Future’s Past by Kate Raudenbush

 Posted by on August 14, 2012
Aug 142012
 
Hayes Valley
Patricia’s Green
 This photo is courtesy of the Black Rock Arts Website and was taken at Burning Man.
 Future’s Past by Kate Raudenbush

The Hayes Valley Art Coalition explains the piece like this:

Futures Past is a sculptural environment of two contrasting worlds. The 12-foot pyramid reflects the architectural temples of the renowned collapsed civilization of the Maya. The tree honors the jungle ruins of Ta Prohm in Angkor, Cambodia. Together they illustrate a cautionary tale for our modern world and our digital gods, with an interior alter that holds a black sand hourglass that marks the passing of an era of unbridled over consumption and pollution. It’s purpose is to foster an awareness of the effects of our actions in the present moment: our future’s past is now.

The laser-cut welded steel sculpture reaches 24 feed in height and weighs 7,000 pounds. The pyramid welcomes explores inside at the ground level but is not climbable.

This is how the author Kate Raudenbush explains her piece.

Future’s Past was commissioned by the Burning Man event in August 2010 in the Nevada desert. The theme this year was “Metropolis: The Life of Cities”. I chose to address the concept of modern development by creating a cautionary tale of collapse. Future’s Past is a modern ruin, an architectural artifact found in the future. Once built as a monument to technological progress, this pyramid of system circuitry has been abandoned through unchecked consumptive collapse, but reclaimed by the resilience of natural forces, and evolved consciousness, symbolically represented by the roots of a sacred Bodhi tree, a symbol of Siddhartha’s seat of enlightenment, and our own.

She describes herself: Kate Raudenbush is a New York City based artist who creates allegorical environments as a form of social dialogue. Mixing visual symbolism cross-culturally within human history and mythology, geometry and architecture, her art finds inspiration within the micro and macro viewpoints of our natural and manufactured worlds. She utilizes welded and laser-cut metal, acrylic, mirror, sound and light to shape her designs into climbable, enveloping environments and sacred spaces that are given more meaning with each visitor’s participation. In this way, the artwork is not just an object to behold, but also an experience to be lived.

The chrome post that is sitting in front of this piece is a Ghinlon/Transcope by Po Shu Wang that you can read about here.

Hayes Valley – Ghinlon/Transcope

 Posted by on April 6, 2012
Apr 062012
 
Hayes Valley/Western Addition
Octavia Boulevard
between Market and Hayes
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Ghinlon/Transcope by Po Shu Wang 2005

Commissioned by the SF Arts Commission for the Octavia Boulevard Streetscape Project, these transcopes invite you to observe the comings and goings along Octavia Boulevard and Patricia’s Green. There are twelve of these installed along the medians and the Green. The view through them can be twisted, converted or even upside down. While this was probably a wonderful concept, it fails in execution. To look into them is awkward. While one design is set at a height that works for the handicapped and small children, the other meant for standing adults were difficult for this 5’3″ author to use. Unfortunately, the view holes are so small that you really don’t see much anyway.

This is a paragraph from the SF Arts Commission’s Press Release regarding the installation:
The artist created a series of slender pole-like sculptures equipped with kaleidoscopic lenses that function as miniature observatories providing pedestrians with a transformed view of the surrounding environment and passing cars. The mounted scopes transform vehicular movements, colors, shapes and lights into extraordinary and beautiful real time moving pictures. Each observatory is equipped with a unique mirror lens combination giving the viewer an ever-changing kinetic snapshot of their environment. The sculptures have two standard designs: one for standing adults, and one for person in wheelchairs and/or children. The sculptures have a 60-degree vertical swing and a 180-degree horizontal swing. The slender support column on each sculpture includes the artist’s prosaic interpretation of the unique lens/mirror combination.

Born in Hong Kong, Po Shu Wang is an artist working out of Berkeley, California. His art projects are site-oriented viruses. Each individual artwork is a specific strain that intimately linked with a particular host environment. They co-evolve, mutate, and conflict with their hosts within a larger reality.

These pieces were part of the SFAC 2006-2007 budget and were commissioned for $150,000.

Hayes Valley – Great Adventure

 Posted by on April 2, 2012
Apr 022012
 
Hayes Valley/Western Addition
Octavia and Page

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This is Growing Home’s Community Garden, their mission is to provide a community garden where both homeless and housed San Franciscans work side-by-side to grow nutritious food, access green space, and build community.

The mural on the back wall is by Ben Eine, he has several murals around San Francisco.

In an interview with Proxy SF, Eine said this about the piece, “My problem with this wall was the width between the windows. The first letter I sketched up on this was the ‘E’ and then that gave me the size of each letter going left or right of the ‘E.'” The interview is quite extensive, go to the link above if you are interested in reading it in its entirety.

Hayes Valley – Ethereal Art

 Posted by on July 27, 2011
Jul 272011
 
Hayes Valley – San Francisco

Hayes Valley came to prominence when film director Erich von Stroheim chose the corner of Hayes and Laguna for the filming of his 1924 film “Greed.” His affections were for a 19th-century Victorian that had been built in the early 1880s by Col. Michael Hayes as an amusement pavilion, though word has it Hayes constructed the building to lure an extension of the streetcar line to Hayes Valley. The building survived the 1906 earthquake and fire and at the time of filming was occupied only on the ground floor, by a French laundry and the Hayes Valley Pharmacy, which remained in business until the 1960s. Stroheim created signs for a dentist’s office and a photographer’s workplace for the movie, which fooled some locals into believing they were real. The film included numerous shots from the top floor of the building looking down on Hayes Valley. He also used 595-597 Hayes, a building that acted as a storeroom in the 1920s, as the site of the saloon in the film.

In the 1950’s the Central Freeway was built over the top of the neighborhood and Hayes Valley quickly descended into a rough neighborhood that remained a spot for ladies and gentlemen of the night well into the 1990’s.   The 1989 earthquake brought so much destruction to the Central Freeway that they tore it down.  What evolved was a neighborhood, replete with wonderful individual (read non-chain) stores and lots and lots of excellent restaurants.  Wikipedia even calls it a “fashionable” neighborhood.

In the heart of the area is Patricia’s Green (in memory of neighborhood activist Patricia Walkup), also called Hayes Green.  It runs the length of Octavia, between Hayes and Fell.

The Green is the sight of ever rotating art installations.    I ran into the little impromptu piece on the sidewalk of the Green.

It was tagged Nik Larsen 7/7/11.  I took the photo on the 22nd of July.  It is chalk, and I was amazed it still was in such good shape.  It is titled Violet Eclipse Mechanics.  What a wonderful ethereal piece of art, that proves you must always keep your eyes open.

Nik writes a blog Chalkvisions if you want to check out other things he has done around town.

Just off the green is this piece by Ben Eine of London, a fun interview with him can be read here.
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