Close Cover Before Striking by Alexander von Wolff

Exhibition Run: February 7 - March 28

Alexander von Wolff reignites the nearly extinct culture of the matchbook by enlarging and restoring vintage matchbooks of local San Francisco venues past and present. Blown up to over 10 times their original size, these tiny pieces of nostalgic ephemera become pieces of artwork in their own right as they offer a glimpse into the historic heart of San Francisco.

Matchbooks and the designs on them are reflections of the times in which they are produced. In a material sense, matchbooks carry traces of the present through the methods and printing technologies used to produce them. In a theoretical sense, matchbooks are bearers of popular cultural imagination through their mottos, graphics, colors and themes. To encounter a trove of matchbooks from a particular era is to experience and relive that era’s way of speaking and being.

Fabricated to be used-up and discarded, it is remarkable that any matchbooks from the Tenderloin have survived. Fortunately, for some people matchbooks represent more than mere advertising campaigns and are rather keepsakes to be treasured. von Wolff’s art practice of what he calls the “vintage expansion principle” shifts ephemera from the margins to the center and ensures that these tiny pieces of nostalgia continue to live on.