Shooting Wide Open

Simmons and Belonax

Remember that Art in Storefronts initiative? The chosen artists have been announced, and the most interesting to me is Simmons and Belonax’s “Everything is Okay” neon sign installation proposed for Central Market St, not the least because there is a mock-up photo.

There is also Market St poster plan for next year that includes some work by Bihn Danh. One can only hope daguerreotypes are involved, but maybe that’s asking too much for street posters. The project is described as:

The final series, by artist Bihn Danh, called The Wonderful Life of Gardening, will be installed from April 5 to July 1, 2010. This series incorporates photographic collaborations with San Francisco gardeners, including some of those who tend garden plots under the San Francisco Recreation and Park’s Community Garden Program.

There’s also a bit of strangeness brewing. As, I assume, a part of the SF Planning Dept’s plan to prettify the Mission (I heard about this in the Mission Dispatch, and it certainly explains the construction on Valencia St), the SF Arts Commission announced the winning proposal for a Valencia St installation as Michael Arcega‘s, but it was a close one between Arcega and Brian Goggin. Apparently one of the jurors on the deciding panel voted with a fraction, and when he was told he couldn’t, threw the deciding vote to Mike. I’m not really sure what was going on behind the scenes, but Goggin saw an opening, and with some mobilization he has won a revote. Not sure when it is happening since I only heard about this today, but if you’re a local, you might want to take a look at the two proposals and let Mary Chou (Mary.Chou [at] sfgov.org) know if you, as a community member, have any views.

Personally, I think Mike’s proposal is a lot more functional and meaningful as a part of the daily activity of the community, though it looks like Goggin has more experience in street installation. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that he was the TA to one of my art classes a while ago and I am swayed by the fact that the work he showed us in class was very interesting. Not to mention he is a nice guy! So if you have thoughts, shoot off an email. Who knows if community messages will make a real difference, but it can’t hurt, especially since one of the main goals of all these projects is to build a few spots where it’s pleasant for people to hang out and to make the area more pedestrian friendly.

UPDATE: From Kate Patternson of SFAC:

There is a lot of misinformation flying around about the recent Valencia Streetscape Public Art Project artist selection process. Here are the facts:

Essentially, when the panel met and originally voted it appeared that Michael Arcega had the highest score and was declared the winner. However, afterward the staff reviewed the votes and realized that there was an error in the scoring, which invalidated all of the votes. In order to rectify the situation, we are going to redo the last selection panel meeting and all original project finalists will be included. This has nothing to do with any particular artist, it is simply a mistake, which we are going to correct.

The final selection panel meeting is currently scheduled for October 14. More information will be posted soon.

Inhabitat

I saw the following two videos and couldn’t wait to share.

The first is a very innovative project that straddles the line (point?) between art, design and technology. Theo Jansen makes wind-powered, almost self-animating creatures move on legs powered by what he calls a reinvention of the wheel. If you watch the second half of this video, he shows footage of a 3 ton metal creature being pushed along by one man. I think this is an invention that will definitely have many applications down the line. He also shows the creature detecting environmental conditions like high wind or water and taking measures on its own to deal with them. And all built with cheap materials like plastic tubes, plastic ties and lemonade bottles. It can even “store” wind in the bottles for later use!

The second is a fun bit of street art by Joshua Allen Harris, who installs inflatable garbage bag creatures on subway grates on New York streets so that when a train passes, the creature comes to life.

I wish there were more art projects like this – simple but inventive ideas that you can experience in everyday life without going into galleries and museums where art is cordoned off and you’re reprimanded for approaching it. It’s not abstruse – everybody gets it and is cheered by it!