Comforting Connections
site specific installation
San Francisco Art in Store Fronts
2009
Comforting Connections is an installation that maps the connections that bring people to and from Central Market Street. Paths of commuters, residents, and workers are mapped in looped stitches that construct the central structure of Market Street. At the center of the installation, the buildings of Market Street are shown in a three-dimensional knit sculpture. Occupied buildings are tightly knit and constructed. Loose yarns from building to building and from the commuter paths form the hollow but cozy outline of the vacant spaces. This installation creates an engaging and aesthetically pleasing storefront that will encourage people to examine the piece, and in turn their relationship to the surroundings on Central Market Street. It both celebrates the spaces that are occupied and invites questions about the empty spaces and what potential they hold.
Comforting Connections was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission and Triple Base Gallery for the Art In Storefronts Program. Art In Storefronts temporarily places original art installations by San Francisco artists in vacant storefront windows located on Taylor Street in the Tenderloin, Third Street in Bayview, Central Market Street and Lower 24th Street in the Mission to engage local artists in reinvigorating neighborhoods and commercial corridors that have been hard-hit by the economic downturn. The Art in Storefronts pilot program was Initiated by Mayor Gavin Newsom, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) and the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), in partnership with neighborhood-based economic development organizations and curated by Triple Base.