Alicia Eggert's "This Present Moment" at 11,600 feet

Alicia Eggert, associate professor, Studio Art: Sculpture, collaborated with the Long Now Foundation to take her neon sign, "This Present Moment," to the top of Mount Washington in White Pine County, Nev., and to make two short films, which are now available to watch on Vimeo. The work is also displayed at Fort Mason in San Francisco until Feb. 28, 2023. 

Read more about "This Present Moment." Vimeo "Alicia Eggert's This Present Moment."

Alicia Eggert sculpts neon, steel, and time to make art that inspires reflection and wonder at the finite nature of human life within a seemingly infinite universe. In September 2022, Alicia brought “This Present Moment,” a sculpture adapting the words of Stewart Brand, the co-founder of The Long Now Foundation and creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, to Mount Washington. The neon sign was re-assembled among the mountain’s bristlecone pine trees (pinus longaeva), some of the longest-lived trees in the world. These two original shorts, a documentary and an exhibition video trace the sign’s journey to the mountaintop and explore art's power in shaping the way we think about time.

Each location creates a different context for the message, and it's amazing to see how the words can have very different meanings from one place to another, said Eggert. "...For me, those trees are the perfect example of what it means to be fully present."

Read more about Alicia Eggert: Creative Climb on Mount Kilimanjaro