About the box: Performance art as tribute to the WPA

Curator's note: again, this is part of extending the Looking for Loci exhibit post-run. The story of this box is complex, but it's sweet history once you get into it.

Genius Loci: The Magafan Walkathon Performance
By: Anne Thulson, Denver

Posing as two WPA artists, Jenne and Ethel Magafan, we placed ourselves at two public buildings that house their murals. Anne started at Jenne Magafan’s mural “Women Settlers” at West High School, 951 Elati Street. Alli started at Ethel Magafan’s mural “The Horse Coral” at the post office at 225 South Broadway.


View Larger Map

We walked towards each other until we met. This happened to be at the 7 Eleven at Broadway and Third Avenue. Here we made a shrine to the Magafan sisters.

This walk mirrors the way in which the Magafan twins pieced together a living from one WPA mural commission to the next, all the way through the Great Depression with uncanny synchronicity and symmetry. It also acknowledges local work by local artists, especially the artwork done in Denver under the Treasury Department during the New Deal.

Note: From the NYT obit on Ethel:

"Ms. Magafan was born in Chicago and grew up in Colorado Springs, Colo. She and her twin sister, Jenne, an artist who died in 1952, studied with Boardman Robinson and the muralist Frank Mechau at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. In the late 1930's and the 40's, she painted Government-sponsored murals in post offices in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arkansas, as well as in two Federal office buildings in Washington and the chamber of the United States Senate."

About the box: Confluence

Genius Loci: Denver
By: Charles (39), Annnika (10),Elise(8), and Mia (6)

Our Loci is the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River. This meeting of waters is the birthplace of our city, Denver, the place we call home.

Children's laughter can be heard, dogs park, and couples walk as the city erupts around the force of nature carving its way through the urban landscape as it has done for thousands of years. Humanity and nature form their own confluence in this Loci of Denver.

Curator's note: While the exhibit has stopped running, the pieces exist online. What I love about this family project is the detail, craft and coordination. Notice the materials and implicit thought in the image above.

About the box: let's get this party started

Curator's note: thought that it would be fun to start the new year with what I think of as the party box. Short on text, long on fun. What I love is that the execution of the box is detailed and lavish.


Genius Loci: Denver By: Leigh Bush

Denver - outside she’s one thing, but inside she’s a whole different beast.

About the box: Take Me to the Cleaners

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. It's a bit hard to see in this image, but this box has a transparency in front of it, and behind, it is filled with dryer lint.


Genius Loci: "The World's Largest Discount Laundromat"*
By: Kirsten Vermulen

Smiley's Cleaners has seen a lot of dirty laundry. A classic Colfax haven for cleaning up and drying out, "the world's largest discount laundromat" is a home-away-from-home to all. With 24-7 rumble and spin, Loci finds no shortage of socks to steal or unmentionables to mangle.

*Apparently, there is more to Smiley's than lint. A Google search takes me to:

CD: A Swan at Smiley's
Blog: Life Behind Smiley's
Flickr: Somebody included it in their photostream
Yelp: Smiley's Cleaners

Box detail.

"Looking for Loci" Closes in the Park

Looking for Loci had its last showing in a San Mateo park last weekend. It was a brisk NorCal day but there were lots of folks out enjoying the exhibit.

While the crowd in SF tended to take the Museum a bit for granted, the San Mateo audience tended to be more surprised to find it in their park- and were excited to have it come to them. It was interesting to show it in both an urban and suburban environment- especially since many of the pieces came from both "worlds".

We'll be posting the rest of the boxes, as well as some of the notes that visitors wrote on our map while we retool the platform ...and enjoy the holidays.

Venue Change Tomorrow: From SF to SM

Sorry, Cole Valley- due to construction on the tracks and city permits, we're going to be in Central Park tomorrow. Central Park in San Mateo, that is. 1:30 - 4pm at:

http://bit.ly/centralparksm

Come check out Looking for Loci and add to our Bay Area map of stories!

Come shine, coming to Cole Valley

Weather permitting*, the Mobile Museum is going to the dogs this Saturday afternoon. We'll be at the Cole Valley Dog Park, right by the N-Judah stop near Carl and Cole from 1 - 4pm. One of our last "Looking for Loci" stops. Come say hello!

"Cole Valley grew up around the streetcar stop at the entrance to the Sunset Tunnel at the intersection of Carl and Cole Streets. That intersection is still the center of the neighborhood's small business district, and the N Judah light rail line still stops there." -Wikipedia

*We'll brave the beasts but not the elements. Check back here or follow us on twitter, @sfmobilemuseum if things look questionable.

Excellent Resource for Exhibiting in Empty Storefronts

Via newcurator.com > Artbase:

Artists and Makers Magazine in the UK produced this very thorough workbook on DIY'ing exhibits and artwork in empty storefronts. It's quite applicable here.

http://artistsandmakers.com/images/emptyshopsworkbook1.pdf

Today in SOMA

FYI... the SFMM will be open today in the garage at 1268 Folsom Street, from 12 - 5pm. It also happens to be the workshop/studio of Marcia Stuermer, one of our participants who did the Chinatown box:

About the box: Bonsai & Power Lines

Genius Loci: Various locations around Denver
By: Jesse Howard

In any urban environment, there often exists conflict between natural and built environments. Perhaps the most fascinating is the unintended macro-bonsai trees created by groups of linesmen with the highly coveted job of trimming tree branches away from power lines.


Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. This curator is now intrigued to look at the relationship between trees and power lines in through the lens of high craft.

About the box: Lawyer's Take (3)

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. In our initial request, we asked all participants to design their boxes in landscape format. Rebecca, being a lawyer of course broke the rules... with style.

Genius Loci: Fridge, Bernal Heights, SF
By: Rebecca Grey

Its the fridge. It contains life's greatest joys.


PS: Rebecca is the Mom of Dinah, wife of Chris.

About the Box: Chris' brain (2)

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. In addition to being a talented product designer, he is also the Dad of Dinah, and wrote about their family's "making of" on his blog.

Genius Loci: My Head By Chris Luomanen

Sadly, my Genius Loci is in my head, which is like a big cluttered workshop with partially finished projects lying around all over the place. I go there to relax, pick up one of those dusty projects and putter. Sometimes things get done, sometimes I just make a bigger mess. I should probably get out more.

About the Box: Sleeping on a bunny's tale (1)

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. Dinah was one of our youngest, yet most magical participants. Her entire family participated- Mom and Dad will be featured next. Dad (Chris Luomanen) wrote about the "making of" on his blog.

Genius Loci: Rabbit Hutch
By Dinah Grey, Age 6

If I could go anywhere I would get shrunk down really small and live in a rabbit hutch. I would ride the bunnies all day long. And at night I would sleep with my head on their fluffy tails.

That or go to sushi.

About the box: the city under our feet

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. Peter Forrest Kline is a long-time garden designer here in San Francisco.


Genius Loci: Underground
By Peter Forrest Kline

My box is about San Francisco's underground.. I don't mean some counter culture scene but the physical place under San Franciscans' feet.

As a gardener here for many years, I've dug in it's mostly sandy, soft soil, regularly finding an old marble or fragment of pottery--sometimes an old cast iron toy or clay bottle, even a layer of charcoal & fused glass, evidence of the 1906 earthquake & fire.


Note: garden by Peter.

About the Box: A special little alley in Chinatown

Genius Loci: Ross Alley, SF
By Marcia Stuermer

This genius loci is Ross Alley located in Chinatown in San Francisco. The alley has always to me possessed a strange presence, seeming like some type of movie set with various layers of hidden meaning, history and everyday life.

Although now somewhat 'famous' with the tourist set, because of the proliferation of travel guide books, it still holds a charming mystique.

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them online. This Loci is iconic for San Francisco, and Marcia did it justice.

About the Box: Cat Lady's House

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them with their stories, adding to them where possible. Since it's almost Halloween, this box seemed appropriate to post.
Genius Loci: 39 46’33.94” N 105 02’29.85” W 1644 m.
By Nikki Raschbacher, Denver

I lived next door to this house from age 8-13. I think of it now as “The Cat House” because the woman who lived there had at least 20 cats. At one time, the interior of the house must’ve been elegant. But, when the cat woman lived there, all the furniture was covered with sheets and cats draped themselves on the fireplace mantel, the stairs and the furniture. And, yet it seems sort of mystical. Oh yeah, I’m allergic to cats.

About the box: New Meaning to Navy Seals

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them with their stories, adding to them where possible.
Genius Loci: Alameda Point
By Danielle Guidici Wallis & Patrick Wallis

Our Genius Loci is at Alameda Point, formerly the Alameda Naval Air Station.
Active from 1936 through 1997, it is vast, windy and mostly empty. It sits patiently awaiting redevelopment which has yet to happen due to the cost of remediation... it was identified as a superfund cleanup site on July 22, 1999.

Our Loci is just East of the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier that now serves as a military museum. There is a breakwall where folks fish and seals sun bathe on the decrepit docks. Pelicans dive into the waters and snowy egrets wade in the shallows. It is a strangely beautiful place.

About the Box: Fun House Mirror

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, we've photographed the boxes and are posting them with their stories, adding to them where possible.
Genius Loci: 1999 Broadway, Denver
By Samantha Schmitz

This is a place downtown that makes me feel like a child. It is a bit of unnoticed whimsy in the middle of offices and traffic. This mirrored column outside of the offices at 1999 Broadway is like a fun house mirror on the sidewalk. I can stand there for long periods of time watching the traffic and light rail bend around the way, appearing to almost crash into the surrounding buildings. Also it is 1999 Broadway, so that’s cool.

Note: we don't personally know Samantha here at the SFMM, so we did a little sleuthing. Turns out 1999 Broadway is a quite tall building, designed by Fentress Architects. From Wikipedia:

"1999 Broadway is a 544ft (166m) tall skyscraper in Denver, Colorado. It was completed in 1985 and has 43 floors. The building was designed by Fentress Architects and is the 4th tallest in Denver. 1999 Broadway has a unique shape, it is shaped like a triangle with a scoop in the side. This is caused by the desire to retain the historical Holy Ghost Catholic Church at the base."

