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please stand by welcome to culture wire.
I'm meg shiv ler. We're taking a trip into the san
francisco airport and into the san francisco art district.
We will see a public arts project that lights up the
night. by creating a work that is
very different from many angles, it kind of encourages the
investigation of the area. the san francisco arts
commission manages 3,000 pieces of arts.
There are are well known. Many pieces in the public art
collection aren't seen as often, though.
They're smaller works of art that include painting, jewelry
and sculpture that represents a bay area artistic style and
history. Between 1946 and 1986 the san
francisco arts festival was an annual showcase for an
incredible variety of arts and crafts.
Each year, crowds gather to buy and see the latest creations by
bay area artists. most often located in the plaza
across the street from city hall, the festival demonstrated
to encourage, highlight and provide opportunities for local
artists. 70 works of art from the arts
festivals were selected for exhibition at the san francisco
airport for a show entitled "the art of a city, the history of
the san francisco arts festival festival."
the art festivals were held in san francisco between 1946
and 1986. they were in response of the
limited number of local museums available at the time.
The city used budgeted money from the general fund to
purchase jury selected artwork by participating artists.
We had a number of what was determined to be very
significant pieces by mid century bay area jewelers and
looking for an exhibition venue for those.
We realized they were a bigger picture of the arts festival
tradition. The art of the city, history of
the san francisco art festival began as a collaboration with
the san francisco museum and arts commission staff.
the two agencies never really collaborated on aniex hibition.
When the opportunity arose we thought it would be a great
chance to explore the overlapping histories of the
arts festival and the regional artistic idebts that are
encouraged -- identities that are encouraged.
It became a significant forum for the aesthetic ideas and
material practice, material techniques.
Jewelers such as peter mirkarimi, mary rank.
Margaret fert ata and other sculptures like as perkedes.
much of what is here has not been on display for over 20
years. This is the first time they've
been exhibited in entirety. one of the favorite pieces
are the jug s on jugs from 1960. To me what is interesting is
visually arresting. But also illustrates a
transitional period in the artist's career where he's
moving away from functional forms to more rye tongue and
cheek sensibility that defined his career later in life.
jugs on jugs particularly represents an interesting
transition from functional pottery to more whimsical forms.
A form of work that became prominent, viola pry, ruth
beasley. The objects were chosen to
represent the range of artist mediums, everything that was
produced for the arts festival. These all represent awards for
their genre, medal work, jewelry.
San francisco has a rich history of modernist jewelers.
Modern art is founded by many of the artests, rank, zep ata and
mirkarimi. And there are a number of pieces
in this exhibition that were remarkable.
Bold use of material, techniques for assembling, finishing, mary
rank, her jewelry in this exhibition is marvelous.
takes a very constructivist approach.
A lot of interlocking forms rather than solder.
And very beautiful docile work. Beautiful contracting surfaces,
using different metals. All very current.
We're fortunate to live in an area where the arts are so
vibrant and supported. Many of the artists that are
still alive that are represented are still working.
Their students are working. Colleagues are working.
It is interesting that many of them are connected.
Communities are very close. the platter of prieto is
remarkable. The treatment of the surface,
the decorative treatment of the surface.
An interesting artist to learn more about.
He seems to have come in contact with about every one in this
exhibition. the festival May have been the
past, but the art certainly continues and the innovation.
he was one of first organizers of the exhibition of
the festival and worked on with what was call ball ship linoleum
to use gravy tools instead of the wooden tools.
His prints were expressionistic, wonderful.
It is a pleasure to be able to learn about these, give them
proper treatment, and educate the children and community about
a wide range of topics have anthropology to fine culture and
delving into the fine arts here. It is a pleasure.
the art of the city is currently on display in the
presecurity area of the airport's international
terminal. That means you don't need an
airline ticket for a trip to see some great art.
For more information about the art of a city visit sfoarts.Org.
You can learn more about what is on display.
The arts festival is in the past, public art is added to the
collection every year. One of the newest pieces is the
language of the birds. An installation of 23 books
flying across the busiest corner of north beach.
Kenneth interviewed the artist about the process of
collaboration and capturing the skill of the neighborhood.
this work, which is sitting on the intersection of two major
neighborhoods, meaning chinatown and north beach, really was an
interesting inspirational source for you, wasn't it?
well, when I work and when I worked on with georgia keen to
come up with an idea, I looked to the site as inspired by a
tradition known as land art, where we look to the environment
where we're going to create a piece and find elements in that
environment to create something that grows from that.
