On Saturday evening I attended an opening at The Apartment, a group show of recent San Francisco art entitled 11 Lights on the Bay and a selection of Fran Herndon lithographs that found their way into Jack Spicer’s book Heads of the Town Up to the Aether (1962).

This being an opening, and The Apartment being a small space, I had few opportunities to view the work, though I did spend time with Colter Jacobsen’s corner piece, a selection of newspaper obituaries mounted at right angles on the wall and window, with the trimmings and unused obituaries crumpled below.

The elevation – and thoughtful arrangement – of the dead was both respectful and expected. However, it was the presence of that which fell away as dross that gave the piece its gravitas. A simple gesture, one that caught me off-guard.