Ryan Whelan.

That’s how we presented our collaborative work, March of the Gator. The story is fictional, inspired by the Third World Liberation Movement of the 1970s.