NEWS
February 16, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Michael C. McCarron Director, Bureau of Community Affairs (650) 821-4000 [email protected] SF-07-07
SISTER CITIES ARE SHINING PATHS AT SFO
Sister City Art Installation Marks 50th Anniversary of San Francisco’s Sister City Relationship with Osaka
SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and the San Francisco Arts Commission unveiled the art installation Shining Paths: San Francisco’s Sister Cities, an illumination of the City’s fourteen sister city relationships by Bay Area artist and teacher Lewis deSoto, at a press conference in SFO’s International Terminal prior to the departure of members of the Osaka Sister City Committee on United Flight 885, bound for Kansai International Airport (KIX). The delegation, including Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and Public Defender Jeff Adachi, is traveling to Japan to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the sister city relationship between San Francisco and Osaka.
Shining Paths is an extension of the installation On the Air, which was commissioned as part of the International Terminal construction, completed in 2000. On the Air is a 12,000 square foot design in terrazzo, with bronze medallions on the floor of the Airport’s International Terminal’s arrival lobby area. The terrazzo design features a global isobar map, with 160 bronze medallions representing international airports around the world. The imagery for the medallions is created from the actual airport landing approach plates used by pilots.
Shining Paths uses the same aeronautical map imagery for each city’s airport, overlaid with the image of the city’s flower. An exterior ring identifies the city as a “Sister City.”
“The installation represents the dual nature of modern travel,” said P.J. Johnston, San Francisco Arts Commission President. “The pilots’ charts remind us of the exactitude of air transport, while the botanical images convey the romance of arriving at unfamiliar and exciting destinations throughout the world.”
While the original On the Air medallions are bronze, the Sister City medallions are created from gobo light projections onto the floor, emitted from projectors mounted on the terminal’s ceiling. New gobo lights and gel designs are able to be added if San Francisco acquires additional sister cities.
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Mr. deSoto designed medallions for San Francisco and each of its fourteen sister cities: Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Assisi, Italy; Cork, Ireland; Haifa, Israel; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Manila, Philippines; Osaka, Japan; Paris, France; Seoul, Korea; Shanghai, China; Sydney, Australia; Taipei, Taiwan; Thessaloniki, Greece; and Zurich, Switzerland.
Each concourse has eight medallions (seven sister cities plus San Francisco). In Boarding Area A, the medallions are on either side of the walkway. In Boarding Area G, medallions are grouped in the center of the concourse, between the moving walkways.
Shining Paths is part of the Collection of the City and County of San Francisco; commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Airport Commission for San Francisco International Airport. Funding is provided by through the city’s percent- for-art program.
About Artist Lewis deSoto Lewis deSoto is a Bay Area artist who works in an array of media from photography to robotics. He is a professor of Art at San Francisco State University, where he has taught since 1988. His recent public commissions include those for the Civic Center Courthouse in San Francisco, and those for cities such as San Jose, Phoenix and Seattle. Mr. deSoto received the Flintridge Foundation Award for Visual Artists, a Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishacker Foundation, a National Endowment for the Arts Artists Fellowship, and a California Arts Council Artists Fellowship. His work is included in numerous public, corporate and private collections including the Rene di Rosa Collection in Napa, California; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art; the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the University Art Museum in Berkeley, California. Mr. deSoto’s work has appeared at international exhibits Guadalajara, Mexico; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Barcelona, Spain; Stockholm, Sweden; London, England and others.
About the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) The San Francisco Arts Commission (www.sfartscommission.org) is the City agency that champions the arts in San Francisco and the belief that a creative cultural environment is essential to the City’s well-being. SFAC programs integrate the arts into all aspects of City life. The Commission was established by charter in 1932.
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About San Francisco International Airport SFO (www.flysfo.com) offers non-stop links with more than 29 international points on 25 international carriers. The Bay Area’s Airport of Choice connects non-stop with more than 60 cities in the United States on 20 domestic airlines, including more than twice as many non-stop flights to the New York area than other Bay Area airports combined.