May 18 – July 13, 2024 | Dusk – Midnight
Gallery 1 Exterior

The Lightbird Migration, a video projection by artist and open-water swimmer Thérèse Lahaie, takes flight on di Rosa’s exterior, nightly from dusk – midnight May 18 – July 13. Visible to passers-by on the Carneros Highway, the work features light forms resembling birds in flight in a nighttime migration.

Taking inspiration from the seabirds she encounters swimming in the San Francisco Bay, Lahaie uses technically crafted optical mirrors to reflect light onto surfaces to create abstract shapes resembling birds in flight. As a long-time open-water swimmer, Lahaie tracks the tides of the San Francisco Bay and the seabirds she encounters on her swims. Originally commissioned by artist Jim Campbell for the Salesforce tower in San Francisco and produced in collaboration with Hanh Nguyen, The Lightbird Migration was born out of Lahaie’s concern for the effects of climate change on seabird populations: rising water temperatures are leading to cascading effects on marine ecosystems, one result of which is a higher frequency of mass seabird mortality events. Lahaie’s celebration of birds in flight serves as an elegy for those we’ve lost and provides a solace for us who remain.