“I am compelled by the notion of an art piece existing within both the poetic realm and the practical realm simultaneously.” - Roxy Paine
Is it a beanstalk? A tree branch? Or perhaps a fault line?
Maybe.
It’s also San Francisco’s newest piece of public sculpture. Hello, “Node.” I’m a fan.
When working on my story about the 10 pieces of art commissioned for the new San Francisco Central Subway stations, there were two works that had yet to debut. Tomei Arai’s facade project, “Arrival,” is still to be completed at Chinatown-Rose Pak station. But on April 23, New York artist Roxy Paine’s “Node” was installed at the Yerba Buena-Moscone station at Fourth and Howard streets.
Rising 102 feet from the public plaza entry to the station at the corner of Fourth and Clementina, “Node” is the tallest freestanding sculpture in the city. The gleaming, stainless-steel form reaches upward from a 5½-foot-thick base reminiscent of a tree trunk or industrial vent. From there, it curves as it extends skyward, twisting Seussically and gradually tapering until it’s just a quarter of an inch thick at its peak.
The piece was intended to function as a way-finding landmark for the station, something it does when one approaches from the south on Fourth Street.
