One inch porcelain tile
20' x 32'
$91,000

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in collaboration with Larry Sultan

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This project for the San Francisco Airport is a gateroom wall measuring 20 x 32 feet. The mosaic tile mural uses 99 colors of unglazed one-inch porcelain tile. There are 92,000 pieces of tile that comprise the mural.

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The airport is a gateway both literally and symbolically. It is a point of arrival and departure from our past, our home, our jobs, and a place of transition to new connections and opportunities. With international travel the airport has become the mythical point of entry and return.

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The international terminal, expecially, is a public space where people of very different cultural and class backgrounds crowd together in the ritual of waiting; waiting for lovers, family and friends, anticipating that first moment of recognition, of welcome and re-connection into their world.

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We photographed these moments hoping to capture and portray the familiar, mundane yet deeply symbolic drama of waiting. We would like the audience for our piece to see themselves mirrored in a way so they may consider their situation from a wider frame of reference.