Megan Wilson’s Flower Interruptions are a playful response to the monotony of the predictable and day-to-day routine. Through these installations Wilson aims to create an unexpected environment of joy and delight for viewers/ participants.
The process for the Flower Interruption: AAM began in the summer of 2016 when Allison Wyckoff, Associate Director, Public and Community Programs at the Asian Art Museum invited Wilson to submit a proposal for the inaugural Art/Lit Living Innovation Zone (LIZ). Wilson created a multi-pronged project proposal that was incorporated into the overall exhibition planned for the summer of 2017, Flower Power, curated by Dany Chan.
Following several meetings with AAM team members Allison Wyckoff, Dany Chan, Ami Tseng, Tim Hallman, and Kate Ritchey to discuss logistics and budgeting, Wilson worked with graphic designer Drake Manalo to develop working mock-ups and plans of Flower Interruption: AAM that encompassed the outside and inside of the museum.
GALLERY of preliminary mock-up drawings and process for mapping the space inside the museum:
Megan Wilson’s Flower Interruption: AAM included:
Flower Interruption: Civic Center Commons:
The inaugural project of the Asian Art Museum’s Art/Lit Living Innovation Zone (LIZ) as part of San Francisco’s Civic Center Commons Initiative. Wilson’s 5’ x 31’ two-sided mural of brightly painted flowers featured the poem Flower Instructions by Maw Shein Win and spilled out onto the ground below and migrated throughout the areas around the museum on Fulton and Larkin streets.
Flower Interruption: Letter to Civic Center Commons Initiative Stakeholders:
A 22" x 30" silkscreened letter/artwork to San Francisco's Mayor, Board of Supervisors, Civic Center Commons leadership team, and stakeholders providing recommendations for the CCC Initiative and the CC Public Realm Plan, based on having spent four months, all day, almost every day painting directly on the grounds of the Civic Center Commons (CCC) and engaging in conversations with the communities that the area serves. The letter was written and designed by Wilson and printed by master printer Calixto Robles.
Flower Interruption: AAM Art Speaks:
One of the most rewarding aspects of the residency at the Asian Art Museum was the opportunity to give presentations to and work with two cohorts of AAM's Art Speak youth internship! Many thanks to: Triana Patel, Educator, Youth and Family Programs and interns: Ahab, Antonia, Kelly, Khanh, Jasmine, Helen, Zane, Jade, Carmen, Juliana, Christine, Ryan, and Lena.
Flower Interruption: Page Street:
Wilson created satellite murals on two garage doors in San Francisco’s Haight neighborhood.
1967 Summer of Love --> 2017 Summer of Rage & Resistance, ATA (Artists' Television Access):
Wilson created a window installation at ATA (Artists Television Access) in San Francisco’s Mission District that featured a timeline spanning the 50 years, capturing the trajectory of pop-culture and dissidence masked as a marketing tool for private profit.
Flower Interruption: AAM Flower Power
Wilson’s flowers wove throughout the Asian Art Museum’s first floor Flower Power exhibition with a super bloom in the Hammond Arcade.
Flower Interruption: Performance
On Sunday, September 24, 2017 Wilson presented her Flower Interruption performance as part of the Flower Power exhibition and as a conclusion to the flowers that she had painted on the sidewalks of Fulton and Larkin Streets around the museum. For the performance Wilson created over 300 brightly colored hand-painted paper flowers that she and a team of assistants installed in the area directly in front of the museum. Once the flowers were placed and the ceremony concluded, audience members were invited to take the flowers with them as symbols of peace and love, as well as reminders of the beauty, strength, and fragility of life.
Flower Interruption: AAM Merchandise:
The Asian Art Museum created a number of merchandise items from my work for the Flower Power exhibition. These included: mugs, coasters, t-shirts, lapel pins, silk scarves and bow ties, socks, mirrors, journals, bookmarks, posters, baby booties, and cards. While the irony of this capitalist display was not lost on me, I was very happy to contribute all of the funds in support of the Asian Art Museum.