Bernal Heights – Odonatoa

Holy Park Playground

Holy Park Circle

Bernal Heights

Odonatoa by Joyce Hsu

Bernal Heights is a wonderful area that has some of the cities best weather.  This sculpture sits on top of a delightful park that has views of all around the city.  Bernal had its origin with the 1839 Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo Mexican land grant  It remained undeveloped, though, until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Built atop bedrock, the hill’s structures survived the temblor, and the sparseness of the development saved much of Bernal from the ravages of the firestorm that followed. The commercial corridor of Cortland Avenue filled in with shops as the pastureland on the hilltop was developed for workers’ homes during the rapid rebuilding of the city. Some of the tiny earthquake cottages that the city built to house quake refugees still exist in this area. During World War II, the area saw another population surge of primarily working class families. During the Vietnam War, the neighborhood was known as “Red Hill” for the anti-war activists in shared households and collectives who moved in among the working class families.

Born in Hong Kong, Joyce Hsu received her BFA from the Mount Allison University in Canada in 1996 and her MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998. She works out of Oakland and creates all kinds of mechanical sculptures.

This kinetic sculpture of painted stainless is one of many insects that Joyce has created.  It was commission by the SFAC in their 2006-07 budget at a cost of $14,500.

I would like to add this addendum to this post. The blog Bernalwood reposted this and received a comment from Eugenie Marek. Her comment is here :

My memory is a bit fuzzy. Here’s what I remember.
When Holly Park was being renovated, the Arts Commission invited 5 or 6 residents to meet to consider from among projects that had been submitted for this location.

It was a difficult choice because the submissions were all imaginative and well executed. What made it even harder was that two of the artists lived in Bernal. We were given some direction by the Arts Commission facilitator. Because Holly Park is so windy, we looked to select something that included movement. This artist’s work was unique enough to convince us.

Unfortunately, the Odonatao ran into trouble because it was just too responsive to the wind! It was quite something to see when the parts were in motion. The artist tried several times to slow it down, and finally disengaged it.

I’ve always been sad to see it frozen– but it is neat to look at! Certainly one of a kind.

Thank you Eugenie.