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Written by Trippe
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Monday, 04 December 2006, 5:35am
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 Check out some photos of this beast of a closed hospital that's here in SF in the Presidio.
 I think we were just out front the Hemlock just after closing trying to figure something out to do one night last year. Normally, we'd swim at a nearby hotel but tonight I remembered an abandoned hospital out at the presidio. We could get some more beer and creep around the massive old building in the dark... We made our way up the fire escape even though they'd greased it to keep people out. On the second or third floor we found a broken door window just big enough to get through. Once inside we used our cell phones for flash lights and checked out the graffiti and snuck about spooking ourselves along the way. We found some blood, a pigeon carcass, and about a half hour into the journey as we were making our way down the dark hallway our dim cell phone lights unable to peirce the black we heard something coming at us. Someone yelled something unidentifiable and a scarp of wood came to a rest off to the side of the hallway. We all froze then very quickly got the hell out of there making our way down the flights of stairs completely expecting someone to jump out at us at any moment...
Outside we were relieved. It was probably some homeless dude sleeping in there that we woke up. Who knows, but the place is spooky, so after a bike ride the other night where we passed the old hospital I got online to see if I could dig up some more info. One, it wasn't a mental hospital as I thought, and there's tons of great graffiti inside. I found a great flikr page of photos with text by Tristan Savatier. Below are his words and a sample of the great photos he took. You can see the full set on his Flickr page. |
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Public Health Service Hospital (PHSH) - Presidio, San Francisco, CA
Photos by Tristan Savatier
The abandoned Public Health Service Hospital (PHSH) is located in the Presidio of San Francisco, at the north end of 15th av (see aerial photo, historical map, google-map, google earth Placemark, and bird's eye view). Built in 1931 on the site of the old U.S. Marine Hospital (1875), the 480-bed hospital, also known as building 1801, closed in 1981.
From 1981 to 1988 the hospital was used by the Defense Language Institute (DLI), except for the 6th floor southwest which was used by the now defunct Letterman Army Medical Center (LAMC) for medical research and animal experiments.
The PHSH is completely abandoned since 1988. There are plans to demolish the modern aisles and transform the historical buildings into housing with construction starting in 2005, so everything you see here will be destroyed soon.
The Presidio Hospital is a really interesting place to explore, as it is very large (6 interconnected buildings, most of them 7-story), mostly intact and covered with *many* cool graffiti. It was once used as a movie set (see those Command Center Delta stencils). At night the place is rather spooky. We heard that one person gotmurdered in the PHSH in 2002.
The building in the back contains the hospital kitchen with its enormous freezers, the operating rooms and a number of X-ray machines. Many operating rooms still have floodlights and rubber tubes hanging from the ceiling. Several old X-Ray machines are rusting in place. Many of those X-ray machines and scanners were top-of-the-line multi-million dollar equipment in 1981 when the hoptital was closed, and they have just been left there, what a waste of public money!
In the eastern part of the basement, the morgue still has its freezer with six big drawers for the dead bodies, and the greenish autopsy room next door. Many rusted machines, pumps, pipes and tanks are still there.
The buildings are fenced and boarded and since 2006 it appears to be guarded 24/7. Police are often seen in the parking lot. Cleaning crews may be working in the buildings during working hours.
There is now an alarm (with infrared heat sensors) in the main stairway area and in the basement, and it notifies the U.S. Park Police when it triggers (it also makes quite a lot of noise!). Officer Pat Smith may send his dog after you and call his colleagues for backup. Remember, trespassing is illegal and can be prosecuted (if you get caught!). See California Penal Code 602 (k).
If the Park Police sees you going in or out of the PHSH, you are likely get arrested and to receive a $100 ticket. Recently Park Police confiscated Memory Cards from the digital cameras of trespassers, which I don't think they have the right to do.
And if you intend to do graffiti or cause any depredation, you should read 18 U.S.C. § 1361. I wonder if the Presidio Trust could get in trouble for destroying all this unique graffiti art when the buildings will be rehabilitated... Hmmm I guess not: Graffiti is detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the community according to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Another interesting area a few yards North is the old SF-89L Nike ground-to-air missile site from the cold war era, but that's another story!
To see more photos, click here.
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To view the complete set, click here.
