1275 Minnesota St /
Media Gallery
Shimon Attie: Night Watch
Presented by BOXBLUR at Catharine Clark Gallery
Night Watch features close-up video portraits of 12 refugees granted political asylum in the United States. The individuals displayed on the screen are from five continents, and are largely members of the international LGBTQ+ communities, as well as unaccompanied minors, who fled tremendous violence and discrimination in their homelands. The individuals displayed in the work arrived from Nigeria, Honduras, Columbia, Russia, Kazahkstan, Jamaica, and Peru.
The original work is presented on a 20ft-wide hi-resolution LED-screen aboard a large, slow-moving barge, first in New York City and most recently in the San Francisco Bay. Night Watch activated and animated NYC’s waterways as both literal and metaphoric sites and landscapes for escape, rescue, safe-passage, and the offering of safe-harbor for those most vulnerable. The artwork thus engaged one of the most urgent issues of our time – that of welcoming or closing our doors to asylum seekers and refugees.