javafred.net

PUBLIC ART: Best Transnational Art Undertaking
It's not always easy to tell who your sister cities are. For instance, many San Franciscans probably don't know they share a civic bond with such localities as Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and Thessaloníki, Greece. And it's possible that a person could walk by "Sama-Sama/You're Welcome’s" gorgeous, evocative murals at LeBeau Nob Hill Market, Rainbow Grocery, Clarion Alley, and the Southern Exposure/Project Artaud compound and not recognize the end results of more than two years of planning and work by 10 visual artists from San Francisco and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. "Sama-Sama/You're Welcome" was a collaborative effort by the Clarion Alley Mural Project, an artist collective working in and around a tiny side street in the Mission District, and Apotik Komik, a Yogyakarta artist collective that shares CAMP's aesthetic and political sensibilities as well as the group's tendency to use the public realm as its canvas. With the help of cosponsor Intersection for the Arts, the groups developed an exchange of ideas and work in which six CAMP artists went to Indonesia in summer 2003 to make a series of public art pieces, and four Apotik artists returned the visit that fall. The results of Apotik's residency can be seen at several locations across San Francisco in boldly colored, finely detailed work whose content is both riveting and deeply disquieting. For more information and images from the project, go to CAMP member Megan Wilson's Web site at www.meganwilson.com and click on Projects.
Cultural exchange: The murals made through the “Sama-Sama/You’re Welcome” project, both in San Francisco and Yogyakarta, Indonesia, are our choice for Best Transnational Art Undertaking. Pictured here is Apotik Komik members Arie Dyanto and Samuel Indratma’s piece at Southern Exposure/Project Artaud. - Guardian.
please go to: www.artaudsf.org

Alabama St. Mural (detail) painted by Apotik Komik artists, Samuel Indratama and Arie Dyanto

The Alabama St. Mural was sponsored by Southern Exposure, who collaborated with Clarion Alley Mural Project, Intersection for the Arts, and Sama sama/You're Welcome, to produce this public exhibition of contemporary alternative work from Indonesia, one of three in San Francisco. Sama sama/You're Welcome is an international collaboration and exchange program between SF and Indonesian artists, designed to foster an understanding of contemporary art and culture between the communities.

Winner of The SF Bay Guardian's Best of the Bay 2004 - City Living Mural