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06-23-16

Q&A with “Home Land Security” Curator Cheryl Haines

FOR-SITE Foundation executive director and Home Land Security curator Cheryl Haines at Battery Marcus Miller, 2016. Photo: Ari Salomon.

FOR-SITE Foundation executive director and Home Land Security curator Cheryl Haines at Battery Boutelle, 2016. Photo: Ari Salomon.


Field Notes recently talked with FOR-SITE Executive Director Cheryl Haines about her latest site-responsive project in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Home Land Security.

Field Notes: Which came first: the site or the curatorial thesis?

Cheryl Haines: One of the most engaging aspects of doing site-related projects is that they don’t occur in a linear way. I don’t necessarily find the site first or come up with the thesis first — it’s more an amalgam of the two.

In this case, my past experience working on the exhibition @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz was the springboard. One of the things I found most fulfilling about curating that exhibition was using my practice to engage an artist interested in social issues.

FN: How did you select the site?

CH: I have a pretty deep understanding of the physical location of the Presidio and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area — this is our fourth temporal project there. I’ve spent many hours walking through the park, and I’m always looking for places that have not been activated. One of the great things about partnering with the National Park Service is that our visions are aligned: we’re both thinking about how to activate the cultural and natural resources of the park in new and innovative ways.

I became interested in furthering the dialogue around basic human rights and the plight of immigrants in particular after having spoken to Ai Weiwei about his work with Syrian refugees on the Greek Island of Lesbos. This led to pondering factors in place, and greater societal and personal concerns, such as what is home?, what is safety?, and what relevance does that have to notions of defense and security? As a former military base, the Presidio presents all kinds of opportunities to explore those ideas.

FN: What motivates/inspires you to undertake projects like this?

CH: One of the things I’m discovering as I continue down this path is what a great gift it is to bring together my personal and professional interests. Thirty years ago I became involved with the Tibetan community and became acutely aware of the Tibetan diaspora. That was a personal pursuit for many years. Since that time I have broadened my awareness to include the social injustices in other communities, but it wasn’t until @Large that I began to expand my professional practice to focus on human rights.

I still do have a curatorial interest in ideas and pure aesthetic, but one of the most enriching and engaging aspects of these projects for me is working with artists who might initiate a dialogue that could result in social change.

FN: What do you hope visitors will take away from the exhibition?

CH: I’m hoping they’ll be able to take a look at work from many different regions around the world and begin to understand the commonality of human experience. Though we might have diverse ideologies or backgrounds, at the end of day we want the same things. The base line concern I have that I’d love to see brought forth is how prevalent the fear of “other” is. If there’s even a small glimmer of understanding that others have the same struggles and concerns and needs that we do, that would be a very positive outcome.

FN: Do you have a favorite piece in the exhibition, or one you’re most looking forward to seeing installed at the site?

CH: Many of the selected artists I’ve been familiar with for a long time. A few of their pieces are iconic works I haven’t seen in person, or not in many years. I’m looking forward to seeing Do Ho Suh’s work in Battery Godfrey, as well as the Propeller Group’s installation. There are so many that are completely on point regarding the curatorial thesis and the site. I’m also excited about the commissions. It takes a certain amount of courage on the part of the artists to make a piece for a site they haven’t seen before.

There are always things you can’t anticipate. The physicality of a specific artwork in a site is often more powerful than you could have imagined. I’m particularly excited about this exhibition because of the opportunity to weave together such a diversity of voices — the materiality is diverse, the works are psychologically diverse, yet we see that there is a certain alignment in the positions presented here.

Home Land Security

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  • #LandsEnd featured artist Andrea Chung’s video Come Back to Jamaica (2009), & Come Back to Yourself (2013), will be… https://t.co/HXwouRNnBa
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FOR-SITE collaborator @hankwillisthomas & artist @wideawakes designed  #EyesonIran flying billboards in solidarity with the women of Iran. 

The billboards can be seen this week on South beach, Miami and at @untitledartfair 

@forfreedoms multi-day, multi-media art installation spans Miami and artworks throughout @4freedomspark in NYC
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FOR-SITE collaborator @hankwillisthomas & artist @wideawakes designed #EyesonIran flying billboards in solidarity with the women of Iran. The billboards can be seen this week on South beach, Miami and at @untitledartfair @forfreedoms multi-day, multi-media art installation spans Miami and artworks throughout @4freedomspark in NYC
2 months ago
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1/9
This #GivingTuesday we want to celebrate and honor YOU and the other partners and supporters who have buoyed our wildest dreams. Access to all of our exhibition sites these past years—from the former Cliff House to Alcatraz to military batteries and churches—was gifted to us from our park partners. The 110 artists with whom we have worked blew us away with breathtaking, career-defining work, often under short order. FOR-SITE simply would not exist without the well of generosity and cooperation that is our friends, and we intend to express our gratitude this year. 

You can continue to support FOR-SITE by donating today at the link in bio.
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This #GivingTuesday we want to celebrate and honor YOU and the other partners and supporters who have buoyed our wildest dreams. Access to all of our exhibition sites these past years—from the former Cliff House to Alcatraz to military batteries and churches—was gifted to us from our park partners. The 110 artists with whom we have worked blew us away with breathtaking, career-defining work, often under short order. FOR-SITE simply would not exist without the well of generosity and cooperation that is our friends, and we intend to express our gratitude this year. You can continue to support FOR-SITE by donating today at the link in bio.
2 months ago
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2/9
The participating artists of FOR-SITE’s 2018 exhibition SANCTUARY, represented diverse ideologies and backgrounds (many including experiences as migrants and refugees), but their contributions to the exhibition—spectacularly varied in content and design—conformed to a single format, lending a unifying element that bridged racial, cultural, and religious differences. Installed on the floor of the historic Fort Mason Chapel, the four-by-six-foot wool rugs—woven in Lahore, Pakistan, using traditional materials and hand-knotting techniques—called to mind traditional prayer rugs, but they transcended religious connotations, encompassing thoughtful viewpoints on cultural identity, sense of place, and belonging.

