Women with big impact in public art

Small gestures made on a public scale are capable of making the biggest impact, according to the curators of Public Works:

New Orleans artist Candy Chang’s continuing “I Wish This Was” project, for instance, appropriates the “Hello I Am” slap stickers of the graffiti world and invites viewers to scribble in their thoughts, hopes and fantasies concerning closed storefronts and shuttered real estate.

Chang is just one of about two dozen contemporary female artists like subversive giants such as Karen Finley and Guerrilla Girls recognized in this exploration of art-making in public spaces, which runs through Dec. 13.

Other powerful works include “Photo Requests From Solitary” by Chicago artist Laurie Jo Reynolds and Tamms Year Ten, which grants photographic requests from prisoners in solitary confinement, and “Tatlin’s Whisper #6” by New York City artist Tania Bruguera, which provided a platform for free speech in Havana.

Syjuco’s wry “Ultimate Vision (Dazzle Camouflage)” and “Bedazzle a Tech Bus” comment on the collision of private transit and public streets, and Sherk’s formidable “Sitting Still Series” bears witness to the artist’s performances at the then-Army Street freeway interchange and the S.F. Zoo, among other locales.

[...] Frock acknowledges that the number of public art pieces by female artists that have been staged or centered in the Bay Area is striking.

Related Southern Exposure off-site commission, Constance Hockaday’s “You Make a Better Wall Than a Window — The Tour,” is 4:45-7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, at San Francisco Bay Ferry Terminal, 99 Embarcadero, S.F.