Opening: Delaney Hoffman, No Promise is Good Promise

SFNO is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Delaney Hoffman entitled No Promise is Good Promise, on view from July 24 – August 1. An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 24 from 6-8:00pm with a performance staged at 7:00pm.

Pulling from a wide array of research interests, Hoffman constructs objects and images that operate in the interest of the paranoid subject as they seek to expand our definition of what that could mean. Much of biblical prophecy was driven by the imagination, and the same could be said for contemporary short-form video soothsayers now. While we are culturally driven to dismiss these fantasies when they come from the mouths of others (and ourselves), Hoffman asks what would happen if we catered to the paranoid voice? What if we considered it to be useful? What if we took it seriously before the conspiracy unravels itself in front of us?

This question is addressed through a variety of material approaches that span steel, copper, and silver gelatin. Seductive surface treatments shift with the body of the viewer as holographic powder-coats and glinting enamel engage with light in a way that calls back to Hoffman’s foundational training as a photographer. Many works feature motifs that directly reference invasive and aggressive species found widely on the North American continent, positing that those who are hard to eradicate alongside their pesky ideologies are a certain kind of trickster, for better or for worse.