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March 21, 2003
Colonnade of Light Sculptures for San Francisco’s Union Square
First Permanent Art Works in 102 Years for Redesigned Downtown Plaza
Four new light sculptures by New York sculptor R.M. Fischer now line the south side of San Francisco’s redesigned Union Square. Fischer’s pieces, collectively titled “Union Square Colonnade,” are the first permanent sculptures to be placed in the landmark downtown plaza since the installation of Robert Ingersoll Aitken’s 95-foot-high bronze Dewey Monument in 1901.
Fischer has designed his sculptures to reflect San Francisco’s past and present. Each is a different composition of cast and custom-made streetlamp parts, both historic and contemporary. Three consist of cast aluminum historic attachments juxtaposed with contemporary stainless steel globes, and a large, clear illuminated polycarbonate sphere. The fourth shorter piece is a single modern sphere of stainless steel, horizontally split and lit from inside.
The goal, says the artist, was to integrate familiar elements into new and unexpected combinations. “I want viewers to start looking at customary, often overlooked urban features in a fresh way,” he says.
All four pieces are mounted on slim 13-foot-tall bases of polished granite. They range in height from 18-1/2 to 24 feet, including the base.
The sculptures were commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for the Union Square project at the request of the city’s Department of Parking and Traffic, which renovated the underground parking garage.
The works are the finishing touch to the all-new plaza, according to Union Square Association director Linda Mjellem. “And they’re each so different, I wouldn’t be surprised if people started giving them nicknames,” she said.
R.M. Fischer lived in San Francisco during the 1970s while he studied for his M.F.A. at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Since then, he has completed public art projects for numerous architectural sites throughout the country, including Battery Park City in New York, the Whitney Museum Lobby in New York, the Cleveland Sports Arena Complex, the downtown plaza in Sacramento, the Massachusetts State House in Boston, the Port of Seattle, and others. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, among others.
Fischer was selected from a nationwide pool of 21 artists by an independent panel consisting of representatives of the Union Square Association, the project design team, and Bay Area arts professionals.