Art, bonhomie and inescapable violence mingle in Wine Country

A curator explained, for example, that one section of Amalia Ulman’s mixed-media “Destruction of Experience,” which printed materials said was an exploration of womanhood, had to do with Justin Bieber hiding his identity as a woman; another section was a tribute to a former CEO of Bayer Pharmaceuticals.

When we first saw Rirkrit Tiravanija’s “Untitled 2011 (Police the Police)” a couple of years ago, artists were working on the piece — a commissioned installation “intended to develop over time,” said the program — at the party.

A few years later, in its expanded version, it included references to marriage equality, transgender acceptance, “no to evictions” and most of all, Black Lives Matter.

A pile of T-shirts, gifts to guests, said “Police the Police.”

Among those guests were people whose lives, in a variety of ways, have been intertwined with various aspects of the law: enforcement (former mayor and onetime police chief Frank Jordan), justice (former chief justice of the California Supreme Court Ron George), legislation (Rep. Nancy Pelosi).

[...] the days of this 2016 season — usually filled with the slow pleasures of summer, a walk down the street with ice cream cone in hand — are saturated with bloodstains, unacceptable but all too explicable results of history.

After the play, dramaturge Philippa Kelly conducted a talk-back, the actors, having changed into street clothes, sitting onstage in a row.

The play’s gripping; they were sitting in a circle of audience affection.

[...] the conversation turned to one particularly electric moment, when Rose (played by Margo Hall) decides to raise the infant girl fathered by her philandering husband.

At a Thursday, July 7, reception for the exhibition, it was impossible to merely glance at the photos without reading the words of each person.

Most are touching expressions of peace, hope, regrets over lost love, gratitude for long love.

[...] there was Nelly, who said (among many other things), My last husband was blind and wasn’t able to have sex during our 16-year marriage.

Many stories are told, of course, and they are different from each angle.