{moscomment}
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| Dave Kinsey @FFDG
Last Friday we were pleased to open up Dave Kinsey's first solo show in San Francisco since before 2000 when Dave was doing a lot of work in streets with his then work partner Shepard Fairey. A lot of the smaller works are homage to that era, i.e., the titles are San Francisco street names. Love his new direction.
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| STREETOPIA @The Luggage Store
After our Dave Kinsey opening last Friday, we made our way down Market Street for Luggage Store's opening of STREETOPIA. Ran into a lot of friends and was amazed at how transformed the gallery was. Multiple rooms built out to include a Free Cafe, a theater, a gallery/studio, and a library. Streetopia will host free performances, teachings, and talks in the city every day for the show's month-long run and, thus, will provide a temporary space that offers opportunities for participation, agency, critical thinking, learning, sharing of ideas, and tools for community building that will reverberate in the real city after the city we build in the gallery is long gone.
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| Matt Moore in Paris
From Matt Moore: A new series of (entirely spraypaint) canvas painting created during a 1-month residency in Paris. A true evolution from the purely geometric abstractions I have explored in my past few exhibitions : Sun Ray Ricochet (Moscow 2011) + XYZ Axis (Cincinnati 2011) + Crystals & Lasers (Paris 2010) + Parallel Universe (Sao Paulo 2009) + 20/20 (Barcelona 2008). An exciting new chapter.
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| Barry McGee at Prism LA
Doug Neill emailed over a few photos from Barry McGee's opening last Friday at Prism in Los Angeles.
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| Further Collective Flagstaff Mural
The Further Collective: Mario Martinez (Mars-1), Damon Soule & Oliver Vernon were in Flagstaff last week collaborating on an outdoor mural at The Flagstaff Brewing Company located in the historical district of downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
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| INTERVIEW with Tristan Patterson
Director of the documentary film DRAGONSLAYER --> DRAGONSLAYER is a documentary about the skateboarder Josh "Skreech" Sandoval. He's a character and the film follows his many ups and downs dealing with young parenthood, competing, and relationships. However, rather then try and make some type of statement about him, it just presents him objectively in the way that he is through wonderful cinematography.
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| 2 New Zines by Pacolli & Mildred
Got two new zines from Mildred and Pacolli for us to share with you. Pacolli's The Last Chance Kids is published through Volcom's Artist Series and is 40 pages and sells for only $7 printed on thick quality heavy stock.
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| Logan Crable's Blow Jobs
Logan Crable emailed us the other day with an offer to view his Blow Job series. Normally we don't get offers to view someone's porn project, but we quickly learned that the blowing is more in the literal sense as opposed to the pleasuring form.
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| Michelle Ramin & SFAI Grad Show
Thanks to Michelle Ramin for emailing us some her recent paintings. Michelle will be displaying her work as part of SFAI's MFA graduate show running this weekend and opening Friday, May 11th at the Pheonix Hotel here in San Francisco.
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| Interview with Jeff Depner
Whether conceptually motivated or intuitively created, the process of painting has been a main attribute in art for sometime now. Controlling the surface of a canvas is at the root of most contemporary painting. Vancouver native Jeff Depner's work creates avenues for visual discovery through a process based aesthetic. Layers upon layers of paint each relating to the next. Masking some, if not all, of the past creates a visual history within. The work ebbs and flows between graphic qualities and thick painterly styles with muted but contemporary feeling colors. The constant process of 'improvised moves' allows some of the work to be based in grid like structures. It allows some of the smaller paintings a chance for inquiry in constructive qualities and aspects of painting, inserting his work into the long history of painting.
 |
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| If Bill Murray was a Triple Bacon Cheeseburger
Bay Area artist Cahill Wessel emailed over a couple gems- food/human hybrids with wonderful titles. Made our morning.
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| Michael Miller @Fifty24SF
On the way home from Fecal Face a couple Fridays back we swung through Fifty24SF to catch the two day show with the LA based hip-hop photographer Michael Miller in celebration of his new book. West coast hip-hop iconic early 1990's hip-hop photographs, including numerous photos of 2pac, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Warren G... the bonus: Eazy-E touting a skateboard and a gun?!
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| Marissa Textor - Mini Interview
Marissa Textor and Ryan Travis Christian are currently showing together at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto. Gerald interviews the LA based Marissa Textor. Check out her detailed graphite drawings.