About the box: Nina Simon takes us into the Trees

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, I'm gathering additional stories from participants, and putting them online. Nina Simon is a museum experience developer and force behind Museum 2.0. Call 1-641-715-3900, ext. 74622# for an audio tour of her diorama.


Looking for Loci, by Nina Simon
Genius Loci: Tree House

I've always been obsessed with treehouses. In 2007, we moved off the grid in the Santa Cruz mountains from Washington DC. After much bushwhacking and deliberation, we found a redwood on the edge of our property with huge spiraling branches and incredible ocean views. It took five months to build a simple plywood platform 80 feet up in the tree. The tree platform is a magical expression of the risk and reward of living this crazy, creative rural life.

I've always dreamed of living in one - the more fantastical, the better. When my partner and I got married, we decided to get tattoos of treehouses instead of rings to mark our commitment. To me, they symbolize both imagination and rootedness, the beauty of nature and the power of human engineering. Ours is very humble (a platform, really), and this diorama shows the partial view from the platform. I'd like to believe we will build more but that first effort was so time-consuming that I think it will be several years before we have an Ewok village in the sky.

I've played with voicemail boxes as a simple audio device for exhibits before. In this case, I thought some people might stay on the line to answer the question I ask at the end ("What is that place for you?") but the question is pretty heady and goes by quickly, which I think disincentivizes answering. It sounds too rhetorical and last minute. And so instead of answers, I get a bunch of hang-ups after a few seconds. Those are nice too - I get to hear a bit of what's going on at that particular exhibit event, and it's like being transported into a social world where this little box I made months ago lives on.

Visitors sharing a cell phone listen to Nina's audio tour of her treehouse:

PS: if you're a treehouse design fan, this simple google search [as of this posting] finds some amazing resources of all types, and some fab designs:

http://bit.ly/Qq988

However, if you're looking for the magical possibilities that a treehouse can bring, then we'll leave that to your imagination, ingenuity, and choice of tree.

A Day in the Park

As mentioned, this weekend began San Francisco Open Studios month. We at the Mobile Museum attempted to situate ourselves in the center of Weekend 1 at Dolores Park. It was a beautiful day and the park was full.

Having our exhibit Looking for Loci - a collection of shadow-box style dioramas and their stories - outdoors was interesting. The contrast of the great outdoors to tiny intimate stories was something we weren't sure about.


We set up the Museum in the round. Visitors carefully circled; reading, looking, and then writing about their own Genius Loci on the Bay Area map. Sometimes the notes were sweet, sometimes snarky (more about the map later), but all were welcome:


Seems that the experiment worked, and worked well. We got to witness the delight of many visitors as they read stories, called in and listened to Nina Simon's box that has an audio tour, or laughed about Rebecca Grey's refrigerator (more about those soon).


Participant Chris Luomanen dubbed us the "museum version of the food cart". Not sure we're quite THAT mobile. Chris has some typically smart musings about the SF food cart scene here:

http://thing-tank.blogspot.com/2009/10/recession-foodies-twitter-food-cart.html

Weather permitting, we'll move the museum to the center of the next Open Studios. Come find us - or follow us on twitter @sfmobilemuseum.

Looking for Loci Showing in Dolores Park today in SF

Come by the this afternoon and see Looking for Loci in the park! It's also Weekend 1 of Open Studios nearby, so come walk around, and expand your local art horizons.

The original map is from ArtSpan, the force behind Open Studios. We're showing a segment of it to see where we'll be in relation to them, but for the entire map of weekend 1, please click here.

About the Box: Simon Powers takes us to the Beach

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, I'm gathering additional stories from participants, and putting them online. Simon Powers is from Denver, so I don't know him/her. Oddly enough, I grew up near this location so it has special meaning for me too.

Looking for Loci, by Simon Powers (Denver)

My Genius Loci is at Rye Beach. I practically grew up on this beach. Rye Beach/Playland is located on Long Island Sound. My sister and I would watch the sailboats go by as we played for endless hours in the sand and water. We could glimpse the ferris wheel of the nearby amusement park as it went endlessly round and round. We could hear the happy laughter of the children playing.

The beach and the romance of those times is always with me. A special place where both my mother and father and aunt and uncle had their first dates. Sun, Sand and Sea - on a summer afternoon everything anyone could want.

About the Box: Kevin Fine Takes on Silicon Valley

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, I'm gathering additional stories from the participants, and putting them online. Kevin gets the humor award. Or is it irony? You tell us.

Genius Loci: The Stock Option

One of the protective spirits of Silicon Valley is the stock option. It helps to create the environment that we love - creative & energetic people working together to build amazing things.

Unfortunately the stock option can be bit of a trickster spirit, luring people away from their families with promises of riches... often only to disappoint.

- Kevin Fine

At the time of making his box, Kevin had been recently laid off, and his stock options were worth nothing.

He is now gainfully employed.