Commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for the Zuckerberg General Hospital and Trauma Center, in San Francisco Ethereal Bodies 8 creates a dynamic pivot point, activating the south hospital entrance by mediating arrivals and departures. Ethereal Bodies 8 won The 2017 Americans for the Arts, Public Art Network, Year in Review Award for an Exemplary Innovative Public Artwork and was featured in The New York Times in December 2015 article discussing the Chan/Zuckerberg initiative focused on charitable giving.
The ensemble of sculptures is positioned on a contoured earthwork planted with grasses. The stainless-steel rods gather sunlight by day and interact prismatically with the program of LED lights that illuminate the sculptures by night when activated through motion sensors. The sculptures’ anthropomorphic quality is complemented by their lightness and open structure. Given this transparency of the forms, the sculptures offer a cinematic quality as they recombine upon the viewer’s changing position when viewed from a vehicle circling the entry drive. Ethereal Bodies 8 is part of a series of sculptures the artist began with Sentient Beings, in North Hollywood, CA in 2008.