THIS EVENT HAPPENED ON MARCH 4, 2025

Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture (FMCAC) presents Be Water, My Friend: An Animation Intervention, one of two closing programs for Kota Ezawa’s Here and There — Now and Then exhibition presented by FMCAC in collaboration with the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

Event Details:
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Doors: 6:00 p.m.; Program 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Curated by Meghana Bisineer
Gallery 308, Landmark Building A (Next to Radhaus Alpine Beerhall & Restaurant)
Free Admission (Please reserve space in advance)

Kota Ezawa’s current exhibition at FMCAC eyes its northern waterfront location in two site-specific works: in Grand Princess, a COVID-impacted cruise ship sails under the Golden Gate Bridge to the Port of Oakland. In Alcatraz Is an Idea, made with Julian Brave NoiseCat, vessels from the 2019 Alcatraz Canoe Journey paddle from Aquatic Park to Alcatraz and back again, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Occupation of Alcatraz by Indians of All Tribes.

With an eye to these water-based works, and to Ezawa’s process of transforming source footage into animated color fields, Meghana Bisineer organizes a screening and installation of animated and often abstract short films within Ezawa’s exhibition. Artists include Jane Cheadle, Al Jarnow, Karl Kaisel, Amy Kravitz, Lei Lei, Len Lye, Peter Millard, Edwin Rostron, Vicky Smith, Christoph Steger, and Kialy Tihngang.

About the Curator – Meghana Bisineer is an Indian-born artist, curator, and educator. Her multiform works traverse drawing, experimental animation, installation, and performance. Her work is shown internationally across film festivals, museums, galleries, and artist-lead spaces. Bisineer is Associate Professor of Animation and Graduate Fine Arts and Chair of the Animation and Game Arts programs at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. Bisineer is also the co-founder and curator of Eyewash Experimental Animation Salon and Upstream, an artist-run residency in the Sierra foothills.

Free Admission (Please register in advance)

Catalog Description: A fully illustrated publication accompanies Kota Ezawa’s Here and There — Now and Then exhibition, with texts from writer Dodie Bellamy; curator Rudolf Frieling; activist and writer Julian Brave NoiseCat; and an introduction from Frank Smigiel. This FMCAC book is edited by Fort Mason Art’s Marijane Kubow and designed by McCall Associates. It will be released on March 8, 2025, during the closing weekend of the show.

Image Credits: Numbers 1, 3 & 5 — Light Water Glass by Meghana Bisineer; Number 2 — Cosmic Clock by Al Jarnow; Number 4 — Senseless Arabesque by Christoph Steger; Number 6 — Island of Multitude by Karl Kaisel