Drawing on San Francisco’s history of public art, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture is presenting campus-wide art projects for fall and winter 2021, including installations of celebrated American artist Lawrence Weiner’s OUT OF SIGHT multilingual, hopscotch-like medallions or “marelles” (French for hopscotch) across the city’s waterfront and in the Dogpatch neighborhood, in partnership with the Exploratorium and McEvoy Foundation for the Arts. In addition to the Lawrence Weiner marelles, FMCAC debuts two new commissions: Wat Walls, a painting suite by East Bay muralist Thitiwat Phromratanapongse with Sarah Siskin; and Kindred Swell, a site-specific dance by San Francisco-based choreographer and dancer Kim Ip.

In his ground-based mural OUT OF SIGHT, Lawrence Weiner addresses the viewer with phrases within a simple hopscotch pattern board. OUT OF SIGHT combines wit and whimsy in a game-like format, encouraging learning and self-actualization using graphical phrases embedded throughout the work. By being able to stand, walk, roll, or jump from one position to the next, OUT OF SIGHT taps into the dynamic ‘gamification’ of learning and self-discovery. The viewer navigates the creation as they see fit – interpreting the work while interacting with it. 

Thitiwat Phromratanapongse’s homage to Thai temple walls transforms loading docks, pedestrian walkways, and a skybridge under-carriage into an immersive corridor gallery. For Phromratanapongse, wave-like forms often weave together into delicate pattern fields, birds, and other fauna in-flight, and spiritual beings in repose. With Sarah Siskin, the Oakland, CA-based artists build on San Francico’s illustrious mural history, from Diego Rivera’s landmark indoor works to now more than 500 Mission District murals originally launched and inspired by the Chicano, Black Power, and United Farm Workers movements. His untitled new work transforms a silent alley into a dynamic interplay of figures and color that speak to the historic site’s audiences and art uses today.