The Midway, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2023

Electric Forest is a block-long mural in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, combining images of circuits, trees, clouds, water and birds to create a fantastical landscape scene. The wall is across the street from the main entrance to The Midway, an interactive urban canvas for innovation and engagement. Electric Forest acts as a theatrical backdrop to The Midway’s massive block parties, when thousands of people fill the street between the mural and venue. The mural helps to create an immersive space, especially when its dynamic colored lighting comes on after dark.

Electric Forest is a companion piece to Bayview Rise, Haddad Drugan’s 2014 mural on a grain elevator a couple blocks south and even visible from The Midway. Both pieces were designed with overlapping images that separate, disappear, appear, and recombine when animated with color-changing light. At block parties, stage lighting also contributes to the mural’s visual effects, so that the audio-visual experience of the artwork and stage are synchronized.

Electric Forest was commissioned by The Midway. The mural was painted by David Burke and Hungry Ghost Studio, who masterfully projected and painted Haddad Drugan’s geometric design onto a challenging surface of corrugated metal siding.