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| Richmond Virginia Street Art Festival 2012
A couple weeks back Jeff Soto flew out to Richmond, VA for their street art festival to do some mural action. Artists included the likes of Hense, Richard Colman, Dalek, Hamilton Glass, and many more.
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| Dave Kinsey @FFDG, May 18th
Mark your calendar: Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words @FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm).
New mixed media paintings and installation. This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years and his first on the West Coast since 2007... We're very excited. Below is a lil' taste of what's to come.
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| ROA at Stolen Space, London
Massive show from this prolific Belgium based sreet artist.
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| Hamishi in Melbourne
Hamishi emailed over some photos from his current show Nothing Special running at Melbourne's Paradise Hills through this Saturday, May 5th. If you're in Melbourne, view it in person as we're sure it looks even better in person.
Hamishi participated in last November's group show 11.11.11 @FFDG back in November with Mario Martinez showing a solo show... Man, that's was a nutty opening before the cops showed up.
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| Opening Pics @FFDG for C.P.H.
Alex Uhrich & Gerald Anekwe got some photos from the recent group show at FFDG, Cigarettes, Phone Cards & Hip Hop Clothing.
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| Spoke Art Thursday
Spoke Art here in SF opens the group show Synergy curated by LA's Thinkspace this Thursday, May 3rd (6-10pm) featuring works by a slew of artists that Thinkspace works with. Spoke Art sent us a taste for you to sample.
 |
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| Ludo's Palynology
Ludo who we've featured many times emailed over a recent piece from Katowice in Poland called "Palynology".
 |
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| Murals by Flavio Samelo (Brazil)
We had the pleasure of meeting Flavio Samelo when we were in Sao Paulo last summer (blog). He's a skateboarder/ photographer and talented artist. Here are some photos from some of his recent mural done in Rio de Janeiro, also in his words.
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New Fish Print
Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 10:12am
Our buddy Jeremy Fish has a brand new print The Golden Hills out through Upper Playground. The print is made in an edition of 100, signed and numbered by the artist, and printed at the fantastic Bloom Press in Oakland, California. 18" x 24" $100
This drawing was inspired by that looming feeling that San Francisco is an isolated island from the rest of the country. As SF becomes more and more expensive, and the lower income creative folks that make this city pulse get squeezed off the island, "the city that knows how" will slowly transform into a sterile west coast Manhattan full of tech chads and internet gurus. —Jeremy Fish
To All The Graduates
Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 11:23am
Congrats to some of our friends who've just graduated from SFAI this past weekend. Henry Gunderson (below), Alex Ziv, Quinn Arneson and our intern Alex Uhrich among many more not only at SFAI but those at CCA and other schools across the country. May you all work hard and prosper in your future arting endeavors.
Henry Gunderson all grown up, college graduated and bow-tied.
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Wednesday, 25 April 2012, 11:56am
Marc Jacobs vs. The Graffiti Artist
Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 1:40pm
Marc Jacobs vs. The Graffiti Artist, Round 2: When Jacobs Turns Vandalized Store Into $680 Shirt <-- Earlier this week, on the night of the Met Ball, the Marc Jacobs boutique in SoHo was hit by French graffiti artist Kidult, who has famously vandalized Supreme, Hermes, and Louis Vuitton, among others. The hit? Kidult took a fire extinguisher filled with pink paint, and sprayed the word ART over the front of the store (seen below). ~continue reading
Dave Kinsey @FFDG 5/18
Wednesday, 09 May 2012, 1:00pm
Thanks to Arrested Motion who posted some info on Dave Kinsey's solo show Lost For Words which opens at FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm). This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years. RSVP.
Founder of BLK/MRKT w/ Shepard Fairey in '97 (becoming sole owner in '03), lengedary street artist with his Unlearn campaign, and highly accomplished painter, it's with great honor that we welcome him back to San Francisco. New paintings, mixed media and installation, it should be one of our best shows to date and a lot of fun. -Complete Show Details
Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words at FFDG on Fri, May 18th.
Asian Art Museum Tonight, Thurs
Thursday, 17 May 2012, 10:51am
The Asian Art Museum opens their grand first contemporary show PHANTOMS OF ASIA with a massive preview party this evening with DJs, food, and other goodies 7:30pm - midnight ~details
We went to the press preview yesterday and should have some photos to share, but time constraints due to preparations for our show w/ Dave Kinsey opening Friday and the lack of a mayor Ed Lee which all were waiting for... Well, we had to bail before they let us preview the show... What we've seen online looks great and tonight should be a blast. See you there.
