A huge site-specific artwork by Hiroshi Sugimoto will shortly be installed in San Francisco Bay. On Yerba Buena Island, Point of Infinity, a roughly 70-foot-tall stainless-steel needle that serves as a sundial, will be located atop Yerba Buena Hilltop Park. The Federal Aviation Administration had to provide approval for the project’s sky-scraping size, and it will be visible from many locations in the city, including the famous Bay Bridge.
The $50 million park construction on Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island, which was announced in June 2017, includes a $2 million public art commission. The high-profile project was supervised by the San Francisco Arts Commission on behalf of the Treasure Island Development Authority. More than 500 ideas were received, and the three finalists were Yasuo Sugimoto, Andy Goldsworthy, and Chakaia Booker.
Nearly five years after Sugimoto’s appointment, little about the project has been revealed—until now. As the San Francisco public art commissioner, Jill Manton, tells The Art Newspaper, “It’s taken a number of years. I’ve gotten used to saying it’s on ‘city time’—there was a long pause between the idea and the reality because it was a complicated project.”
Just recently did Sugimoto give his final approval for the sculpture’s final production. On December 8th, the item underwent “a dry fit” to make sure that all of its components could be put together properly. The piece will be sent in February, and it will take around two months to get to the port in San Francisco. At this time, May is the anticipated opening month.
The work’s title, Point of Infinity, was not chosen at random; it is based on the equation for infinity. The beginning point, according to the artist’s project proposal, was “to question myself what should be ‘given’ to this very specific area,” rather than to make a sculptural shape”. He set out to investigate the limitations of human memory and creativity, by conceiving, “a hyperbolic curve that would suggest both infinity and eternity: two converging curved lines, getting closer and closer but never meeting”.
“In the material world, it is physically impossible to make a point that reaches all the way to infinity,” writes Sugimoto. “What I can do, however, is suggest infinity by making an approximate point that can exist in the material world, as a mathematically modelled structure with a 1 1/8-inch-wide tip.”
The sundial-monument also makes reference to the Tower of the Sun, the centrepiece of the San Francisco World’s Fair in 1939, for which Treasure Island was first built. The location of the sun’s shadow at noon on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes will be carved on a large stone. “The creation of the pyramids is shrouded in mystery. By contrast, this tower will act as a symbol expressing humanity’s yearning for the infinite even 50 centuries in the future,” the artist writes., according to the art newspaper.
Manton discusses how the commission came about relatively informally. She had casually brought up the Treasure Island prospect after approaching Sugimoto’s San Francisco dealer, Fraenkel Gallery, to inquire about the artist’s interest in making a public sculpture at San Francisco International Airport. “Once he heard about it, he was dead set on applying,” Manton says. “I have to say that Sugimoto’s [proposed] work really was singularly the most stunning and exquisite.” The project was put to a selection panel (and presented to the public, though they didn’t have a direct vote) which chose Point of Infinity.
Serving the needs of the community and monetary gain may be difficult in a city like San Francisco, which is renowned as a refuge for both artists and fans. Manton learned about the first release of the development plans and requested the mayor’s office to “make Treasure Island a destination for the arts” that would “benefit the public realm instead of private art on private property”. Through the city’s Percent for Art policy, which levies a 1% fee on private developers to finance public art initiatives, Treasure Island “will generate about $50 million over the 20-year course of the development project”, she explains.
In carrying out that strategy, Sugimoto’s initiative is the first significant step—but it doesn’t stop there. The San Francisco Arts Commission has just hired five photographers to capture the island’s development throughout the course of the upcoming year. They have also started a student photography programme and are planning temporary shows of public artworks. The group is also preparing to commission a piece of public art for the Waterfront Plaza of the city. All of this is “not only cultural development, but community engagement and urban development”, Manton says, adding: “I feel like this very much fits into how the arts can be utilised for the greater good.”