Luggage Store Gallery's Projection Series by Eliza Barrios (excerpt from plantingrice.com article, 1.15.12)

As the curator of the Luggage Store Gallery's Projection Series I have had the privilege of working with both local and international artists, to help bring more media arts to the Bay Area. The Projection Series has been funded in part by the SF Arts Commission and is one of many programs offered by the Luggage Store Gallery.

The Luggage Store Gallery is located on 6th & Market; it is co-directed by Darryl Smith and Laurie Lazer, and was established in 1991. The Luggage Store Gallery has been at the forefront of initiating innovative and thought-provoking programs, frequently helping to launch the careers of many of the region's most outstanding artists. These include: Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Brett Cook, iona rozeal brown, Amy Franceschini, Clare Rojas, Edgar Arceneaux, OsGemeos, Chris Johanson, Ala Ebtakar, Rigo23 and many others.

The Luggage Store Gallery's program includes the weekly Creative Music Series, a monthly City Poetry Slam, as well as special community events. As the newest program of the Luggage Store Gallery, the Projection Series is the first of its kind in San Francisco to offer a consistent program of new media art to the public for free, again reinforcing the Luggage Store Gallery's role as a space for creative, innovative and inspiring programs.

The Projection Series began in December 2010, as part of the SF Arts Commission's ARTery Project. This outdoor series was intended to help reinvigorate the Mid-Market Corridor with temporary works of art which ranged from projections to large scale sculptures. For those not familiar with San Francisco's Mid-Market location, this is an area that has been blighted by the economic downturn, and is home to many homeless and struggling individuals.

Local city officials felt that injecting arts programming into the area could possibly help improve the neighborhood. Now there has been a great deal of energy invested into stimulating the area; dot.com companies have moved in (Twitter, etc.) and business is booming. 

The programming this past year for the Projection Series has been densely packed with great works from the Philippines, Spain, Switzerland, Buenos Aires, as well as local Bay Area creations as well. The Projection Series offers the public two components: the LSPS (Luggage Store Projection Space) and the MPU (Mobile Projection Unit). 

LSPS is where the consistent programming occurs in their windows. MPU takes a large projector, a generator and a laptop to create large scale projections (from 20' to 40') on the side of  buildings, altering the landscape of the city. This component, often times done guerrilla style, has been co-curated with artists Paz de la Calzada and Jorge Bachmann.

People from all walks of life have engaged with me about the work, asking questions and suddenly re-evaluating their surroundings in this advertisement laden city. When one consistently sees moving imagery and blinking lights in a public space, we often think: "What are they selling?" It's safe to say that the Luggage Store Projection Series not only offers art for free, but also challenges the cityscape and urban dwellers to delve deeper into their surroundings.

The scope of past projects included:

The Lost Cities Project by Chris Brown and Johanna Poethig

This psycho-geographical, mixed-media narrative explores pre and post apocalyptic urban landscapes and architectural backdrops through imaginary characters named "the sub-colonials" who move, dance and tread through these past futurist and surreal environments. Using RF technology bicyclists with boom boxes were able to transmit sounds specifically relating the videos in the window creating a multilayered sound+vision extravaganza.

absolutely-NO-liability curated by Lian Ladia

Coming all the way from the Philippines, I was proud to present this program chok-full of legendary and internationally acclaimed artists curated by Lian Ladia. This program was successful not only because the Luggage Store Gallery is very close to SOMA (a predominantly Filipino, Filipino-American Community), but because it also international perspective of what media arts can be offered the city .

MPU Program ONE

Projecting upon a large building in the heart of the Tenderloin, where art is not often found, Program ONE caught the eye of several people encountering the pieces. Standing on ground level stimulating conversations existed from the local families living in the area, to the homeless to the regular commuter. It felt as if the dialog of art can and should not be limited to artists.

Artists include:

Hunter Longe, Ranu Mukherjee, Gina Osterloh, Michael Hall, C. Ryder Cooley, Sarah Klein, Paz de la Calzada, J. Alvaro Perdices, Arnulfo Medina Carreña, Carolyn Castaño, Adriana Varella, Nathan Danilowicz, Hong-An Truong, Pascual Sisto, Roxlee, Jon Red, Kaloy Olavides, Vic Balanon & Ferdz Valencia, Jun Sabayton, Kiri Dalena, Lyra Garcellano, Kawayan De Guia, Kidlat De Guia, Ling Qisumbing Ramilo, Nara Denning, Chris Brown, Johanna Poethig, Stephen Parr (Oddball Films), Megan Wilson, TWCDC, Jessica Resmond, Kadet Khune, MEI collectiv, Camilo Tarabay, Ana Teresa Fernandez, Mar Caldas, Stephanie Sheriff, Nicolas Ly, Jorge Bachmann and myself.