Art is supposed to be an experience.
Two new art installations at UCSF Health’s Bayfront Medical Building are just that, stimulating both the eyes and ears of patients, their families, health care providers and passersby. The displays – a stunning “soundscape” mural and “an interactive sound sculpture” – are part of a synergistic approach to the patient healing journey at the new, state-of-the-art UCSF Mission Bay outpatient building.
Located south of the UCSF Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision and running along Illinois, Mariposa and 3rd streets, the new Bayfront Medical Building supports UCSF Health operations and serves a growing patient demand, including increasing demand for same day surgery.
“Health care providers at Bayfront are welcoming new patients now and look forward to caring for them,” said Inga Lennes, MD, MPH, MBA, president, Faculty Practice Organization and SVP Ambulatory Services, UCSF Health. “In preparing to serve everyday health needs for nearly every age, we’ve put a lot of thought into creating a patient-centered environment with soothing art to boost the healing process. These works go a long way in making that a reality.”
Sunrise/Sunset
The soundscape mural is titled “Sunset/Sunrise” and measures 13 feet tall and 80 feet wide. Designed and created by Oakland artist Adia Millett, the work uses three different speakers placed above a colorful mural that each emit different Koshi chime tones representing Earth’s calming elements.
“There was this desire for the work to be calming and peaceful,” Millett said. “It’s for a community dealing with healing and physical change. This piece is a much cooler pallet than I would normally use. Really, I was thinking about the space.”
Depending on which side of the painting one starts viewing from, the sun rises or sets.
“Art has this really incredible ability to use images to show that something is very abstract and open ended while being able to touch people on an individual level,” Millett said. “We don’t all have to have the same story in order to have a similar foundation for building understanding.”
“It’s for a community dealing with healing and physical change. This piece is a much cooler pallet than I would normally use.”
Adia Millett, Oakland artist
“It’s for a community dealing with healing and physical change. This piece is a much cooler pallet than I would normally use.”
Adia Millett, Oakland artist
Millett is originally from Southern California and graduated from both UC Berkeley and the California Institute of Arts.
The self-described “visual artist” uses a wide range of materials from paint to textiles to glass to video. She’s no stranger to public art, notably partnering with youth organizations to paint a mural on the basketball courts of Lowell Park in West Oakland.
This isn’t the first time Millett has been tapped by UCSF Health for her artistic prowess.
She was recently commissioned to create public art for the façade of a new Administrative Support Building at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, the third local artist adding their work to that campus.
“When I think about public art, hospitals, airports and schools are ideal for me,” Millett said. “You have such a diverse community of people in those spaces. They are spaces where there’s so much movement. You’re either coming or going. You’re either learning in that space, going through a process of healing or transition.”
The audio element of the work was designed by sound artist Michael DuCott.
Skyhorn
While Millett will now have work at two UCSF Health facilities, the Bayfront Medical Building represents a first-time collaboration between UCSF Health and Wowhaus, a California-based artist team of Scott Constable and Ene Osteraas-Constable.
The award-winning duo’s “monumental, interactive sound sculpture” called “Skyhorn” towers 12 feet high and decorates the building’s 3rd Street side.
“It was a great creative challenge,” Ene Osteraas-Constable said.
Cast in bronze with a blue patina, the sculpture consists of a large bell-shaped horn facing upward that connects to a smaller bell-shaped horn at the pedestrian level. Embossed raised letters around the small horn’s perimeter invite patients and passersby to “listen to the sky.” At the top of “Skyhorn,” a circular array of 28 wind-activated bells rims the perimeter of the large horn, producing an ethereal tone that varies with the blowing Mission Bay wind.
“Hospitals are the most meaningful place you can put art...You can have an impact on people in a way that’s really meaningful.”
Ene Osteraas-Constable, California-based artist
“Hospitals are the most meaningful place you can put art...You can have an impact on people in a way that’s really meaningful.”
Ene Osteraas-Constable, California-based artist
“Hospitals are the most meaningful place you can put art,” Ene Osteraas-Constable said. “This is why we do work in the public realm, because it can play a pivotal role in people’s lives. You can have an impact on people in a way that’s really meaningful.”
The sound component of the sculpture – designed as a resonant chamber similar to that of a musical instrument – was inspired by trolleys that used to run down 3rd Street when it was dotted by stockyards. It’s only activated by strong winds of about 15 mph, so the meaning of “listen to the sky” isn’t intended literally.
“We were incredibly impressed and moved by the engaged, visionary crew working on the Bayfront project,” Scott Constable said. “They cared so much about the facility down to the last detail. We were delighted to encounter that. That’s not typical of our process.”
Wowhaus’ work is held in the public art collections of cities nationwide, from San Francisco to Denver to Nashville.
“We loved the Wowhaus sculpture because it included interactive and auditory experiences which really ties into our vision of an inclusive art program at UCSF,” said Alicia Musasaki, UCSF campus architect, assistant vice chancellor of Campus Planning and UCSF Art Committee co-chair.
The works are the latest in a growing number of public art installations at Mission Bay.
