Collection Guide
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Darling (Lowell) papers
PFA.MSS.009
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
BAMPFA Film Library
Title: Lowell Darling Papers
source:
Darling, Lowell
Identifier/Call Number: PFA.MSS.009
Physical Description:
1 cartons
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1960-2012
Physical Location: UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Film Library and Study Center
Collection is open for research.
Lowell Darling (b.1942) is an American conceptual and performance artist. Originally from Jacksonville, Illinois, Darling
studied art at the Southern Illinois University. He moved to the west coast of the US and became a stalwart of the Californian
conceptual art scene. Darling is best known for this Urban Acupuncture projects, as well as his tongue-in-cheek campaigns
for public office in the 1978 and 2010 California Gubernatorial Election. The 1978 campaign emblematized the nation’s acute
loss of faith in political leadership. Darling embraced the conceptual art movement that was emerging in the US in the 1970s
and developed his own cheeky ephemeral style. He has continued to develop his unique brand of playful satire across a range
of medium, including film making, exhibitions and performance art.
The Lowell Darling papers document an aspect of the artist’s career in California. The collection consists primarily of ephemera,
correspondence, research and production notes relating to Darling’s projects with fellow conceptual and video artist Ilene
Segalove (b.1950). Much of the material relates to the 1977 Exhibition Cauliflower Alley Tapes at the Long Beach Museum of
Art, and the research, interviews and photography pertaining to the Cauliflower Alley Club more broadly. This project was
developed under the duo’s partnership, Hollywood Anthropology. The project was comprised of a documentary film and an exhibition
of fighting memorabilia focusing on Hollywood’s Cauliflower Alley Club, an organization of ex-boxers and wrestlers. Club members
included both winners and losers whose careers also involved thousands of appearances as heavies in Hollywood detective and
gangster films. The letters and correspondence included in this collection provide insight into the working and personal relationship
between Lowell Darling and Illene Segalove. There are a number of photographs relating to the Cauliflower Alley Club included
within this collection. There are a small number of documents relating to Darling’s involvement in The Wilton North Report
as well as some rubber stamps used in some of his ephemeral collage works and also featured within his 2012 exhibition This
is your life.
Videos and artworks donated with the paper collection were separated in the BAMPFA film and art collections.
Property rights reside with the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley. Literary
rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact
the Head of the BAMPFA Film Library and Study Center.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Video art--California
Conceptual art--California--San Francisco
Darling, Lowell