08/15/2024
Hi Fam! We are thrilled to be finalists for the Potrero Yard Modernization Public Art Project Bus Ramp on 17th street! Take a look at our design “Muni in Motion”and submit a public comment before 8/19! Our design proposal, along with Celeste Byers & Spencer Keaton Cunningham and Precita Eyes Muralists can be viewed at this link or along the fence at 17th st and Bryant.
https://sfartscommission.org/content/art-proposals-potrero-yard-modernization-public-art-project-bus-ramp-17th-street
If we are selected by the SFAC our design will be fabricated on glass and architecturally integrated in the facade of the bus ramp. Thank you for your continued support!
The conceptual artwork design by Twin Walls (Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong) for the Potrero Yard bus ramp on 17th Street is an ode to the routes that raised us in our City by the Bay.
In our 7x7 universe, the city and its modes of transportation have always been reflective of cultural and political changes. Our diversity, our collective struggles and triumphs, the celebrations we share and the care we have for one another are valued in a way unlike any other part of the world. Twin Walls aims to celebrate this connectivity by illustrating a woven tapestry of people and places throughout time in San Francisco, starting at Potrero Division.
MUNI in Motion reads from right to left, beginning with an indigenous Yelamu Ramaytush Ohlone landscape and ending with native birds soaring through a clear sky, a symbol of hope for our future and respect for our past. The five crisscross pattern shapes that stretch across the mural are inspired by a pattern in an Ohlone basket woven by Linda Yemane, a descendent of the Ohlone tribe. The artists’ primary goal is to foster better stewards of this beautiful land we share as well as working on our own personal health and the healing of our communities. Connection is an important factor in creating lasting change. In many cultures weaving is an art of recognizing health and wholeness as a root and overcoming blockages of seemingly broken connections. We use lines/cables, and by extension the buses and people within them, as well as elements in the natural world as visual symbols of how our collective energy is woven into the fabric, or in this case basket, of life.
The color palette chosen by Twin Walls consists of greens, earth tones, reds and orange hues. The greens serve to channel sustainability and healing energy. Earth tones depict the roots that provide stability and balance. The reds and oranges are a tribute to two colors most associated with our unique city and historic SF Muni.
The heart of this conceptual design is the people; showcased are connections between passengers, bus riders, drivers and pedestrians. The artists celebrate their home landscape as it shifts, highlighting local communities of today and nostalgically recalling San Francisco of the 1940s up to the present across space and time.
Muni is not just a mode of transportation for getting from place to place. It is a portal for viewing San Francisco through different lenses. It can be a place of comfort, a place of friendship, a place to rest and reflect, or a place of entertainment. One can take a bus that begins Downtown and ends in the Marina District, having passed by some of the oldest buildings in San Francisco and meeting someone who claims to have “jammed with Santana in ‘75.” Everyone has an unforgettable Muni story, and we are all connected through these gems. Muni is inseparable from San Francisco and the paths it weaves through on its routes unite communities, art, and history. Twin Walls’s intention for their design is to capture the spirit of San Francisco, composing a visual narrative that celebrates our past, embraces our present, and beckons us towards a brighter future.
