Jonah Freeman + Justin Lowe: Sunset Corridor

Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe create architectural installations that physically and psychologically immerse viewers in an expansive alternate universe. Sunset Corridor, 2024, is the latest chapter in the artists’ deep dive into the San San Universe, their fictional, retrofuturistic domain. San San is partially based on a futurist theory put forth by Herman Kahn and Anthony Weiner in their book The Year 2000 (1967), which speculated that San Diego and San Francisco would merge into one giant metropolis by the turn of the twenty-first century. Although this prediction never came to pass, the theory is foundational to Freeman and Lowe’s creation: an adjacent world that parallels modern-day reality and illuminates our society’s relationships to technology, music, drugs, subcultures, and politics.

Comprised of six architectural zones and a cinema, each space within Sunset Corridor is rooted in a sprawling metanarrative about alternative information technologies, transient youth, and emergent countercultures. In this parallel world, an abandoned industrial park once owned by International Business Machine, better known as IBM, becomes the hub for an underground music scene. Enterprising youth harness IBM’s nascent biotech and convert the dormant structure into a building-sized musical instrument. The installation encapsulates the moment of hybridization when industrial innovations in communication are remixed into an unexpected vehicle for a counterculture.

Crossing the threshold into Sunset Corridor, one is transported into a slightly nostalgic yet alien parallel realm, where simultaneous feelings of displacement and familiarity invite exploration. The path through the exhibition is linear, yet the unfolding narratives ebb and flow. Stories of technological innovation, rebellious acts, adaptation, and resiliency emerge. By blurring the lines between fact and fiction, past and present, consciousness and mind-altered states, in Sunset Corridor Freeman and Lowe provide a new lens through which to examine humanity’s ever-changing relationship to itself, its innovations, and its surroundings. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication and artist-created limited edition merchandise in the Modern Shop.

Lecture
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth announces the launch of the Exhibition Lecture Series, a dynamic new program featuring curators and artists from the Modern’s special exhibitions and permanent collection. This series provides a rare opportunity to explore the creative processes, curatorial strategies, and artistic visions that shape modern and contemporary art. The Exhibition Lecture Series is a free program open to the public. 

This new series will kick off with a lecture by the collaborative duo Jonah Freeman + Justin Lowe as they discuss Sunset Corridor, 2024, their latest chapter of the ongoing series of narrative ecosystems, Saturday, October 5 at 2pm in the Modern’s auditorium.

Seating begins at 1:30pm. Free admission tickets (limit two per person) are available at the Modern’s information desk beginning at noon on the day of the lecture. A limited number of tickets (limit two per person) will be available for purchase online at themodern.org/programs/lectures (5 USD) from 10am until 4pm the day before the lecture.

General admission prices (includes special exhibition)
16 USD: General (age 18 and above)
12 USD: Seniors (age 60+), Active/Retired Military Personnel and First Responders with ID
10 USD: Students with ID
Free: Under 18 years old
The Museum offers half-price tickets on Sundays and free admission on Fridays.

The Museum is closed Mondays and holidays, including New Year’s Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas.