A Start to the Blue Greenway Art Trail

Arelious Walker and Innis Street               originally at Cargo at Third Street
Bayview/Hunters Point

This piece is titled Red Fish by William Wareham.  Wareham has several pieces around San Francisco.

The piece was installed as part of San Francisco’s Blue Greenway project.  The Blue Greenway is the City of San Francisco’s Port project to improve the City’s southerly portion of the 500 mile, 9-county, region-wide Bay Trail, as well as the newly established Bay Area Water Trail and associated waterfront open space system.

The alignment of the Blue Greenway generally follows the alignment of the Bay Trail and Bay Area Water Trail from Mission Creek on the north to the County line on the south.

Another component of the Blue Greenway is an Art Trail along the southern waterfront.  The ultimate goal is to establish 8 -10 permanent sites that showcase temporary installation art and the work of local artists.

I found this fun little blurb in a press release from William Wareham:

“On my studio wall is a small sign (the lettering disappearing from age) that says: “Do not be afraid!” Perhaps intended as a morale booster to those WWII sailors going off to war from this shipyard: it now acts as an aesthetic reminder to pursue the creative act with vigor. But what is that? Is it to take three-dimensional form to where it has not been before or mine the turf that others have excavated in the belief of finding new harmonies? Whichever path, to activate space with steel is a challenge. I try to resolve this with both knowledge and intuition asking myself constantly; “Is this solution too predictable?” I rework and change the forms to get a more dynamic relationship, interesting intervals, tension in the negative volumes or contrasting scale; all with the purpose of bringing a great sense of visual delight to our lives.”

Red Fish was installed in 2006 and did not age well.  Red is a difficult color to keep vibrant in any environment, but the rest of the piece is not doing well either.

The San Francisco Art Commission has said that the piece will remain in this location for five years with an option to renew.

Walker is a part of the Hunters Point Neighborhood and worked closely with the Bayview Historic Society, who raised the money for the refurbishment,  to keep the piece in the Bayview Hunters Point area.