The Seed in Jane Warner Plaza

 Posted by on January 23, 2018
Jan 232018
 

Castro District

The Seed

“The Seed” is part of a complete redo of the intersection of Castro and Market.  It was created by Los Angeles-based Aphidoidea, a multi-disciplinary design, architecture and art collective.

“The Seed” was inspired by the Castro District’s culture and human rights movement in a form of a seed. This art piece is an homage to those seeds– “wishes” that have found their place in the world.

The Seed Jane Warner PlazaAphidoidea is composed of four main members, Paulina Bouyer-Magan, Jesus(Eddie) Magaña, Andrew Hernandez, and Jacqueline Muñoz. The four are formally trained architects, and, since 2008, has been engaged in a variety of public installations and public art projects.

The project was spearheaded by the Castro Community Benefit District in 2016 and funded through a grant from the SF Office of Economic and Workforce Development.  “The Seed” was part of a $150,000 upgrade project to improve Jane Warner Plaza.

the Seed Jane Warner Plaza, Castro District, SF

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Photo Courtesy of Castro CBD

Photo Courtesy of Castro CBD

Jane Warner Plaza was the first of three temporary public squares created by San Francisco’s “Pavement to Parks” project, the 17th Street plaza was a joint effort of the Department of Planning and Public Works and the Castro/Upper Market CBD. The CBD oversees and pays for maintenance and improvements of the space, provides the plaza’s tables and chairs, and volunteers water the plants and help out as needed.

@Large Ai Weiwei Part 4

 Posted by on January 16, 2015
Jan 162015
 

Alcatraz Island
September 27, 2014 to April 26, 2015

Alcatrax

There are two audio exhibits in this exhibition.  The first can be found in the first floor, cell block A of the Cellhouse.   Inside each cell, you can stand, although, as you can see, stools are provided, while you listen to spoken words, poetry, and music by people who have been detained for the creative expression of their beliefs, as well as works made under conditions of incarceration.  There are 12 cells and each cell features a different recording. You can hear things as diverse as Tibetan singer Lolo, who has called for his people’s independence from China; the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot, opponents of Vladimir Putin’s government; and the Robben Island Singers, activists imprisoned during South Africa’s apartheid era.

All of the audios can be heard here.

The poetry or spoken words are in the language of the author so Martin Luther King was the one that I most understood, however, music is universal and those were where I found myself spending the most time.

DSC_5336

In the hospital area are two more audio installations. They are in side by side tiled chambers in the Hospital, that were once used for the isolation and observation of mentally ill inmates. They are a Tibetan Chant and the chants of the Eagle Dance of the Hopi. The Tibetan chant is a Buddhist ceremony for the goddess Palden Lhamo, protectress of Tibet; it was recorded at the Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India, a monastery historically associated with the Dalai Lama. The Hopi music comes from a traditional Eagle Dance invoking the bird’s healing powers. Hopi men were among the first prisoners of conscience on Alcatraz, held for refusing to send their children to government boarding schools in the late 19th century.   If you would like to get a sense of those two chants you can listen here.

Ai Weiwei blossom

What I came for, and was only slightly disappointed in, not because of the installation but because of the concept that you have to keep people an arms length away from art, was Blossom.

Blossom by Ai Weiwei

To me this is quintessential Ai Weiwei.  The curator tells you that: The work could be seen as symbolically offering comfort to the imprisoned, as one would send a bouquet to a hospitalized patient. The profusion of flowers rendered in a cool and brittle material could also be an ironic reference to China’s famous Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956, a brief period of government tolerance for free expression that was immediately followed by a severe crackdown against dissent.

Ai Weiwei porcelain

I have always felt that Ai Weiwei has a strong connection with porcelain and that his creative juices seem to flow through this medium.

Blossom by Ai Weiwei

One of my favorite Ai Weiwei quotes.

“The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.”

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