The San Francisco skyline has radically changed over the last 20 years with all sorts of real estate developments. It’s now subtly changed again, but that’s because of the artwork. Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, famous for his deceptive photographs, has just installed a slender, 69-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture atop a hill on Yerba Buena Island. A new public art program in the area.
In some ways, they look like the tips of sewing needles sticking out above the trees and cell phone towers of this island in the San Francisco Bay. To others, the building looks like an elegant, high-tech cousin to Transamerica’s Pyramid, a chunky building across the bay. With its unique curved geometry, tapering from a 23-foot-tall concrete base to a top less than an inch in diameter, the sculpture grows infinitely smaller and taller as it reaches the Earth’s exosphere. It looks like it’s going down.
Artists Paradoxically Call Their Skyscrapers “point at infinity” And rather than the beautiful mirror-finished stainless steel itself, I would like to express a concept like a Zen koan. “The point at infinity where the two curves should intersect exists only in the human mind. “It’s beyond my expectations,” said 75-year-old Sugimoto. “I wanted it to go to infinity, but that’s technically impossible,” he added, laughing at himself.
The sculpture also serves a more utilitarian or political purpose, showing Yerba Buena and its adjacent islands. treasure island, used as a naval base from 1942 to 1997 as a new cultural destination. “Point of Infinity” is the first major artwork developed on a $2 million budget. Treasure Island Art Programoperated and funded by the San Francisco Arts Commission. “1 Percent” Programa reduction in construction costs from new developments on the island.
of Plans for the Treasure Island Development Authority It has built 8,000 homes, 27% of which are considered affordable. Approximately 75 percent of the 400-acre site is designated as public space, “making it the city’s largest public open space since the founding of Golden Gate Park,” said Jill, director of the Treasure Island Arts Program.・Mr. Manton talks about the park. , sidewalks and squares where public art can be installed.
He said the program’s overall art budget could exceed $50 million “if all goes according to plan,” but acknowledged the volatility of the real estate market.3 developers working on the project recently sued each other.
The art planning process wasn’t smooth either. Sugimoto’s work on the project began in 2017 after the city publicly recruited artists. By the end of the year he was selected as one of the next by the committee. 7 finalists Create three site proposals (out of 495 applicants). 2 finalists, Pee White and Anthony Gormleytook the next step and reworked the plans, but was ultimately canceled “because of aesthetics,” Manton said.she recently enlisted Kehinde Wiley Instead, you should submit your proposal for one of those locations, Major Waterfront Plaza.
“Anthony and Pei were selected and asked to redesign. Sugimoto and I wanted the sculpture as suggested,” she said. “It’s very simple and elegant. It’s a very conceptual piece, but I think it appeals to many levels, regardless of whether you have an art background.”
As a photographer, Sugimoto has become famous for taking extremely compelling yet oddly understated photographs. His rugged wildlife scenes with close-ups of polar bears and African antelopes turned out to be dioramas he shot for the American Museum of Natural History.his photo Glowing white screen in a glamorous movie theater In fact, this comes from shooting the entire film being played back in one long exposure.his Photos of Queen Elizabeth Iis pure historical fiction, but is actually a wax portrait of her in Madame Tussauds.
In “Point of Infinity,” he says that he is also interested in the play of presence and absence, or the “existence of immateriality” suggested by its hyperbolic geometry. In 2003, when he saw a small 19th-century mathematical model in a classroom at the University of Tokyo, he was immediately drawn to this geometry. This mathematical model was designed to show the “surface of revolution with constant negative curvature” (aka “surface of revolution with constant negative curvature”). as a pseudo-sphere.
He immediately took a picture of the plaster model.But the surface was rough and the tip was broken, so he thought he could do better. “Using the highest precision in Japan. ” Since then, he has made several works Create precision engravings of different sizes with the same formula, entered the field of sculpture at about the same time that he began his architectural practice. One recent hyperbolic form is “Sundial” In Tokyo it reaches nearly 40 feet.
The largest of the group, the Point of Infinity, is also a sundial in a sense, although it does not display the time. Instead, Sugimoto places granite markers on the ground at noon of the sun on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes to match the shadows cast by the artwork. A ring of white gravel surrounds the sculpture to prevent it from becoming a skateboard ramp.
Sugimoto sees “Point at Infinity” not as a sculpture, but as a ready-made work based on a mathematical model, following Marcel Duchamp. “It’s a find, but the price is the same as a sculpture,” he laughs again.
He made frequent references to project costs, describing the surge in manufacturing and global transportation over the past four years. Consisting of 29 sections, “Point of Infinity” Sanwa Tajima In Japan, it will be transported to Auckland in eight containers. The San Francisco Arts Commission has donated an additional $350,000 of his in response to inflation, and the artist absorbs other excess costs himself.
You may have one more big expense left. That is to change the cement walls that line the small park on the hill, the remnants of water tanks on the site. Noticing how they cut through the cityscape, Sugimoto this week asked the arts commission to scrape the walls out. About 1 foot makes 42 inches. Manton said it was under consideration but “has concerns about code and safety.”
Assuming that doesn’t cause delays, the park, now considered a construction site, should officially open to the public sometime this fall. Also known as Tower Park and Yerba Buena Island Hilltop Park, it will be renamed Infinity Point Park.
Mr. Sugimoto says that he would like to go to take pictures of this sculpture again around that time. “I’ll be back with this giant 8 x 10 camera of his. ‘It’s cheaper to do it yourself than to hire a professional photographer,'” he said with another smile. .
