San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)SoMa

New Work: Raven Chacon

Now showing24 October 2026 – 7 November 2027$30

A new commission by Pulitzer-winning composer Raven Chacon reimagining the landscapes of Navajo Nation as a speculative future.

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On now All of October 2026

Preview: written before the show opened

Home movies shot by visitors to the Navajo Nation in the 1950s and '60s run as silent film, subtitled with lines from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Raven Chacon, the Diné composer who won a Pulitzer Prize for music, grew up there. He wanted, he says, to show the land "through the eyes of tourists as if they were traveling to another planet, like Mars."

The Naming of Names, his first solo show on the West Coast, is a film installation on Floor 6. The footage comes from San Francisco's Prelinger Archives and plays across several viewing planes while maps of the imagined expedition light up in the corners of the room. You hear Chacon's field recordings, processed to sound off-world, with spaghetti western instrumentals and drones. On the walls, layered drawings put Canyon de Chelly beside Mars's Valles Marineris.

It opens 24 October. Entry is included with general admission ($30, free for 18 and under), with no separate ticket. SFMOMA is closed Wednesdays and open until 20:00 on Thursdays.

Look for

Bradbury subtitles on desert footage
Look for lines from The Martian Chronicles running under travelers' 1950s and '60s footage of the Navajo Nation, so the canyons read as another planet.
Two canyons, two planets
Layered topographical drawings set Tséyiʼ (Canyon de Chelly) on Earth beside Valles Marineris on Mars, hung alongside the film.
Maps lighting up in the corners
As the footage plays, maps of an imagined exploration of these lands light up in the corners of the room.
The off-world soundtrack
Chacon's own field recordings of weather and landscape, processed to sound like another planet, layered with spaghetti western instrumentals and drones.