Marisa Jahn and Steve’s Shada’s collaborative art practice explores natural and social systems as a means of engendering
moments of intimacy, inquiry, and self-reflection. Ranging in practice from deeply personal to highly participatory, their work often
relies on the collaborative authorship and distributive intelligence of surrounding people and situations. They write, “we are interested
in the way that collective authorship shifts the production and interpretation of art towards an appreciation of process, context, and re-invention.”
Jahn and Shada have presented and exhibited work internationally, most recently at Bay Area Now 4 (Yerba Buena Center’s San Francisco
Bay Area Triennial), Vroom (Isanbul, Turkey) the San Francisco Commonwealth Club, New Langton Arts (San Francisco), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Mama (Zagreb, Croatia), University of California Berkeley, the Museum of Science (Boston), the MIT Museum (forthcoming), and the Sonoma County Museum of Art (forthcoming). In 2000, Jahn and Shada co-founded /Pond/, a 501(3)c non-profit artist-curatorial collaborative based in
San Francisco dedicated to showcasing experimental art. Through gallery exhibitions, special events, lecture series, and various public art
projects, /Pond/ has fostered an environment that presents critical artwork in an accessible environment.
Recent projects include: /Project Invisible 5, /an experimental audio tour of California’s I-5 Highway in collaboration
with Amy Balkin, Tim Halbur, and Kim Stringfellow; /OneTrees, /an ongoing collaboration with Natalie Jeremijenko that
involves the planting of pairs of genetically-identical trees throughout the Bay Area’s radically diverse microclimates; /Unfurled: A
Public Exhibition of Flags/, an experimental public exhibition of flags that presents critical responses and alternatives to the political
and cultural hegemony that the United States’ flag currently symbolizes/; / and /ShopDropping/, an exhibition of reverse shoplifting
(art inserted into public places of commerce). Their work as curators and artists has received international recognition in publications
including /Art in America/, /Frieze/, /Punk Planet/, /NY Arts Magazine/, /Clamor,// //San Francisco// Chronicle, the Fader, Artweek, Cluster
(//Italy//), /and more.
Jahn is currently attending a Masters Program in Visual Studies at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Shada born
1976 in Sacramento, California is currently working on a series of creative projects involving living organisms.
He recently relocated to New Orleans to contribute his skills as a volunteer with Common Ground Relief, a grassroots nonprofit organization
dedicated to rebuilding the communities most harshly affected by hurricane Katrina.