Ghosts of Cliff House's past flicker back to life at museum, San Francisco Chronicle
I was humbled and honoured that legendary SF Chronicle reporter Carl Nolte, chose to report on the project. I met Carl 18 years ago when he reported on my first public projection at Mission Dolores. I saw him again on Tuesday evening and he really is a timeless embodiment of old school reporter who doesn’t miss a beat. I hope you have a chance to read his recent column in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle. As the son and grandson of newspaper men, I can’t read it any other way than in print - but you can find it online of course.
Exhibit Videos
THE CLIFF MOVING PICTURE GALLERY
The Cliff Moving Picture Gallery was a 4-Part projected after-dark video installation, which presented animated visuals with the general public through three northerly-facing windows of the former Cliff House Gift Shop in support of Western Neighborhoods Project temporary exhibition, Museum at the Cliff. Beginning in December 2021 it ran consecutively for 10 months, until October 2022. For the first 4 months, the windows were unveiled with new video sequences of animated photo, film and publicly sourced content that animated the windows with diverse scenes of the Cliff House and connected sites.
THE CLIFF MOVING PICTURE ANNEX @ Kelly's Cove
This new video installation illuminates and animates south facing windows of the former Cliff House Restaurant, overlooking the lower terrace and Ocean Beach. Using a variety of photographic media, the piece showcases the bohemian surf culture of Kelly's Cove and the vibrant legacy of Playland at the Beach, which once graced Great Highway until its demolition 50 years ago. This work is enhanced by the incredible technical and lighting ingenuity of Rick Bellamy.
We are showing submissions from the local community, which includes a wealth of photos of Kelly's Cove and Playland from legendary local photo-chronicler Dennis O’Rorke. Also, we will get to feast our eyes on never-before-shown super 8 film from 50+ years ago shot by Terry Weinberg and his dad Murray Weinberg.
Diving Bell brought to Life in the Cliff House Freezer
Check out my humble contributions sharing b-roll footage from the 1958 film the Line Up and a projected video within the old Cliff House restaurant freezer which brings visuals of the Diving Bell to life. This work is enhanced by the incredible audio of Andrew Roth, the technical and lighting ingenuity of Rick Bellamy and once again the Prelinger Archive.
Naiad Cove Sideshow
Over Labor Day weekend, we also unveiled the latest addition to the Museum at the Cliff, the Naiad Cove Sideshow.
Just like it’s sister show, the illuminated Sideshow takes you on a 74 minute colorful journey through the time with photos and motion pictures of Cliff House, Sutro’s, Playland and Ocean Beach from the 1880s to the present day. The sideshow lighting was designed by Rick Bellamy.