1700 Owens Street
Mission Bay, San Francisco
This piece, in Mission Bay, is titled Anima, and is by American Sculptor Jim Sanborn (1945 – ). Sanborn is best known for creating the encrypted Kryptos sculpture at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, a piece of work that has captured the imagination of cryptologists around the world for years.
He attended Randolph-Macon College, receiving a degree in paleontology, fine arts, and social anthropology in 1968, followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Pratt Institute in 1971. He taught at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, and then for nine years was the artist-in-residence at Glen Echo Park.
Themes in his work have included “making the invisible visible”, with many sculptures focusing on topics such as magnetism, the carioles effect, secret messages, and mysteries of atomic reactions.
There is a sign near the piece with the translation and the origination of the texts that appear in the art piece.
Texts include part of the Human Genome Project, an excerpt from Dr. Leslie Taylor, ND www.rain-tree.com, a quote from Louis Pasteur, text from Greek Physician Claudius Galen (150 AD), text from Roman historian Pliny (79 AD), and a quote from Qi Bo (450 BC) physician to the Chinese Emperor.
The piece sits in front of a building for biotech companies, which might explain the choices for the quotes.