The future now

Related Tactics
poster prints in storefront windows
2020

The future now is a sprawling, site-responsive public art project by Related Tactics in the form of a series of 15 posters translated in 3 languages, installed across 14 storefronts along the 3rd Street corridor in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. We use text instructions and artistic prompts to invite reflection on our political moment, community history, and facets of Black life in the city. The future now is also the visual manifestation of a dialogue with a network of social relationships in the community held by RT’s Nate Watson.

The future now is part of a hybrid exhibition project organized by Astria Suparak with the University of San Francisco’s Museum Studies Curatorial Practicum class for the USF Thacher Gallery.

Related Tactics thanks the following Bayview businesses and storefronts participating in The future now: Auntie April’s Chicken Waffles & Soul Food, Bayview Opera House gallery space, Economic Development on Third (EDOT), G. Mazzei & Sons’ Hardware, Gratta Wines, The Jazz Room, JN Outreach, Kennedy’s Market, La Laguna Taqueria, Radio Africa Kitchen, Star Market, Sunday Gather, and the representatives of 4726 and 4900 3rd St.

Chinese translations for The future now by Liuyu Ivy Chen for TransWords.net. Spanish translations by Rakhel Villamil-Acera, Associate Professor of Spanish Studies at USF.

Photo documentation below courtesy of University of San Francisco (except 3, 4, 7, 9, and 15 courtesy of Related Tactics).

Exhibition history:
Fight and Flight: Crafting a Bay Area Life, Museum of Craft & Design, San Francisco (2023)
The future now, site responsive installation across 14 storefronts on 3rd St. corridor in Bayview, San Francisco, commissioned by USF Thacher Gallery (2020)