Premiere Jr. (2020–2023) was an exhibition space that commissioned new work by Bay Area artists on a 6-by-12-foot billboard in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset.

David Bayus
Human-To-Be-In


September 10–October 25, 2020

Socially distant opening: Saturday, October 10, 2–4pm
Meet at the southwest corner of 7th Avenue and Irving Street

Amoebas, viruses and bacteria present us with a utopian vision! We can choose to live in fear, or we can choose to actively participate in our own disease as teammates. A new “Human-To-Be-In” is upon us, where cooperation and trust in our protozoan brothers and sisters leads to a new world of peace and love. Join us!

David Bayus’ Human-To-Be-In draws inspiration from self-referential advertising campaigns, cultish utopian movements, and the current pandemic. Using images of previous Premiere Jr. installations, he rendered the barnacle-like billboard and its surroundings in 3D-modeling software to half scale. No detail was ignored, including dents in metal frames, half-peeling signage and the traces of bird droppings. Bayus then placed his “sculptures,” psychedelic renderings of amoebas and other organic forms, into the meta environment.

In this scenario, these living things are advertising themselves, urging passersby to welcome them into their human bodies and create a new, parasitic ecosystem.

David Bayus lives and works in San Francisco. His cross-disciplinary practice centers on experimental filmmaking with a focus on the dualistic relationship between science and spirituality. He is a co-founder of BASEMENT art collective, based in the Mission District. He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2010.