Aaron Gach/Center for Tactical Magic
Instagram: @tacticalmagic1
Website: http://tacticalmagic.org
Bio: "Aaron Gach Bio - CCA 2025: Inspired by studies with a private investigator, a magician, and a ninja, Aaron Gach co-founded the Center for Tactical Magic in 2000 as a collaborative authoring framework dedicated to the coalescence of art, magic, and creative tactics for encouraging positive social change. Although the collaborations take many different forms, the work is largely the result of creative partnerships with a wide array of individuals and organizations, including hypnotists, biologists, witches, engineers, activists, nurses, intelligence officers, journalists, radical ecologists, a bank robber, street vendors, community organizers, and many others. His work has been presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art; Hayward Gallery, London; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Vigo, Spain; Deutsches Theater, Berlin; Creative Time, NY; a major public commission for the City of Toronto, and plenty of back alleys, byways, and crevices. In print, his work and writing have been featured by the New York Times, MIT Press/Whitechapel Gallery, Art Papers, Frieze, DAMN Magazine, Maximum Rocknroll and others. In addition to having taught at UC Santa Cruz, Stanford University, the San Francisco Art Institute, and The Alternative Art School, he has been teaching for over 17 years at California College of the Arts in more than 7 different programs throughout the college. Currently, he is the interim Co-Chair of Interdisciplinary 3D Fine Arts at CCA, and he is teaching in the Graduate Fine Arts, Game Arts, and Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studio programs. "
Statement: "Linking & Unlinking' is a single-channel video initially designed for a 30ft video billboard in New York City. The video combines 3 different source materials: found footage demonstrating how to pick a pair of handcuffs; found footage of professional and amateur magicians performing the classic magic trick, ""the linking rings"" (a.k.a. ""ninja rings""); and, a rolling text of ""Know Your Rights"" information from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Combining practical know-how, legal guidance, and a magical performance, 'Linking & Unlinking' simultaneously - and somewhat paradoxically - serves as a public service announcement, a DIY course in self-liberation, and a fascination with the competing illusions of liberty and law."
