Attention ferry riders, still waiting for a boat.
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), in association with ZAZ Corner, presents Tunnels of the Mind, a selection of 18 recent works by SFAI-affiliated artists, appearing on a Jumbotron in Times Square, New York City, starting at 7am on June 10th, 2020 and running through June 15, 2020 at midnight.
Tunnels of the Mind is the first in a year-long series of events marking SFAI’s 150th anniversary that will include programs and exhibitions presented in partnership with leading artists and arts organizations around the world. The dates, June 10 through 15 (10×15=150), were chosen in honor of SFAI’s 150-year anniversary.
Curated by SFAI Film Department Chair Orit Ben Shitrit, the selection of work reveals a vast diversity of forms and voices, a signature of SFAI’s highly personal and multi-disciplinary approach to art. Tunnels of the Mind spans distinct forms of moving image including, but not limited to: Structuralist Film, Video Art, Animation, Nonlinear Narrative, Detritus Cinema, Dance on Film, Computer Generated/ 3D, Experimental Film.
“In Tunnels of the Mind, artists reveal their internal worlds: at once subversive, queer, extra-territorial, and otherworldly,” says Ben Shitrit. “Art can encourage empathy, and it is the highest form of hope. When our reality is devastating—with troubling racist killings and social inequality exacerbated by a pandemic—the imagination can offer a refuge and lead us to discover new possibilities.”
ZAZ Corner is a digital gallery showcasing artwork on a large LED billboard measuring 67 by 23.5 feet in the heart of Times Square in New York City. Located at the corner of 41st Street and 7th Avenue, the billboard features a digitally activated screen with a rotating series of images and videos that individually morph, bringing the art to life. This spring and summer, the ZAZ Corner theme is All About Us, featuring people, places, and contemporary interpretations and designs from artists around the world.
ZAZ Corner is presented by ZAZ 10 Times Square (ZAZ10TS) an ongoing cultural initiative that integrates art into the office building at 10 Times Square and its surroundings. ZAZ Corner aims to engage and inspire the public with evocative visuals that stand apart from the world of commerce surrounding them.
“ZAZ Corner at 10 Times Square joins the San Francisco Art Institute to honor their 150th anniversary by showcasing them in the heart of New York City. Life is traumatic and uncertain right now, but the art still continues strongly,” says Tzili Charney, founder of ZAZ10TS.
Eighteen works by SFAI faculty, students, and alumni were chosen from more than 300 submissions by Ben-Shitrit and a team of curatorial assistants, Danette Bouzanquet, Kaycee Phillips, and Vivian Vivas. The selections, each approx. 3 minutes in length for a total running time of 1 hour, include:
1. Zeina Barakeh, Homeland Insecurity & Slam Bang Blue Remix
2. Mads Lynnerup, Jewish Folktales Retold
3. Orit Ben-Shitrit, Ward of the Feral Horses
4. Avery D. van der Steur, Oscillation
5. Kathleen Quillian, The Conjurer
6. Kota Ezawa, Paint Unpaint
7. Scott Kiernan, Memphis Variations 3
8. Michael Mandiberg, All Haiku, All the Time
9. Sharon Lockhart, One Exercise in Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation
10. Kent Long, The Waves
11. Orit Ben-Shitrit, Universal Leader 2
12. Julia Fairbrother, Reclaiming Skylines
13. Walt Ohnesorge, Glass Rotation
14. Sequinette, Good Queen
15. Aziz + Cucher, You’re Welcome and I’m Sorry
16. David Bayus, Psyman’s Acres
17. Michelle Handelman, Gothic Snow, from Dorian, A Cinematic Perfume (wallpaper edition)
18. Minoosh Zomorodinia, Sensation
During the weeklong screening of Tunnels of the Mind, SFAI and ZAZ10TS will also feature Artistic Messages to Inspire from 7 to 9am and 7 to 9pm daily, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 75 artists from the SFAI community contributed additional work celebrating and reflecting on the resilience of New Yorkers during these difficult times.
On Friday, June 12th, 2020 at 9pm PDT, SFAI will project the entire program in San Francisco on the school’s landmark tower at 800 Chestnut Street, a venue that is visible to audiences throughout the city’s North Beach neighborhood. Synchronously, ZAZ Corner will feature a special midnight screening in New York, making this evening a live bi-coastal act of East Coast-West Coast solidarity. The full program of works will also be streamed on SFAI’s homepage at www.sfai.edu starting Wednesday, June 10 at 9pm.
Finally, a second screening here in SF on Saturday night, June 13 has been added at 9pm as well.