Electric Works presents "Punball: Only One Earth," a fully-functional, playable pinball machine by William T. Wiley.  More than a year in the making, this machine is the latest release in Electric Works' series of multiples. We started with a 1964 game by Gottlieb called "North Star," a game celebrating the undersea crossing of the North Pole by the USS Nautilus. In typical cold-war era graphic kitsch, the original machine features Eskimos playing the guitar,  miniskirt-wearing accompanists, and their friendly companions the polar bear and walrus.   Taking his cue from the original game, Wiley not only reconfigures the graphics of the game, featuring many of his recurring characters, but delivers a new warning from the polar north: "The Eye-Scabs are Melting."  The icecaps are indeed melting and along with them Wiley mixes the threat of global warming with his usual good humored graphic and text combination.  The pinball machine is published in an edition of five. The original 1964 machine will be exhibited along with Wiley's new version.   Both machines will be playable for the public during the course of the exhibition.

Electric Works also announces the release of "I Hope You Learned Your Lessen," a new limited edition book of school slate imagery that has been a feature in Wiley's work for decades. This oversized volume measures 22" x 17" and features a new suite of blackboard images by William T. Wiley.    From the book's essay about school slates by Electric Works partner Richard Lang: "We all grew up with lessons on the blackboard—math class numbers smudged by the back of a hand, piled one on another; English class words perched on the high wire of a parsed sentence. In a space so familiar, wood frame, black stone newly minted by Wiley, we have the ghosts of lessons learned, or not learned, very alive as chalky ephemera, a palimpsest of layered ideas." Each book in the edition features eleven images of slates, two hand-written poems by Wiley, and a unique chalk drawing on a school slate by Wiley. Two other books written and illustrated by Wiley, one each featuring the characters    & so . . . and Buster Time will be released at this opening.   Original Slate Paintings Courtesy Charles Cowles Gallery

Headphones!  We have headphones.  We first discovered these on a trip to Japan when it seemed like the entire Tokyo subway car was filled with teenagers bopping along with these on their heads.  A trip to Akihabara lead us to the shops that sold them and we brought some back.  Now we have US distribution for these and can bring them to you.

These oldschool headphones come in a variety of colors and feature: -Superb sound -Passive noise canceling -A 6' extension cord (which makes listening to music on your computer really easy) -An 1/8" to 1/4" jack adapter -A nice little carrying case to keep the earpieces in good condition They thought of everything with this set, down to the cloth-covered wire to complete that retro look. Suffer those little white earbuds no longer! And hurry!  At $55 they are going fast!

Exhibition Schedule 
May 16 — July 26, 2008
closing party Friday, May 16, 6-8 PM

Gallery hours
Monday - Friday 10 AM - 6 PM
Saturday 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM


If you would like more information please contact Noah Lang  415 626 5496, noah@sfelectricworks.com
130 8th Street  San Francisco, California 94103   fax 415 626 2396

www.sfelectricworks.com

Electric Works
130 8th Street
San Francisco, California 94103
vox 415 626 5496 fax 415 626 2396
wheelchair accessible

see pictures of our new space on Flickr.