Escandón : West / Mission : East / Headlands : North / SoMa : South

May 8, 2015

Escandón : West / Mission : East / Headlands : North / SoMa : South is the title of the video installation I contributed to Build It Up/Break It Down, the Graduate Fellowship exhibition at the Headlands Center for the Arts, on view through June 7.

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The installation is comprised of four looping time-lapse videos chronicling the sun’s path as shot through an array of shifting fabrics in four different locations. The translucent fabrics, shot against windows, migrate across one another to produce optically mixed colors while revealing glimpses of life outside. The sequences serve as meditations on light, architecture, the poetics of color, and the transitory nature of our surroundings, including changing neighborhoods and the idea of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders.’

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As the title suggests, the four videos depict windows facing four different directions. Escandón : West captures sunset in Mexico City, Mission : East features San Francisco’s Valencia Street, Headlands : North utilizes Marin’s coastal light, and SoMa : South offers up SF’s Mission Street.

In the Headlands installation, the projections match the directions in which the videos were shot, creating a four-screen semi-enclosure. The screens are translucent, viewable from either side, blending disparate geographical locations into one another and bringing the notion of ‘inside’ and outside’ into question. As viewers circulate among the screens, they might reflect on how time is divided, space is measured, and boundaries are defined in a world where such divisions are often porous and disputed.

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Build It Up/Break It Down was guest curated by Zoë Taleporos, Public Art Program Associate for the San Francisco Arts Commission and Co-Director of Royal NoneSuch Gallery in Oakland. The exhibition includes work by Heather Engen, Joyce Nojima, Vicci Jang, Lauren McKeon, Joy Fritz, and Sarah Ammons. It is located in Building 945’s Project Space on the 3rd floor and the hours are Sunday through Thursday, 12 noon-5 PM. Zoë’s curator statement can be found here.