In a few weeks, the local coverage area of Haighteration, Uppercasing, and Hayeswire will be expanding. Today’s post is a preview.
In June, the residents of the Fillmore district were suddenly joined by a 6-month-long installation of 12 different pieces by renowned sculptor Seward Johnson.
Statues from the collection, entitled, “Celebrating the Familiar,” have been placed on or around Fillmore Street between Geary and Fulton.
Johnson’s figures appear so utterly lifelike as to cause the unexpecting passerby to do a double- or triple-take. And though one can live and walk amongst these creations, it seems almost impossible to get used to them.
Munir Adem, owner of the popular Fillmore Street Cafe, offers his opinion.
“It’s amazing, people just love them. I wish there was one right outside my store,” Adem says.
Despite this affection for the statues, Adem asserts that they produce an odd effect on the mind. “After seeing [the statues] you see a real person standing still and you think they are also a statue.” This peculiar effect is hard to shake off.
Artist Johnson has gone through such painstaking care to make his statues realistic, he has even included details of human messiness, such as faux spilled relish on the stand of his hotdog vendor piece, and corresponding garbage for the garbage sweeper:
Part of the joy of the project is that the statues are very cleverly placed, allowing you to bump into them when you least expect it. This grocery shopper waits for a bus to arrive near the local post office.
These modern art pieces, whose completion dates span from the ’70s to today, certainly have gotten people in the Fillmore to stop and look, challenging the viewer in the way contemporary art often does.
Alike, a Starbucks employee, asserts that “they are kind of scary,” and that the community’s homeless can sometimes be seen talking and interacting with the statues. Her coworker, Jaime, also says that “they are freaky at night.”
Despite these qualities, the prevailing opinion seems to be that the statues are a multicultural triumph for this eclectic district.
Local resident Quentin, who runs an Estee Lauder cosmetics stand next to a statue of a young African-American girl, notes that the statues are weather-impermeable and are painted with a solid, 3-D ink.
“Forty years ago District Five used to be the hottest spot,” Quentin explains, “things like this help bring it back to notice.”
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