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paraSite (Boston) by Michael Rakowitz. Almost Paradise CCAC's Oliver Art Center presents Utopia Now! through December 1st. By Aimee Le Duc Utopia Now! What could this mean? Is it a passionate plea for all of us to demand utopia in our lives right away; or is it a declaration that utopia is already here and all we need to do is adjust our view to see it all around us? I believe a bit of both is on display at the Utopia Now! exhibit at the Oliver Art Center on Oakland's CCAC campus. Artists and designers like Vito Acconci, Santiago Cirugeda, and Torolab display some progressive visions of not one all-inclusive paradise, but many types of paradises that can be literally attached to buildings, slung onto our backs, or filled with cow dung to make energy. Now utopia can have us living on the tops of garbage dumps in comfort and style or resting in a cardboard house during times of emergency. None of the projects attempt to dismantle the world as we know it, only build in and on top of it in order to create temporary solutions to homelessness, urban sprawl, pollution, waste, or anything else that disrupts our path to utopias. The participating artists are known the world over for their innovations and use of art as an activist tool. Much of the work is an example of how the utopic visions of the past are now being subverted and reformed into amorphous extensions of today's world. This show is certainly worth a visit, although I left wondering how much of an impact these projects could actually make. How effective are scattered acts of subversive art activism? Can these architects, designers, and artists really incite their viewers to step through the gallery wall and change the way they live? I guess I will just have to keep my eyes open and wait and see if utopia will indeed appear outside those gallery walls. Sat/2 and Sun/3, Utopia Now! Symposium. Nahl Hall on the CCAC Campus, Broadway and College, Oakland. [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]