New Installation in San Francisco Civic Plaza

San Francisco Civic Plaza has been consistently presenting some amazing or amusing public installations over the years, and the latest of such efforts are some traditional Chinese vases of various shapes and colors, with some Chinese writing, which seemed to me family surnames.













Pity I didn't see them at night when they were illuminated. In regardless of artistic values, these installations have brought joy to this plaza consistent and for that, we are grateful.


Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst: 
- "Intrude", Wonderful Rabbits Installation in San Francisco
- Art Displays in San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
- Art in the Streets of San Francisco
- Featured Installation - Wilting Flowers
- Orange Celebration in San Francisco Civic Center
- Rainbow Colored San Francisco War Memorial Opera House
- Three Heads, Six Arms (Nezha), Giant Bronze Scuplture at Civic Plaza, San Francisco
- Iridescent Installations at Kehilla Community Synagogue Sanctuary, Piedmont

From Trash to Art, or From Trash to Elevated Trash

San Francisco prides in itself for being progressive and forward looking.  It also would like to think itself as the vanguard in contemporary art world, particularly in the public art commissioned by the city itself.

In the past years, San Francisco has commissioned some public sculptures, mostly controversial, such as the Cubid's Arrow or the Hearts, littered or adorned the west coast city, depending on one's reaction to them.


However controversial, it was hard to deny the visions of the creators of those pieces and hard to deny their definition as artworks.

Pushing the envelope further, San Francisco's Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) announced on March 10, 2011- that it

approved the concept design of a 41-foot sculpture by acclaimed contemporary artist Tim Hawkinson for the new Transbay Transit Center. The sculpture will be located on the corner of Mission and Fremont streets in downtown San Francisco. Described by the artist as a guardian figure marking the intersection or transition of a journey, the large-scale sculpture will be fabricated from recycled materials, including reinforced concrete pillars, jersey barriers and a street light pole, all reclaimed from the old Transbay Terminal building.

"We are extremely pleased that incredible public art will be a crucial part of this transportation project," said Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., Chairman, TJPA Board of Directors.  "Like the forms of transit that will utilize the new Transit Center itself, this public art will connect communities in the Bay Area and California."

The sculpture is the final piece in the Transbay Transit Center's $4.75 million, five-piece public art program established in partnership with the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) for Phase 1 of the Transit Center Program. This piece will be Hawkinson's largest work to date and his first public art commission in San Francisco. Hawkinson is one of five artists to be selected by a Steering Committee to create large-scale public art works for the new Transit Center. Other artists include: Jenny Holzer, San Franciscan Ned Kahn, James Carpenter, and San Franciscan Julie Chang.

In its press release, it stated that

Rising from the rubble of the old building, the sculpture pays homage to the past while serving as a beacon to the future. It was inspired by historical markers that signified to travelers that they were on the right path. The artist cites as inspiration Inukshuks, stacked stone forms created by Native Americans for navigational purposes, and Greek Telamon or Caryatids, which are figures of support found on the facades of important buildings from the ancient world. According to the artist, "This journey is underscored by the sculpture’s original incarnation as a bus ramp, reminding us that life is composed largely of transitions. Its contrapposto gesture recalls classical sculpture, but its raw and immediate form speaks of the primitive and archetypal."

What I see from this "concept" is that it values social message more, far more, than artistic value.  Art without message is an empty shell; but art for message's sake is propaganda.  Besides, this sketch is ugly without a purpose.  Its concept is very lazy and cheap as well.  As the so-called classical pose, it reminded me in turns of Black Panther, ET, or Stalin.  Does an all-powering, threatening figure represent the best spirit of San Francisco?  



Image source: San Francisco Art Commission

Commissioned public art, usually have political or religious messages but they don't have to be so mind-bogglingly crude and ugly. 

In 1401, a competition was announced by the Arte di Calimala (Cloth Importers Guild) to design doors which would eventually be placed on the north side of the baptistry. Lorenzo Ghiberti won the competition and his creation had been known as the "Gates of Paradise":


Image Source: Wikipedia

It will be hard pressed to image that several hundreds years later, people would continue to flock to San Francisco Transbay Terminal to admire this concept of Tim Hawkinson.

San Francisco seeks to create a heart-warming story of "From Trash to Art", but it is quite likely to be "From Trash to Elevated Trash".

Art in Subway Station, New York City

The "Three Heads, Six Arms" sculpture in San Francisco reminded me of an art show I saw last month in New York's subway 14th Street-8th Avenue station.  In the austere station, there were quite a few whimsical bronze sculptures, big and small, scattered on both sides of the platforms.





From distance, they made the platform like a surreal cartoon movie set. Observing up and close, these figures and objects were quite characteristic and almost real. They were apparently very popular and I was not the only person who snapped pictures.











At the end, I found the credit and the title of this group - Life Underground, by Tom Otterness.  Further research revealed that these are permanent public art and had a common theme of implied criminality mixed with an undercurrent of social anarchy, despite their cuteness.



In spite of the often deceptive small scale of individual piece, the entire project took ten years from commissioning to the final completion of the installation.  Quite a feat.  I truly appreciate efforts to bring art and the masses together.  Unfortunately, my media would not allow me such undertaking.  Am I living in the wrong time and working with the wrong materials?  I had to wonder.  Yet, however I wonder, I will continue.

>> New York City Report, September 2010, Part XVI: Liao Yibai: Real Fake - Mike Weiss Gallery, New York City 
<< New York City Report, September 2010, Part XIV: Neue Galerie New York - Austrian and German Art Gallary

GPS for Art

Recently, a friend called my attention to an article about an effort to document of public art via Wikipedia. According to the article published by The Chronicle of Higher Education,

Documentation of public art, particularly digital documentation, lags behind other art forms. Jennifer Geigel Mikulay, an assistant professor and public scholar of visual culture at Indiana-Purdue, started the project, Wikipedia Saves Public Art, with Richard S. McCoy, an associate conservator at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. They taught a course together last fall at Indiana-Purdue, in which they asked students to write Wikipedia articles with a local and art-historical context about pieces of public art on the campus. The students used a GPS tracking device to obtain coordinates for each piece so that article readers could find it in real life.

Now Ms. Mikulay, Mr. McCoy, and some students are writing Wikipedia entries for pieces of public art around Indianapolis. They also tag pre-existing entries that fit the project with a Wikipedia Saves Public Art banner. So far, they've tagged more than 900. At this point, there aren't many members on the project's Wikipedia page, and participation hasn't moved much beyond Indianapolis. Still, those involved are hopeful that people across the globe will use Wikipedia to document the public art in their communities.

The list is not comprehensive but could be a good starting point for people who want to write Wikipedia articles about local sculptures, Ms. Mikulay said. In fact, the group in Indianapolis is attempting to convert the list for their city into Wikipedia entries.

It is a novel but logical idea and I hope its success will facilitate broader usage of modern technology in the art world.

I always want to have a system, maybe a GPS system, which can tell the locations of particular paintings, sculptures, or drawings at given period of time. Which is not only a great tool for museums and galleries to advertise their treasures, but a wonderful instrument for tourist industry as well, particularly for people like me who plan their trips to the hours.

Apple, Google, are you listening?