January 19th, 2019
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA
LED BY Hughen/StaRkweather
The Walkshop “Climate Empathy” hosted by The Walk Discourse lead the group south from Pier 35 along the pre-1850 shoreline of San Francisco Bay, which was 2+ blocks inland from today’s concrete shoreline. We stopped at specific points of interest along the way to discussed past and future shorelines, climate, development, property, and empathy. Together with the artists, participants imagined past and future shorelines and envisioned new connections and perspectives in the search for common ground on the increasingly urgent topic of climate change. Hughen/Starkweather’s Climate Empathy Project hopes to harness the power of storytelling through words and images to foster connection in a time of widespread catastrophic rhetoric and divisive conversation.
Hughen/Starkweather is the collaboration of San Francisco artists Jennifer Starkweather and Amanda Hughen, who have worked as a team since 2006. Together they create abstract artworks about specific topics or locations. Each project begins with intensive research, including maps, photographs, data, and interviews with specialists and community members. The resulting abstract drawings and paintings reinterpret complex narratives, creating new and unexpected forms. The artworks are not didactic, but aim to prompt questions and new perspectives in the viewer. Hughen/Starkweather have had solo exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum (SF), the Public Policy Institute of California (SF), and the University of San Francisco, among other places. Hughen received an MFA from UC Berkeley and has been an artist-in-residence at the DeYoung Museum of Art (CA), the Headlands Center for the Arts (CA), Oxbow (CA), Recology (SF), and Yaddo (NY). Starkweather received an MFA from Tyler School of Art (PA) and has been an artist-in-residence at Ucross (WY), Skowhegan (ME), Oxbow (CA), Ragdale (IL), and Recology (SF).
DETAILS
Location: Pier 35, San Francisco, CA. Met under the flags just north of the entrance to Pier 35 on the Embarcadero
Start Time: 2pm
Duration: approx. 2 hours
Equipment: Journal, notebook, camera or related recording devices
Photography by Susanne Huth
