'Nuit Blanche (Lost in Translation)'
Through Feb. 6, Ampersand International Arts

IT'S NO ACCIDENT that the title of Ampersand International Arts' large group show, "Nuit Blanche (Lost in Translation)," is hard to translate. In French it suggests something like restless or difficult emotions, and it translates literally as "white night," but it's an idiomatic expression meaning "sleepless night"; all are interesting ways to refer to the many, sometimes contradictory, artistic voices that are featured. Twelve artists were originally asked to participate, and each invited one other, making 24 in all, mostly from the Bay Area. Megan Wilson contributes three large color photographs documenting last year's Flower Interruption, in which she and several friends dressed as a city street crew and spread 500 of her signature hand-painted flowers over a portion of Market Street. Look closely and you'll see Kevin Chen (of Intersection for the Arts) as one of the orange-vested participants; Chen is Wilson's invited artist for "Nuit Blanche" and contributes an intricate, collaged accordion book called Cityscape #42. He has filled in each pencil-drawn building with cutouts from dictionaries, science and music manuals, and various books printed in Roman, Arabic, and Asian scripts. It's an eloquent evocation of a cosmopolitan city – a clever and poetic way of showing many jostled-together languages and points of view – and it speaks perfectly to the theme of "Nuit Blanche." Most of the other 11 pairings are like Wilson and Chen's in the sense that the resulting works aren't engaged in a direct dialogue, nor are they even adjacent in the gallery. Instead, visitors are free to wander around and make their own mental connections, or not, between pieces by Leo Bersamina and Jesse Simon, Michael Campbell and Coby Ellison, Amanda Hughen and Valérie Blin-Kaddour, Jennifer Starkweather and Kate Randall, Amanda Hughen and Maria Park, and others. Thurs.-Fri., 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and by appt., 1001 Tennessee, S.F. (415) 285-0170. (Lindsey Westbrook)