Bending Over Backwards (BOB) is a multi-site and multi-media permanent installation consisting of 2 dimensional murals of trapeze artists that each have an audio component and that are linked by audio/visual walking tours between the sites that reveal social, historical, political and environmental histories.Trapeze artists (painted on wood cut-outs and attached to the wall) are pictured in two neighborhoods of San Francisco, the Mission and SOMA, in an electrifying peak moment of their craft, embodying a mixture of whimsy, pathos and a sense of extraordinary possibility in their gravity-defying feat.
Bending Over Backwards explores the high wire act that thriving in today’s world can be, providing visual and audio metaphors for tenacious, exhilarating and daring flights made in the attempt to realize one’s dreams. The trapeze artists’ success is possible only with great discipline, communication, strength, teamwork, vision and humor; echoing some of the skills necessary for a viable life in late stage capitalism of the twenty first century. For example: there have been several installations of BOB which have not survived the onslaught of gentrification. However, after a set of figures has been ‘disappeared’ another set of figures soon emerges. The elements of time, history, memory and tenacity are embodied in these appearances and disappearances.
