iewed up close atop an island in San Francisco Bay, the city’s newest public artwork rises like a tapering needle of polished steel. From a different angle, it blazes like a beacon at sunrise and sunset. From the vantage of a departing visitor turning to look back, Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Point of Infinity” seems to be matte blue and nearly disappears, leaving a faint outline like a doorway cut into the sky.
Continuously shifting but always sublime, the monumental sculpture is a fitting first commission for San Francisco’s ambitious scheme to turn two Bay islands into a new offshore neighbourhood and art destination. Rising 69 feet (21 metres), the piece is a meditation on eternity and human imagination in a place that has seen its share of innovation and near-death experiences. Perspective is everything, it suggests. As this newspaper and others have reported, San Francisco may have entered an economic “doom loop”. The spire is a sliver of hope for a rebirth.