Some of the artists participating in PHANTOMS OF ASIA under Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa's 24-foot-tall "Breathing Flower" in the Civic Center.
Phantoms of Asia Opening Thurs, 17th
Friday, 11 May 2012, 1:29pm
The Asian Art Museum here in San Francisco opens its first large-scale contemporary art exhibition Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past with a big old preview party on Thursday, May 17th complete w/ DJs VIN SOL and KING MOST. ~details
Curated by Mami Kataoka, chief curator of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, in collaboration with Allison Harding, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Asian Art Museum, Phantoms of Asia features artworks by contemporary artists hailing from Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Tibet, and the U.S. Going to be a great show.
Installation by Choi Jeong Hwa
The Slingluff Gallery
Thursday, 10 May 2012, 10:06am
Thanks to the Slingluff Gallery in Phildelphia for helping to support Fecal Face by buying a lil' ad which you can view by scrolling down here in the news section. Those lil' guys will only set you back $50 for the month as our special rates continue for the month of May. Get yours.
Print by Ralph Stollenwerk from the LOST TREASURES collection. $21
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+SF
| :: Sketch Tuesdays @ 111 Minna Gallery - Tue | | :: Susan Freinkel - Eternal Plastic: A Tox.. - Tue | | :: Visioning the Invisible in Augmented Re.. - Wed | | :: "So you think you can Paint?" - Thu | | :: RAW SF: The Blend with B.LEWIS, THE SPI.. - Thu | | :: Nothing Is Ever Finished - Thu | | :: 'Yi, dos, drei, four' - Fri | | :: SFFS Presents: 'Once Upon a Time in Ana.. - Fri | | :: Friday Nights at SF Decorator Showcase .. - Fri | | :: "Graphical Inspirations" Art Opening - Fri | | :: Opening Reception for 'Yi, dos, drei, f.. - Fri | | :: “Between the Lines” a solo exhibition b.. - Fri | | :: “YI, DOS, DREI, FOUR” - Fri | | :: “YI, DOS, DREI, FOUR” - Fri |
+NYC
+LA
FULL CALENDARS: BAY AREA | NYC | LA
| 
-as of 10am
| Dave Kinsey @FFDG
Last Friday we were pleased to open up Dave Kinsey's first solo show in San Francisco since before 2000 when Dave was doing a lot of work in streets with his then work partner Shepard Fairey. A lot of the smaller works are homage to that era, i.e., the titles are San Francisco street names. Love his new direction.
|
|
| STREETOPIA @The Luggage Store
After our Dave Kinsey opening last Friday, we made our way down Market Street for Luggage Store's opening of STREETOPIA. Ran into a lot of friends and was amazed at how transformed the gallery was. Multiple rooms built out to include a Free Cafe, a theater, a gallery/studio, and a library. Streetopia will host free performances, teachings, and talks in the city every day for the show's month-long run and, thus, will provide a temporary space that offers opportunities for participation, agency, critical thinking, learning, sharing of ideas, and tools for community building that will reverberate in the real city after the city we build in the gallery is long gone.
|
|
| Matt Moore in Paris
From Matt Moore: A new series of (entirely spraypaint) canvas painting created during a 1-month residency in Paris. A true evolution from the purely geometric abstractions I have explored in my past few exhibitions : Sun Ray Ricochet (Moscow 2011) + XYZ Axis (Cincinnati 2011) + Crystals & Lasers (Paris 2010) + Parallel Universe (Sao Paulo 2009) + 20/20 (Barcelona 2008). An exciting new chapter.
|
|
| Barry McGee at Prism LA
Doug Neill emailed over a few photos from Barry McGee's opening last Friday at Prism in Los Angeles.
|
|
| Further Collective Flagstaff Mural
The Further Collective: Mario Martinez (Mars-1), Damon Soule & Oliver Vernon were in Flagstaff last week collaborating on an outdoor mural at The Flagstaff Brewing Company located in the historical district of downtown Flagstaff, AZ.
|
|
| INTERVIEW with Tristan Patterson
Director of the documentary film DRAGONSLAYER --> DRAGONSLAYER is a documentary about the skateboarder Josh "Skreech" Sandoval. He's a character and the film follows his many ups and downs dealing with young parenthood, competing, and relationships. However, rather then try and make some type of statement about him, it just presents him objectively in the way that he is through wonderful cinematography.
