Photos of “In the Future...”

Image of an early 20th century soldier, crouching while wearing a gas mask, is pasted over the right side of an American Eagle ad. On the left side the same ad, a young male model crouches in front of a scenic road on the highway.

Our free Public Art Series continues with Jess X. Snow's video installation "In the Future Our Asian Community is Safe." Jess says, “This work is completed by the audience and also by the site and neighborhood it inhabits. Since we are currently unable to access the spaces of imagination that indoor theater offers, public art can fill the void. Theater is an impermanent medium with a beating heart — and I wanted this installation to capture that energy. A still image wouldn’t have been enough for this location: I want the future we’re calling in to feel alive, tender, and fragile. The animated text of the poem (designed with inspiration from karaoke subtitles), invites us to stop in our tracks, listen closely and engage intimately with the humanity of the portraits.” 

Snow’s installation will also feature a still from their short film Little Sky on the building’s façade, adjacent to the moving work, and bearing the final line of the poem, making its powerful conclusion persistent. 

The installation project is art-directed by Tiffany Jen and features type animation by Michael Enten, cinematography by Jess X. Snow, Zamarin Wahdat, and Noelia María Muíño González, and music by Natalie Rose LeBrecht. Featured in the installations are portraits of the Asian community: Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Wangping Oshiro, Kit Yan, Wo Chan, Nathan Singhapok, Poppy Liu, Vera Lam, Tiffany Jen, Philip De Guzman, Fenton Li, Kyoko Takenaka, Isabella Borgeson, Austin Deng, and Yiqing Zhao. All fo the below photos are by Marc J. Franklin.

Image of an early 20th century soldier, crouching while wearing a gas mask, is pasted over the right side of an American Eagle ad. On the left side the same ad, a young male model crouches in front of a scenic road on the highway.

Image of an early 20th century soldier, crouching while wearing a gas mask, is pasted over the right side of an American Eagle ad. On the left side the same ad, a young male model crouches in front of a scenic road on the highway.

Image of an early 20th century soldier, crouching while wearing a gas mask, is pasted over the right side of an American Eagle ad. On the left side the same ad, a young male model crouches in front of a scenic road on the highway.

Image of an early 20th century soldier, crouching while wearing a gas mask, is pasted over the right side of an American Eagle ad. On the left side the same ad, a young male model crouches in front of a scenic road on the highway.

Image of an early 20th century soldier, crouching while wearing a gas mask, is pasted over the right side of an American Eagle ad. On the left side the same ad, a young male model crouches in front of a scenic road on the highway.

Image of an early 20th century soldier, crouching while wearing a gas mask, is pasted over the right side of an American Eagle ad. On the left side the same ad, a young male model crouches in front of a scenic road on the highway.

Image of an early 20th century soldier, crouching while wearing a gas mask, is pasted over the right side of an American Eagle ad. On the left side the same ad, a young male model crouches in front of a scenic road on the highway.

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