Gentrification is a problem that is vastly growing in San Francisco. What most see as urban expansion and renovation, others see as a threat to their way of life. Recently art has been slowly starting to play a role in developer's agendas to gentrify the city, expanding their reach beyond. Art like Bayview Rise (2014). The piece Is a massive 8 story tall mural painted onto the side of a silo. The mural is out of place in the area, not looking anything like the complex it is apart of. A very vibrant colorful piece. It is made up of geometric patterns that come together to create different images. The shapes depict Red balloons rising upward, a large Green bird that takes up most of the piece, blue arrows that rise upward with the balloons, and the head of a Cow in the bottom left corner. Although the mural is made up with just geometric images, they're use of perspective makes the mural line up with the skyline, as if the balloons are rising in the distance while the bird is flying through them. Bayview Rise is a piece that can only be fully appreciated at it's peak, after hours. When the sunsets and the sky go black, the work is illuminated by hues of spotlights that bring out the patterns. When the red spotlight shines, the red painted hot air balloons burst outward. When the light fades from red to a hue of blue, the transition slowly brings emphasis on the green painted swan, transitioning away from the balloons.
Bayview Rise was created in 2014 by Laura Haddad and Tom Drugan. They created it as a interaction of color and light, with imagery about and for the community, presenting the patterns as" symbols of the neighborhood's changing economy, ecology, and community as well as its past, present, and future, symbolizing a community in transformation." 1The project was commissioned by San Francisco Southern Waterfront Beautification Project. Their main mission being to conserve and repurpose historic buildings on the waterfront.
2 Bayview Rise Is an example of a new age in public art. Light art, becoming more and more popular in the city since its interest peaked with the installation of The Bay lights (2013). While this new addition to San Francisco's art scene is beautiful, that is exactly the problem. As David Harvey put's it best, "the scandalous alleys disappear to the accompaniment of lavish self- praise by the bourgeoisie on account of this tremendous success, but they appear again immediately somewhere else."3This piece is beautifying the area, but at a tremendous cost. Bayview Rise has shined a spotlight on the Bayview district and has now attracted the lavish lifestyles to come in and take over. The area is already the "epicenter of San Francisco's shrinking African American population" according to writer Dan Moshenberg from womeninandbeyond.org, where Jessica Williams was killed due to stricter push on urban redevelopment.4
Hunt projects, a rental fabrication space for aspiring fabricators and artists only a few blocks away from Bayview Rise, has becoming more and more expensive to rent space each year, more so than it has before. Not only is rent starting to go up, but the artists have been told that studio rent will be available for only two more years before the site is sold off. The beginning signs of more development. Not only have plans for a more luxurious area been planned for the future, but more luxurious lifestyles are already starting to take effect. an example would be the installation of an art gallery within one of the worn our warehouse spaces next to hunt projects. Outside looks just like the rest of the area, but inside it is a beautiful space packed with young, white, aspiring artists, and outside, security guards stand watch at the entrance. This is a sign that so called progress has started to come to the area.
Bayview Rise is so far acting as a "band aid" to the Bayview district, not only that, it according to Judith Baca, is using "beauty as a false promise of inclusion" by playing on these developers agendas 5. This piece was commissioned by the port of San Francisco according to the artist team Haddad Drugans Website, so it's reasonable to assume that this was made with ulterior motives . The artist incorporates beauty as a false promise of conclusion through the imagery used in the work, stating Its geometric pattern weaves together symbols of the neighborhood's changing economy, ecology, and community as well as its past, present, and future, symbolizing a community in transformation."1It's Ironic that these are the traits that the artist depicted , making this work a representation for the community. But this is still a band aid, it is slapped in an area to make it better, more appealing. While the story is that the work is made to represent the community, in the end it is only for those who want to see the city little more beautiful, not the residents of it. read more
