Public Art Proposal Display
Art Proposals for the Traffic Company and Forensic Services Division Public Art Project
The San Francisco Arts Commission is conducting a selection process to choose an artwork for new Traffic Company and Forensic Science Division building, which will be located at at the intersection of Evans Avenue and Toland Street. The facility will be shared by the San Francisco Police Department’s Traffic Company and Forensic/CSI Division. The goal is to create a signature artwork for the new building that will inspire and engage both its users and the public, and will enhance the building’s connection to the surrounding neighborhood. Four artists were chosen as finalists by a Selection Panel to create site-specific proposals for the new Traffic Company and Forensic Science Division building: Alice Aycock, Linda Fleming, Lead Pencil Studio, and Susan Narduli.
The exact location of the sculpture on the entry plaza is approximate and dependent on issues related to pedestrian egress and landscaping elements. Much of my work in both the public and private spheres has been a meditation on the philosophical and metaphorical ramifications of science and technology from the simplest tool (the arrowhead and the plow) to the computer. Many of these works have incorporated references to energy in the form of spirals, spinning tops, gyroscopes, and so on. The sculpture celebrates the state of the art research that will take place in the new Traffic Company and Forensic Services Division Headquarters. It is the progressive energy of scientific thought being transmitted outward to the society at large. The work is a metaphorical visual residue of this energy and references in a general way the image of the DNA double helix in all of its complexity. The sculpture is highly visible from the intersection of Evans Avenue and Toland Street. It operates as a place-marker and a destination or exclamation point on the plaza.
Intersection is a modular sculpture comprised of faceted forms that allow the components to attach to each other at multiple angles as the sculpture rises over 20 feet into the air. The sinuous laser cut openwork drawing cut into each panel references the flow of traffic on city interchanges as well as the circulation of fluids connecting molecules and allowing them to reveal their structural identity. The open spaces in the sculpture permit light to pass through the work and provide views of the orange painted interior of the structure as well as glimpses of the surroundings. The outer layer of stainless steel panels are painted in 5 hues ranging from light greens and blues to yellows and serves to differentiate the inside from the outside while the two tones mix in the eye from a distance. Shadows from the lacelike form project onto the building and the plaza in ever changing ways throughout the day and when lit at night. The sculpture has a lightness that belies its sturdy steel construction. It connects to itself, its site, and to the work of the occupants of the building.
Illuminated Room is a combination of an architectural section of a room and everyday objects used and examined by the Traffic Company and Forensic Services Division. These familiar objects will be etched into solid optical crystal blocks from digital LiDAR scans using a laser etching machine. In turn, these blocks will be stacked atop a bronze table with internal illumination. Overall, this large-scale sculpture will work as a translucent enclosure where viewers will be drawn to inspect the small artifacts that reference ongoing work inside the building. The subject matter within the crystal blocks will be highly varied and include cars, motorcycles, botanical specimens, stairs, small objects, fingerprints, hair, tools, elementary particles, insects and etc. These crystals in the center of the sculpture will be internally lit and serve as an ambient light source within the public plaza at night. 
The artwork for the Traffic Company and Forensics Services Division Headquarters creates a link between the day-to-day workings of this new building and the ongoing evolution of this site and the Bayview neighborhood. It is conceived as a synergy of fixed and fluid elements, a layering of memory and of moments captured in real time.
Opportunity For Public Comment
Please take a few minutes to review the proposals on display here and complete a comment form below. You may also email your comments to sfacpublicartcomment@sfgov.org, or hand deliver/mail comments to 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 325 by March 13, 2019, 5 p.m.
The Final Selection Panel meeting will take place on Friday, March 15, 2019, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. at 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 301. All Artist Selection Panel meetings are open to the public. An agenda for the meeting will be posted 72-hour in advance of the meeting on SFAC’s website under the Public Meeting section: www.sfartscommission.org/calendar.