SAN DIEGO UNVEILS FORCES OF NATURE ART COLLECTION

San Diego International Airport’s Arts Programme has launched its 2019 collective experience for airport travellers and visitors.

The Arts Programme aims to infuse the airport with light, levity, comfort and enriching experiences. 

According to the airport, it aims to hghlight the region’s rich cultural community through three components – Temporary Exhibitions, Performing Arts and Public Art. 

A new Arts Master Plan will carry these focus areas into the future with guidelines for the programme’s continued innovation.

“At the heart of our Arts Programme is to deliver inviting experiences through creative, visually appealing and memorable artwork and programs,” enthuses Kim Becker, president and CEO of San Diego Airport Authority.

“Designed with the traveller in mind, we invite airport users to pause, take a moment on their journey, and enjoy this uniquely San Diego experience.”

Temporary exhibitions

Forces of Nature, the Airport Arts Programme’s 2019 temporary exhibition is now on full display. 

The exhibition features artwork and collections that explore the complexity, fragility, and beauty of San Diego’s natural landscape. 

The year-long airport-wide exhibition features distinct installations by 16 different artists and organisations.

Exhibition highlights include:

• Glittering mini universe sculptures created by Sasha Koozel Reibstein, in direct response to the brilliant and diverse landscapes of San Diego;
  
  
• Immersive plant installations by botanical artist Britton Neubacher showcase the inherent artistry in nature, encouraging the viewer to look from the perspective of the natural world;
  
  
• Suspended cardboard sharks painstakingly constructed from hundreds of precisely cut pieces of cardboard and flat reed individually fit and glued together by artist William Feeney.

In addition to the new art collection, San Diego International Airport also features a series of artwork in Terminal 2 that is the result of collaboration between the airport and the University of San Diego.

The current crop of works range from inventive representations of the inner workings of the airport to imagery depicting regional wildlife with special consideration toward how travelers use the terminal space.

Performing arts

Elsewhere, through June, the airport’s spring 2019 Performing Arts Residency group, San Diego Dance Theatre, are onsite creating, rehearsing and performing new routines in response to the airport environment.  

Dances, movement patterns, and music selection are influenced by the artworks in the airport’s public art collection as well as the history and geography of the San Diego region.

Blindspot Collective, a San Diego-based theatre company devoted to immersive programming, was selected as the airport’s fall 2019 Performing Arts Residency group. 

Beginning in July 2019, the company will work collaboratively with the airport, local artists and community groups to develop short plays inspired by SAN and its visitors. Each play will be between 10–15 minutes, and performed in multiple locations throughout the airport.

Public Art

‘Oh lovely desert, I worry about you’, by San Diego-based artist Adriene Hughes, is the latest work in the Admiral Boland Way mural series. 

Located on the north side of the airport campus, the temporary mural offers a dramatic, panoramic view of the Anza Borrego desert using infrared photography. 

The work illuminates the desert’s plant life in vivid pink hues, and also calls attention to the impact of prolonged drought on the region. 

The 144ft long mural is composed of 45 separate photographs digitally stitched together to create a sprawling collage that references the tradition of landscape photography.