O' Farrell and Polk, San Francisco

Eleanor Coppola, Windows: No. 51 - O'Farrell & Polk Streets (16th February-18th March 1973)

Description

In Eleanor Coppola's participatory Windows (1973), she proposed that visitors pick up a map and go out into the streets of San Francisco to complete the experience of the exhibition. The windows that were designated by the artist as rich visual pieces for the duration of the show varied considerably in type and neighborhood. Only the street addresses were provided. The viewer was left to discover each storefront or home, with its existing interior composition and changing reflections. There were no stated criteria for how she chose the particular windows, only the sense of her interest in framing the found elements as equivalents to art objects. Instead of making an intervention into the window displays or inserting the artist's own presence, this conceptually-driven work underscored the role of the author in creating a system for observation. (Zimbardo 2013)