So it feels rooted to the site, yet May bring out new, beautiful
flourishes. the language of the birds is,
in essence, 22 books that are suspended in the air in the
middle of this intersection. you actually drew upon 90
different authors, right? we looked to the history of
literature in this area, which is a primary cultural icon, as I
see it in san francisco. And after we had a chance to
meet with a lot of the people in the neighborhood, we were able
to get suggestions. We came up with 90.
We took scans from all of these books.
we'll see the words embedded in the concrete?
yeah, in addition to recent additions by recent poets.
[Chuckling]. one of the also interesting
and unique things about the language of the birds is it is
carbon neutral. It was designed with some
engineers that allow for solar energy to be generated during
the day and then at night, that same equivalent of energy is
used by the piece; is that correct?
yeah, we have a solar array on city lights book store which
collects more energy than we actually use for the piece.
why don't we walk across the street and take a closer look at
the piece? sure.
the inspiration for getting the booking to be suspended and
lit at night, how did that come about?
after about two weeks of trying to put together a lot of
the ideas of the signs, of the poetry, of the music, of the
history of the art of the movement and the architecture
and the material of the signs that were already around here,
they all kind of came together in these -- this vision of a
form of books illuminated. So taking on the role of the
flickering light. And also of the pigeons and
parrots flying in the air. Also the metaphor of ideas,
taking flight. and flying through the air.
Like ideas of consciousness, drifting from one person to
another through language. the origins of this work
really are quite pedestrian, no pun intended.
The idea was that the department of traffic wanted to eliminate a
right turn from columbus on to broadway, right?
And I know that that project started like several years ago.
You and orca had to work collaborative for that period of
time. What was that collaboration
like? we were in the studio every
day making books. there are hundreds of words and
23 books. And then there are about 48
cables. How do you bring all that
together into one cohesive pole? So a lot of that was enabled
through this collaboration, and challenging us.
Sometimes we were inspiring each other.
sometimes we were very critical of the other person's ideas.
What it did, it really honed the work.
one of the interesting things about the congress of the verse
that make its unique, I think in the collection of san francisco
public art is that this is the one work of a public artwork
that is the most closely related to performance art.
I will never forget the dedication performance.
we wanted a surprise for you guys and also for ourselves.
What we ended up doing is sewed veils on to each of the book
forms so they had a pattern that reassembled a fortune cookie.
Members of the marching band were climbing up the pole with
bamboo poles, pulling on it so the veil was removed.
it has been up for a few months now.
What is your experience? Has it met your expectation?
it has. People that are watching in the
area will be focused on the ground and often not see what is
going on up above them. They will come across the text
on the plaza. As they observe the text, they
will start piecing together their own little lyrical poems
that are commingling, the kind of finger prints from the
literary past into their own unique poetic experience.
Then looking up. I was hoping that there would be
a kind of heightened level of consciousness invited in with
this piece. And so I think that by creating
a work that is very different from many angles, it kind of
encourages the investigation of the area.
So through investigating the area, you're locating yourself
in space. You're not only seeing the work,
but you're seeing the context of the work.
brian, you know san francisco really prides itself and its
collection of public art. You and orca have contributed a
work that is multilayered and really rich.
We thank you for giving this gift to present and future
generations. thank you, luis.
I enjoyed working with you guys as well.
It has been a really honor. they recommend visiting the
language of the birds at dust to experience the shifting light
and changing energy of the neighborhood.
And the tip, dusk is the perfect time to take photographs of the
installation. To learn more about brian's work
visit metaform.Org and orca's website you can listen to
streaming audio of her conversations with other artists
artists. on the next feature of
culture wire, the experience that is seen inside the rotunda
of city hall. You don't have to wait until the
next episode to experience san francisco art.
The artist chain is opened. It features rock posters and
photographs from wolfgang's ball.
housing music from phil gram's extensive archive.
It reflects how music industry has influenced change in the
past five decades. It can be seen weekdays from
8:00 A.M. To 8:00 P.M. Through April 3rd.
On sunday, January 25th. The arts commission is
sponsoring a free comic workshop at the cartoon art museum,
brianna miller and tina fam will be demonstrated book screenings.
And don't forget the place called poetry.
The writers exhibition at the art gallery at 401 van ness.
The show is free. but hurry, it ends January 24th.
It will close for three weeks to prepare for the next exhibition
"impossible" featuring video and photography by eight chinese
artists. To find out more about these
events and others go to sfarts devolve.
you can tell us what you would like to see on future sures by
e-mailing us at -- shows by e-mailing us at culture
culturewire@sfg.Gov. captioned by the
national captioning institute