BOXBLUR 2025 / Catharine Clark Gallery
BOXBLUR, founded in 2016, is a fiscally sponsored project of Dance Film SF. Central to its efforts is its partnership with the San Francisco Dance Film Festival.
The mission of BOXBLUR is to bring performing and visual art into dialogue through producing and hosting performance and time-based programs in the gallery’s exhibition space and in other non-proscenium settings. BOXBLUR programs are socially engaged, ephemeral, experimental and performative projects that are often realized through collaboration with other arts organizations. Annually, BOXBLUR screens films at Catharine Clark Gallery that are selected by the San Francisco Dance Film Festival to reflect on ideas in the gallery’s visual arts exhibitions.
In addition to screening the films of SF Dance Film Festival, BOXBLUR commissions and presents projects by performers and their artist collaborators. To date these have included:
2025: Monique Jenkinson (performance art) in response to Moving Pictures: A Survey Exhibition of Work by Deborah Oropallo and Collaborators at di Rosa Art Center, Napa (2025); Whether You Fly, an Ekphrastic Poetry Happening with Annice Jacoby (writer) and Maw Shein Win (poet), Yiskah Rosenfeld (poet), Heather June Gibbons (poet), Jennifer Futernick (poet), James Cagney (poet), and Adrian Arias (poet and performance artist) in response to Julie Heffernan’s work (2025)
2024: Tracy Bonham (composer, guitar, piano, and voice) in response to Julie Heffernan’s work (2024); Daniel Handler (writer) in conversation with Julie Heffernan (2024); Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, Ph.D (curator and writer) in conversation with Wanxin Zhang (2024); Sarah Cahill (piano) in response to Amy Trachtenberg’s work (2024); Bradley McCallum (social practice) in conversation with Charles Whitacker (Dean of the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University) about James Foley, safety for journalists, and freedom of the press (2024); Shinji Eshima (bassist and composer) with musicians Ani Bukujian (violin), Steve D’Amico (cello), bass players: Soren Davick, Evan Hillis, Alexandria Kelley, Jon Lancelle, Yuchen Liu, Michael Minor, Carlos Valdez, and Christopher Yick, and chanting by members of the San Francisco Zen Center in response to Chris Doyle and Chester Arnold’s work and to poems read by Anton Stuebner and Chester Arnold (2024); Norma Cole (writer), Forrest Gander (writer), Robert Glück (writer) in response to Amy Trachtenberg’s work (2024)
2023: Andrew Evans (magician) magic performance in response to Nina Katchadourian’s work; Emily Keeler (writer and playwright) with actor and dramaturg Andrea Snow and Jael Weisman in EXiT; Monique Jenkinson (dance and performance art) in response to Masami Teraoka’s work (2023); BOXBLUR and Minnesota Street Project Foundation at Stern Grove for Patti Smith concert and as a fundraiser for all three organizations (2023)
2022: Viktoria Naraxsa (Pussy Riot performer and author), with readers A. Madison Cario, Tony Bravo, Monique Jenkinson (reader and production organizer), Matt Sussman (reader), Zeina Barakeh (reader), Liliya Rattari (reader and editor/translator), and Jason Dewees (reader), organized as a fundraiser for Queer Studio and International Rescue Committee’s work in Ukraine in response to art work by Al Farrow, Masami Teraoka, and Zeina Barakeh (2022); Shinji Eshima (composer) with musicians Charles Chandler (bass), Samuel Schlosser (trombone), and Amos Young (cello) in response to Arleene Correa Valencia and Ana Teresa Fernandez’s work (2022); Adji Cissoko and Michael Montgomery (choreography and dance) in collaboration with Shinji Eshima and in response to Arleene Correa Valencia and Ana Teresa Fernandez’s work (2022); Cliff Hengst (writer), Vincent Katz (writer), Yedda Morrison (writer), and Anton Stuebner (writer) with Small Press Traffic in response to Amy Trachtenberg’s work (2022)
2021: Emma Lanier and Cauveri Suresh (choreography and dance) in response to the exhibition Open Field (2021); Phyllis Chen (piano and composer) with Ligorano/Reese (music boxes) in response to the exhibition Open Field (2021); Amy Trachtenberg (artist and event curator) with Vincent Katz, (writer), Tongo Eisen-Martin (writer), Cliff Hengst (writer), Scott Hewicker (writer), Tanya Hollis (writer), Duncan McNaughton (writer), and Ebti Shedid (writer) in response to the exhibition Open Field (2021); Leilah Talukder (fashion designer) in response to the exhibition Open Field (2021); Catherine Galasso (choreography and dance) in response to Jen Bervin’s work (2021); Shimon Attie’s Night Watch on the San Francisco Bay and at numerous Bay Area locations, including Fort Mason and sites along the SF Bay and Oakland Estuary in collaboration with Immersive Arts Alliance and 40 different arts organizations, artists, non-profit organizations serving refugees, and the cities of San Francisco and Oakland (2021)