Photo by @robertdiversherrick
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The participating artists of FOR-SITE’s 2018 exhibition SANCTUARY, represented diverse ideologies and backgrounds (many including experiences as migrants and refugees), but their contributions to the exhibition—spectacularly varied in content and design—conformed to a single format, lending a unifying element that bridged racial, cultural, and religious differences. Installed on the floor of the historic Fort Mason Chapel, the four-by-six-foot wool rugs—woven in Lahore, Pakistan, using traditional materials and hand-knotting techniques—called to mind traditional prayer rugs, but they transcended religious connotations, encompassing thoughtful viewpoints on cultural identity, sense of place, and belonging. Photo by @robertdiversherrick
2 months ago
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3/9
#LandsEnd featured artist @suzannehusky has explored interactions among humans, animals, and plants through a multifaceted art practice that includes sculpture, installation, photography, and film for the last 20 years. 

Husky sculpts her trees from used clothes and found textiles, translating our cast-off clothing—informed by age and gender, class, culture, and politics—to the individualizing characteristics of trees, suggesting the deep interconnectedness of humans and their natural surroundings. “Forest” is both an homage to an ecological system that supports countless plant and animal species and a memorial to that same system under threat of erasure. #artaboutplace
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#LandsEnd featured artist @suzannehusky has explored interactions among humans, animals, and plants through a multifaceted art practice that includes sculpture, installation, photography, and film for the last 20 years. Husky sculpts her trees from used clothes and found textiles, translating our cast-off clothing—informed by age and gender, class, culture, and politics—to the individualizing characteristics of trees, suggesting the deep interconnectedness of humans and their natural surroundings. “Forest” is both an homage to an ecological system that supports countless plant and animal species and a memorial to that same system under threat of erasure. #artaboutplace
2 months ago
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4/9
#LandsEnd featured artist @danielbeltraphoto’s striking, large-scale aerial photographs of melting polar ice caps and oil spills highlight the rate and scale at which humanity is impacting our world. His juxtapositions of nature and destruction provide an almost overwhelming sense of physical scale and emotional dread, through flattened but dynamic images that flirt with abstraction.
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#LandsEnd featured artist @danielbeltraphoto’s striking, large-scale aerial photographs of melting polar ice caps and oil spills highlight the rate and scale at which humanity is impacting our world. His juxtapositions of nature and destruction provide an almost overwhelming sense of physical scale and emotional dread, through flattened but dynamic images that flirt with abstraction.
3 months ago
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5/9
FOR-SITE turns 20 in 2023! We feel extremely grateful to all of you, the artists, and to our long-standing park partners, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (@parksconservancy), the Presidio Trust (@presidiosf), and the @nationalparkservice, for such outstanding companionship and support of our work.

Stay tuned! The celebrations begin next month, in December, followed by a milestone anniversary year punctuated by programs and events, and a to-be-announced biennial exhibition open to the public.

In the meantime, you may have noticed we changed our name and branding, with our new website coming soon. The FOR-SITE Foundation is now FOR-SITE, yet we remain dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place.

We look forward to celebrating with you this next year!
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FOR-SITE turns 20 in 2023! We feel extremely grateful to all of you, the artists, and to our long-standing park partners, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (@parksconservancy), the Presidio Trust (@presidiosf), and the @nationalparkservice, for such outstanding companionship and support of our work. Stay tuned! The celebrations begin next month, in December, followed by a milestone anniversary year punctuated by programs and events, and a to-be-announced biennial exhibition open to the public. In the meantime, you may have noticed we changed our name and branding, with our new website coming soon. The FOR-SITE Foundation is now FOR-SITE, yet we remain dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place. We look forward to celebrating with you this next year!
3 months ago
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6/9
Election Day has arrived! VOTE for the planet and the future you want to see in the world 🌍🌊 🗳️
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Election Day has arrived! VOTE for the planet and the future you want to see in the world 🌍🌊 🗳️
3 months ago
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7/9
@anateresafernandez talking sea bodies and On the Horizon on @kqed live. #LandsEnd
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@anateresafernandez talking sea bodies and On the Horizon on @kqed live. #LandsEnd
3 months ago
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“The response among members of the visual arts community in the Bay Area was swift and certain: The Times story, a consensus of those who spoke with The Chronicle said, does not represent the region accurately, and they do not see a local decline.

The most common criticism of the Times’ reporting was that San Francisco should not be viewed through the lens of an art market, but rather as a larger arts community consisting of many public and private institutions as well as independent artists, arts workers and patrons.” - @tonybravosf 

@anateresafernandez “On the Horizon” at #FORSITE’s #LandsEnd exhibition featured  in @tonybravosf “S.F.’s art scene, disparaged by the New York Times, pushes back” for @sfchronicle_datebook
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“The response among members of the visual arts community in the Bay Area was swift and certain: The Times story, a consensus of those who spoke with The Chronicle said, does not represent the region accurately, and they do not see a local decline. The most common criticism of the Times’ reporting was that San Francisco should not be viewed through the lens of an art market, but rather as a larger arts community consisting of many public and private institutions as well as independent artists, arts workers and patrons.” - @tonybravosf @anateresafernandez “On the Horizon” at #FORSITE’s #LandsEnd exhibition featured in @tonybravosf “S.F.’s art scene, disparaged by the New York Times, pushes back” for @sfchronicle_datebook
3 months ago
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