In public art projects we've explored the intersection of art and social issues in contemporary public art practice. Since 1994, our notions of public space have evolved to include the electronic space of the Internet as a new forum for the presentation of work and ideas.

As we all approach the millennium and grapple with the substantial changes in how we perceive the external world and how we communicate, our gallery work continues to investigate the potential of collaborative and image-text production to create engaging work that matters.

3-98

Over the past thirteen years the collaboration Margaret Crane/Jon Winet has produced over one hundred exhibitions, publications and projects. Their work revolves around language and photography and includes multi-media installations, public art projects and sites on the Internet and World Wide Web. Since 1994, they've been artists in residence at Xerox PARC, a technology think tank in Palo Alto, working with researchers Scott Minneman and Dale MacDonald.

In June 1998, they'll present Nightfall, an interactive multi-media installation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Their most recent completed project, Sunset, an interactive "drive-by" narrative was featured in SIGGRAPH 97's Electric Garden and at Billboard Live on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.

1996-97 projects include Accommodations, an electronic installation in a 1959 single-wide mobile home in a senior citizens trailer park in Goleta, California for the Santa Barbara Contemporary Art Forum's off-site exhibition "Home Show 2;" Conventional Wisdom, a Java-fueled, web-based dynamic document operating at the intersection of art and journalism produced in conjunction with the Democratic and Republican national political conventions; and The Inaugural Ball, a multi-media time-based installation at the Ansel Adams Center for Photography in San Francisco. Since 1994, the collaboration has worked on General Hospital, an Internet-based public art commission for Capp Street Project's Art in the Urban Landscape. Related gallery exhibitions have been presented at the Pasadena Armory Center for the Arts, SF Camerawork, New Langton Arts and Terrain Gallery in San Francisco.

In May 1994, Margaret and Jon produced The Market Street Chronicles, a small inspirational/informational booklet, printed in an edition of 15,000 and distributed in a single day along Market Street as part of the San Francisco Arts Commission's "Market Street Art In Transit Project." In 1993, they completed a commission for Public Art Works, a Marin County arts organization. The Days of Our Lives is a series of thirteen trading cards, including English and Spanish versions, addressing social issues and their corresponding Marin County social service agencies. Ten thousand of each card were distributed through the agencies and the Marin County Library System.

In 1992 they participated in a Bay Area public awareness campaign on domestic violence. Sponsored by Liz Claiborne, Inc. and coordinated by Lynne Sowder of Y-Core, the project featured billboards and bus shelter posters, and an extensive community involvement component. In 1992 they also created a trio of installations about the presidential elections: "The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives" which opened on Election Day at Mincher/Wilcox Gallery in San Francisco; "The Voting Booth" in the project room of Christopher Grimes Gallery in Santa Monica; and "The Best Years of Our Lives" at White Columns in New York City.

They give frequent lectures and presentations about their work and related issues in art and society. During the 97-98 academic year, they are visiting artists in the Center for Digital Media and New Genres Department of the San Francisco Art Institute. They also continue research on "Capital," a mixed media installation and book project set in Las Vegas, Nevada and Washington, D.C.; and "Democracy," a year-long project in conjunction with the 2000 Presidential Elections.

Margaret Crane
John Winet
March 1998