Client: Ana Teresa Fernández

Location: San Francisco, CA, United States

Completion date: 2017

Artwork budget: $275,000

Project Team

Artist

Ana Teresa Fernández

Client

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Industry Resource

Gizmo Art Production

Overview

DREAM is a public art installation by visual artist Ana Teresa Fernández, commissioned by YBCA and co-sponsored by San Francisco Public Works and fabricated and installed by Gizmo Art Production. The piece is ten feet tall and spanning over 50 feet wide and its location is in San Francisco at the 101/280 merge. The piece is made up of round mirrored metallic disks that create a visual effect of three-dimensional shimmering water, spelling out the word “DREAM.”

Goals

Ana Teresa was "Inspired by the life of Mike “Dream” Francisco, a graffiti writer and peace fighter who was killed in 2000, Fernández’s sculpture is a sign to compel individuals—not just the widely mixed-race population that works, lives and goes to school in this area, but all individuals who come across it—to start identifying their goals and aspirations, from a place of consciousness and awareness, and to begin the process of pursuing them." Mike was known for painting the word Dream around San Francisco and one of his graffiti pieces is located at the bottom of the hill where the Dream sculpture is now placed, as a reminder of his life and to keep striving for what you want.

Process

"The piece was commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) and co-sponsored by San Francisco’s Department of Public Works. YBCA joined the project two years ago, incorporating it as part of its Youth in the City program at MLK Jr. Middle School." Gizmo was involved from the start as well, working with Ana to figure out how to get these huge letters up on the side of this very steep hill. It took those two years to figure out de4sign, permitting, and the best way to crane the sculpture up the slope.