SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- In one of the signature events celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2012, fifteen leading artists from the Bay Area and around the world will create on-site installations responding to the bridge as an icon, historic structure, and conceptual inspiration.
Independent collectors of Art Kabinett network will be on site for this important art show.
Organized by the nonprofit FOR-SITE Foundation in partnership with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and the National Park Service, International Orange will occupy selected areas of all three floors and the spacious courtyard of the historic Fort Point building, dating from 1861 and nestled at the southern base of the bridge.
International Orange will open on Memorial Day weekend, May 26–28, as part of the kickoff to the 75th anniversary and will remain on view to the public free of charge through October 2012.
Featuring site-specific installations, live performance, interactive art experiences, and public programs, the exhibition will offer visitors new insights into the bridge, its history, and the unparalleled surrounding environment through the diverse work of fifteen leading contemporary artists.
Selected participants are Anandamayi Arnold, Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, Bill Fontana, Doug Hall, Courtney Lain, David Liittschwager, Abelardo Morell, Cornelia Parker, Kate Pocrass, Jeannene Przyblyski, Allison Smith, Stephanie Syjuco, Camille Utterback, and Pae White.
“The Golden Gate Bridge is synonymous with San Francisco and it makes an indelible impression, not only on the millions who flock to see it each year, but also on those of us who see it daily,” said Lawrence Rinder, director of the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and advisor to the FOR-SITE Foundation.
“This is a great occasion to engage a diverse group of artists—all of whom create art that responds to place—to share their inspiration with the public, and, in turn, stimulate new appreciation for this emblematic structure.”
“Presenting International Orange inside a late-nineteenth-century fort within a military base-turned-national park, at the edge of a major urban center, adds layers of history and complexity that will inform the art and enrich the experience for tens of thousands of visitors” added FOR-SITE executive director, Cheryl Haines.
Works on view will include an immersive audio-visual piece by Bill Fontana capturing the intense vibrations and haunting sounds produced by the bridge; a split-screen video installation by Doug Hall showing the immense bridge span and tracking the progress of container ships passing underneath; a social sculpture in the form of a retail environment curated by Stephanie Syjuco and stocked solely with objects and artworks in the fantastic “international orange” color of the bridge; a monumental fog tapestry by Pae White; and a community-based initiative led by Allison Smith, who will collaborate with female veterans to create hundreds of feet of bunting out of military and surplus fabrics to adorn the interior courtyard of Fort Point.
Seventy-five years ago, the bridge-opening celebration began on 27 May 1937 and lasted for one week. The day before vehicle traffic was allowed, 200 000 people crossed by foot and roller skate.
On opening day, Mayor Angelo Rossi and other officials rode the ferry to Marin, then crossed the bridge in a motorcade past three ceremonial "barriers," the last a blockade of beauty queens who required Joseph Strauss to present the bridge to the Highway District before allowing him to pass.
An official song, "There's a Silver Moon on the Golden Gate," was chosen to commemorate the event. Strauss wrote a poem that is now on the Golden Gate Bridge entitled "The Mighty Task is Done." The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, DC signaling the official start of vehicle traffic over the Bridge at noon
