Home Land Security, September 10 – December 18, 2016
Group Exhibition at the For-Site Foundation, Fort Winfield Scott, San Fransisco, CA
Home Land Security, a site-responsive exhibition, convened an international slate of eighteen contemporary artists to activate historic military defense structures at Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio, overlooking San Fransisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. New and recent art works were installed in military structures, reflecting on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders we create, protect, and cross in its name.
Curated by Cheryl Haines and Jackie von Treskow of the For-Site Foundation, participating artists included Shiva Ahmadi, Tammam Azzam, Diaz Lewis, Yashar Azar Emdadian, Al Farrow, Liza Lou, Mandana Moghaddam, Trevor Paglen, Shapour Pouyan, Michele Pred, The Propeller Group, Luz Maria Sanchez, Do Ho Suh, Bill Viola, Alexia Webster, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Yin Xiuzhen.
An Israeli artist based in New York, Tirtzah Bassel draws with duct tape — a material most often associated with quick fixes and temporary solutions — to explore the airport as a modern space of transience and transformation. The painterly and sculptural effects she achieves with her limited palette conjure the intrusive physical intimacy of a security pat-down, the postures of waiting, or the no-man’s-land of the transit lounge. Under the heightened security regime since 9/11, the traditional emblems of travel — freedom, adventure, global connection — have become entangled with more complex emotions of vulnerability, discomfort, disempowerment, and exposure as travelers find themselves “trapped” between destinations. Applied directly to the walls, Bassel’s images explore the relationship between power and space, and the permeable borders between public and private domains.
