About Us
Press Release
January 30, 2007
Contact: Tonia Macneil
415-252-2551
Tonia.Macneil@sfgov.org
INSECT SCULPTURES GREET VISITORS TO ARGONNE PLAYGROUND
INCOMPLETE METAMORPHOSIS by Joyce Hsu
(Photo credit: Joyce Hsu)
What:
Two laser-cut aluminum sculptures depicting a dragonfly and a firefly.
Dragonfly: 5ft. x 6 ft. x 2 ft.
Firefly: 3ft. x 4 ft. x 1.5 ft.
Brackets: 4.5 ft.
Where:
Argonne Playground, mid-block between 18th and 19th Avenues, Geary and Anza. Installed on fence posts at the entrances to the playground.
Playground Opening Celebration: A community celebration of the refurbished playground will take place on Saturday, February 3 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00
( San Francisco, CA) Artist Joyce Hsu combines her personal memories of summer adventures with a complex skeletal structure similar to an airplane to create two unique artworks for Argonne Playground, which is located between 18th and 19th Avenue in San Francisco’s Richmond District. The giant insects, one at each entrance, hover over newly planted garden beds bordering the play areas. Their appearance is ambiguous, being both insect-like and highly engineered. In referring to both the natural and man-made, the insects call to mind the natural wonders of the Bay Area as well as its long history of technological innovation.
Hsu explains that the title, “Incomplete Metamorphosis” is a scientific term describing a particular type of life cycle of insects. Hsu has adopted the term, but not its specific meaning. She has created her own meaning, seeing in the term a way to describe her insect sculptures: “Not only are they flightless, but they stand motionless, while their skeletal design requires viewers’ vivid imagination to complete.” She has expressed the hope that “many children will be able to share the joy and amazement I found with dragonflies as a youngster.”
Joyce Hsu was selected to create the artwork through the Public Art Program’s normal competitive process. Following several community meetings to identify community interests, a selection panel that included two community members reviewed the work of 18 artists. The panel interviewed three finalists and recommended Joyce Hsu to the Arts Commission.
Joyce Hsu received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998. For the last ten years, she has exhibited throughout California and increasingly internationally. She was chosen to be part of the 1999 “Bay Area Now” exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. And in 2006 was part of a project team for the Venice Biennial in Italy. Recent exhibitions have taken place in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Taiwan. Among her awards are a New Langton Arts Bay Area Award, in 1999 and a Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishhacker Foundation. Currently Hsu is working to complete a Master of Architecture degree at CCA in San Francisco, where she has also received numerous awards for her work. To date, Ms. Hsu has received five public art commissions, including an upcoming major work to be installed at the San Francisco International Airport.
Incomplete Metamorphosis was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission in accord with the city’s public art ordinance, which provides for an art enrichment allocation equivalent to 2% of the construction budget of a new or renovated civic construction project. Funds for the artwork were provided by the Recreation and Park Department.