Ben Wood
Alumni
In collaboration with the Fort Point National Historic Site, Ben Wood (SMVisS ’07) has announced the unveiling of a video artwork projected onto the interior bastion walls of Fort Point, called Fort Point: A Bastion of Memory.
Over the course of 45 minutes, hundreds of photographs visually explore the history of the fort during the early 20th century, focusing on the Fort Point Life Saving Station, Light Station, and during construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The piece is narrated by Captain Cornelius Sullivan who served at the Fort Point Life Saving Station, Meriam Nagel, a member of the multi-generational Nagel family, who grew up at the Fort Point Light Station, from 1906 – 1920 and sisters Louis Cook and Josephine Hettel who lived at the Fort Point Light Station from 1923 until shortly before its closure in 1933. Evan “Slim” Lambert, recounts surviving the Golden Gate Bridge construction accident of February 1937, in which he attempted to save the life of Fred Dummatzen. Photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge, taken by Dummatzen during its construction accompany Lambert’s account.
The darkened casemates, formerly housing instruments of war, are an unexpected venue, from which to present this new and surprising interpretation of the Fort’s history. The Battery is an ideal blank canvas on which to project compelling, site-specific visual and oral histories which we hope can add dynamic historic context, dimension and imagination to Fort Point.
This video presents animated sequences created by artfully stitching together historic still photographs, with oral histories sourced from archival collections held at the Maritime National Historic Library, GGNRA Park Archives and Records Center (PARC), the Western Neighborhoods Project, and the San Francisco Labor Archive among others. On View, Thursday – Monday, from 10am – 4:30pm, 2nd Floor West Bastion, until December 30, 2024.
On Saturday, August 17, there will be a special discussion between Wood and Golden Gate National Recreation Area Park Archivist, Amanda Williford on at 2pm – 3pm. They will show the segments of A BASTION OF MEMORY and discuss visual and oral histories and memories derived from the park archives and shown within the video.