|
|
| 2 New Zines by Pacolli & Mildred
Got two new zines from Mildred and Pacolli for us to share with you. Pacolli's The Last Chance Kids is published through Volcom's Artist Series and is 40 pages and sells for only $7 printed on thick quality heavy stock.
|
|
| Logan Crable's Blow Jobs
Logan Crable emailed us the other day with an offer to view his Blow Job series. Normally we don't get offers to view someone's porn project, but we quickly learned that the blowing is more in the literal sense as opposed to the pleasuring form.
|
|
| Michelle Ramin & SFAI Grad Show
Thanks to Michelle Ramin for emailing us some her recent paintings. Michelle will be displaying her work as part of SFAI's MFA graduate show running this weekend and opening Friday, May 11th at the Pheonix Hotel here in San Francisco.
|
|
| Interview with Jeff Depner
Whether conceptually motivated or intuitively created, the process of painting has been a main attribute in art for sometime now. Controlling the surface of a canvas is at the root of most contemporary painting. Vancouver native Jeff Depner's work creates avenues for visual discovery through a process based aesthetic. Layers upon layers of paint each relating to the next. Masking some, if not all, of the past creates a visual history within. The work ebbs and flows between graphic qualities and thick painterly styles with muted but contemporary feeling colors. The constant process of 'improvised moves' allows some of the work to be based in grid like structures. It allows some of the smaller paintings a chance for inquiry in constructive qualities and aspects of painting, inserting his work into the long history of painting.
|
|
| If Bill Murray was a Triple Bacon Cheeseburger
Bay Area artist Cahill Wessel emailed over a couple gems- food/human hybrids with wonderful titles. Made our morning.
|
|
| Michael Miller @Fifty24SF
On the way home from Fecal Face a couple Fridays back we swung through Fifty24SF to catch the two day show with the LA based hip-hop photographer Michael Miller in celebration of his new book. West coast hip-hop iconic early 1990's hip-hop photographs, including numerous photos of 2pac, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Warren G... the bonus: Eazy-E touting a skateboard and a gun?!
|
|
| Marissa Textor - Mini Interview
Marissa Textor and Ryan Travis Christian are currently showing together at Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto. Gerald interviews the LA based Marissa Textor. Check out her detailed graphite drawings.
|
|
| Richmond Virginia Street Art Festival 2012
A couple weeks back Jeff Soto flew out to Richmond, VA for their street art festival to do some mural action. Artists included the likes of Hense, Richard Colman, Dalek, Hamilton Glass, and many more.
|
|
| Dave Kinsey @FFDG, May 18th
Mark your calendar: Dave Kinsey opens Lost For Words @FFDG in San Francisco on Friday, May 18th (6-9pm).
New mixed media paintings and installation. This will be his first show in San Francisco in 12 years and his first on the West Coast since 2007... We're very excited. Below is a lil' taste of what's to come.
|
|
| ROA at Stolen Space, London
Massive show from this prolific Belgium based sreet artist.
|
|
| Hamishi in Melbourne
Hamishi emailed over some photos from his current show Nothing Special running at Melbourne's Paradise Hills through this Saturday, May 5th. If you're in Melbourne, view it in person as we're sure it looks even better in person.
Hamishi participated in last November's group show 11.11.11 @FFDG back in November with Mario Martinez showing a solo show... Man, that's was a nutty opening before the cops showed up.
|
|
| Opening Pics @FFDG for C.P.H.
Alex Uhrich & Gerald Anekwe got some photos from the recent group show at FFDG, Cigarettes, Phone Cards & Hip Hop Clothing.
|
|
| Spoke Art Thursday
Spoke Art here in SF opens the group show Synergy curated by LA's Thinkspace this Thursday, May 3rd (6-10pm) featuring works by a slew of artists that Thinkspace works with. Spoke Art sent us a taste for you to sample.
|
|
| Ludo's Palynology
Ludo who we've featured many times emailed over a recent piece from Katowice in Poland called "Palynology".
|
|
| Murals by Flavio Samelo (Brazil)
We had the pleasure of meeting Flavio Samelo when we were in Sao Paulo last summer (blog). He's a skateboarder/ photographer and talented artist. Here are some photos from some of his recent mural done in Rio de Janeiro, also in his words.
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