The Upper Crust (detail), Patrick Dougherty’s installation
The San Francisco Arts Commission saw the completion of two stunning, atmosphere-uplifting art installations last month, now in full effect for the public to experience.
Enter the City Hall Rotunda to be surrounded by the sound sculpture Spiraling Echoes, by internationally-recognized SFO based artist and composer Bill Fontana. Created specifically for this venue, the piece features iconic sounds of San Francisco—bird song, fog horns, crowd noise from AT&T park, cable car bells—all recorded here. The layered soundtrack interacts with the lofty architecture, resulting in an enhancement to the space that is gently uplifting and comfortingly familiar—a welcome surprise for the uninitiated.
Mentored by John Cage early in his career, Fontana is renowned for his pioneering experimental sound creations, which have been exhibited throughout the world: Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern and Tate Britton, and 48th Venice Biennale, among other venues. For Spiral Echoes, Fontana directs thread-like beams of sound created by specialized speakers, called transducers, throughout the space, thereby “etching the space with sound,” he explains. Fontana also points out that transducers generate less reverberation than traditional speakers, a feature to note (and appreciate) when encountering the work’s clean, clear sounds. A completely unique and, yes, pioneering piece (no one else has done anything like this), Fontana succeeds in delivering subtle elegance, completely in harmony with the building itself. Spiral Echoes will be on exhibit through May 8.
Mayor Gavin Newsom, artist Bill Fontana, and SF Arts Commission Director of Cultural Affairs Luis Cancel at City Hall
Exit City Hall and cross over to the Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza to continue your public art journey. There you will encounter the newly completed The Upper Crust, an environmental sculpture installation created on-site last month (it will be on show at least through November) by internationally recognized‚ artist Patrick Dougherty.
Utilizing his favored medium, willow saplings, Dougherty, with the assistance of a five-man crew comprised of local artists, intertwined 18,000 pounds of recycled saplings into a number of the sycamore trees lining the Piazza. The resultant self-supported up-spiraling cocoon forms—no additional materials or armatures were used to create them—rise roughly eight feet above the treetops. All sticks and branches tapering in same direction, the work relays an active sense of motion and lightness.
The sculpture is intended to evolve and develop as branches and leaves grow from the sycamores. “There should be wonderful drama around the growth of the trees,” posits Dougherty.
Though Dougherty had some concept of his creation before he built it, he explains that he leaves a lot of the details to the moment of creation. “It has to feel right,” he says. “I want it to do something provocative. When I see it, I know it.”
Dougherty also intends his work to be left open to interpretation, to provide the opportunity for imagination and emotional reaction. “The piece should provide an entrance for the viewer,” he states, “without telling them what the piece is.”
Dougherty’s lofty hollowed out nest- or hive-like creations welcome us to fill them with our own personal associations and unbounded imagination.
