Sarah Sze’s new SFMOMA commission begins in a part of the museum that needs no ticket. It will occupy the Haas, Jr. Atrium, putting paintings, projections and sound in the path of people arriving at the building.
Forever is Composed of Nows opens November 21. Three monumental paintings, video projections and sound extend through the building, with two twenty-seven-foot paintings flanking the central staircase and a third higher up. The title comes from a poem by Emily Dickinson.
The museum says the installation will respond to visitors’ movements, increasing the density of sound and imagery as the crowd grows. The room’s traffic is therefore part of how the work operates. Someone passing through contributes to an environment that someone else may have stopped to watch.
Sze and SFMOMA developed the commission with Prime Access Consulting, considering blind, low-vision and Deaf visitors from the beginning. Passages from Dickinson’s poem appear in braille along stairway and elevator railings. A surface someone follows to navigate the museum also carries part of the work.
The atrium gives the commission an audience that may not have come looking for it. Some visitors will pass through; others will stop, changing the sound and imagery for whoever arrives next. How that feels in a busy room will become clear when the work opens. The atrium is free to enter; visitors will not need an exhibition ticket to encounter the work.