For-Site Foundation

The For-Site Foundation, established in 2003, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the creation of collaborative art about place. Based in both San Francisco and Nevada City, California, For-Site collaborates with artists and national parks to create site-specific works of all media. For-Site’s work includes site-specific projects done at thought-provoking and usually inaccessible sites in the bay area, including Alcatraz and the Presidio, and a residency program and educational partnerships that both take place on their 50-acre site in Nevada City.^[1] Curator Cheryl Haines founded For-Site in 2003 and has played an integral role in curating and collaborating with artists since.^[2]

Selected Works

@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz

For-Site’s most recent off-site installation was “@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz,” running within Alcatraz prison from September 27, 2014 - April 26, 2015. Ai Weiwei, restricted from leaving China since 2011, was unable to be onsite for installation and thus the project was a collaboration between Weiwei and For-Site founder, Cheryl Haines, as curator. Haines, speaking about the show, said “one of the basic themes of this exhibition is “what is freedom?”” ^[2] The installation had seven parts, With Wind, Trace, Refraction, Stay Tuned, Illumination, Blossom, and Yours Truly.^[3] “With Wind” is a huge traditional Chinese dragon kite, weaving its way in and out of pillars in one of Alcatraz’s frames of a hall, its body holding names of imprisoned and exiled activists. Haines spoke about the kite in “With Wind,” “It will be flying, it will be free, but it will also be restricted in the building, so it’s this really interesting conversation between control and freedom.” ^[2] The installation created a point of access to many of the prison’s spaces that visitors are not usually able to enter, reinforcing ideas of control, detainment and freedom through a collaboration with Alcatraz as a site.^[4]

International Orange

“FOR-SITE’s goal is to have the art really underscore the history of any place we do an installation. The fort has been open on the weekend for many years, but most people have no idea what’s inside. There had never been a major contemporary art show here until now,” For-Site collaborator, Marnie Berk De Guzman, said in an interview about International Orange.^[5] The diverse range of work featured in International Orange celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge with the work of fifteen artists inside of Fort Point, the civil war-era open air structure at the base of the golden gate on the San Francisco side.

“I really wanted to showcase artists whose ideologies are quite diverse, whose sense of materiality is distinctive and different from one another. We also needed to be sure each artist could address a site that is so rich historically but also challenging, with restrictions around issues of historical preservation and harshness of climate. The resulting exhibition contains works in a wide variety of media — photography, videography, sound, and both found and fabricated objects,” Sheryl Haines said of the exhibition.^[5]

Presidio Habitats

“The first site-based art exhibition in a U.S. National Park, Presidio Habitats began in mid-2009, when more than two dozen artists, designers and architects were asked to design habitat sculptures for selected “animal clients” of the Presidio. From 25 proposals, eleven were selected to be created and installed along Presidio trails and walkways.” ^[6]

Mark Dion's "Marvelous Museum" at OMCA

http://museumca.org/exhibit/marvelous-museum-project-mark-dion

Richard Long's "The Path is the Place is the Line" at SFMOMA

https://www.sfmoma.org/press/release/sfmoma-presents-exhibition-in-varied-media-richar/

Cornelia Parker at YBCA

http://artdaily.com/news/15578/Cornelia-Parker-at-Yerba-Buena-Center#.VlS-TmSrSuU

External Resources

Ai, Weiwei, Weiwei Ai, Frank Dean, Greg Moore, Cheryl Haines, Maya Kóvskaya, and David Spalding. @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz. 2014.

http://www.for-site.org/about2/FOR-SITE%20Foundation-International%20Orange.pdf

Christian Frock, “Tree Fall: Andy Goldsworthy’s Newest Installation at the Presidio,” KQED.org, November 10, 2013.

Christian L. Frock, “FOR-SITE Foundation Celebrates the Golden Gate with ‘International Orange,'” KQED Art Review, June 2, 2012.

Alyson Kuhn, “International Orange: 15 Artists Respond to the Golden Gate Bridge,” Felt & Wire, July 30, 2012.

http://www.for-site.org/

http://www.parksconservancy.org/visit/art/current-exhibits/biography-cheryl-haines.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

http://museumca.org/exhibit/marvelous-museum-project-mark-dion

http://artdaily.com/news/15578/Cornelia-Parker-at-Yerba-Buena-Center#.VlS-TmSrSuU

https://www.sfmoma.org/press/release/sfmoma-presents-exhibition-in-varied-media-richar/

http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/09/27/art-behind-bars-on-alcatraz-ai-weiwei-celebrates-the-silenced/

References