2020: Benjamin Freemantle (choreography and dance) with SF Dance Film Festival in response to Chris Doyle’s work (2020); Monique Jenkinson/Fauxnique (performance art) in response to Timothy Cummings (2020); Rufus Wainwright (piano, voice and composer) in response to Timothy Cummings’ work (2020); Metropolis (film screening) accompanied by Club Foot Monument Machines (orchestra) in response to Kal Spelletich and Chester Arnold’s work (2020); Monument to the Unelected (installation and performance) with Nina Katchadourian at Catharine Clark Gallery and in collaboration with University of Wisconsin’s Odyssey organization at the home of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson at the Abrahamson Family Home, Madison; Roots Community Health Center, Oakland; Pace Gallery, New York; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; mOca, Cleveland; Grand Central Arts, Santa Ana; and Transformer Station, Cleveland (2020); Mullowney Printing (master printmaking demonstration) for the exhibition The Broadside in Action: A LIVE Letterpress Experience with artists Wanxin Zhang, Deborah Oropallo and Andy Rappaport, Julia Goodman and Michael Hall, Katherine Vetne, Masha Kachaeva, and Julie Heffernan (2020)
2019: Ellen Sebastian Chang, Maya Gurantz and SunHui Chang (theater, performance- art, and film) as part of the installation and exhibit titled How to Fall in Love in A Brothel and with invited performers Odeya Nini, DaEung Jung, and Marvin K. White, and the students of SF Arts Education Project, as a fundraiser for The Players production of Mathilde (2019)
2018: Kaveh Rastegar in response to Josephine Taylor’s work (2018); Jon Bernson in concert with his exhibition and performance at Catharine Clark Gallery and at Minnesota Street Project (2018); Dance Kaiso (drum and dance) and Folsom50 in response to We Tell Ourselves Stories…in Order to Live (2018); Anton Stuebner (writer, curator) selected stories by Leonora Carrington read and performed by actors and performance artists Helen Shumaker, Indira Allegra, and Monique Jenkinson in response to We Tell Ourselves Stories…in Order to Live (2018)
2017: EOS Ensemble (string quartet) performed the score by Jeremy Turner (composer) for Chris Doyle’s film Swell (2017); Alice Gray Stites (Museum Director and Chief Curator of 21c Museum Hotels) in conversation with Chris Doyle for his exhibition Swell (2017)
2016: Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in response to Kambui Olujimi’s work (2016); Fauxnique (dancer, performance-artist) in response to Kambui Olujimi’s work (2016); the students of SF Arts Education Program (fashion and dance) in response to Kambui Olujimi’s work (2016); Words on Dance, film program and conversations with filmmakers and dancers Damian Smith, Margaret Jenkins, Kristine Elliott, Amie Dowling, Weston Krukow, and My-Linh Le in response to Kambui Olujimi’s work (2016); off-site exhibition partner presenting artworks by Kambui Olujimi, California College of the Arts, Hubbell Street Galleries (2016); Oliver Halkowich (choreography and dance) in collaboration with Chris Doyle’s video animation projections at Texas Contemporary, Houston (2016)
Thank you for your support of BOXBLUR, which is invaluable to our ongoing programming,
Catharine Clark, Founding Director of BOXBLUR
Image caption: BOXBLUR: Piano setup for Sarah Cahill’s performance in response to Amy Trachtenberg’s exhibition Listening Chamber in 2024, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.
Catharine Clark Gallery’s BOXBLUR Initiative is a fiscally sponsored program by Dance Film SF, a California registered 501(c)(3) arts organization. All donations to BOXLBUR are tax-deductible.
BOXBLUR has received donations from the Abrahamson Charitable Fund, Candy Jernigan Foundation, The Lipman Family Foundation, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, Janet Mohle-Boetani Charitable Fund, Pew Charitable Trust, Rappaport Family Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Paul and Megan Segre Family Charitable Trust, Skyline Public Works, LLC, Wattis Foundation, and numerous anonymous and private donors. We thank them for their gift of performance.