I took a quick trip to Boise earlier this week, flying out of Oakland Airport. As I had several times over the year I've lived here, I walked the length of the wonderful art glass installation in Terminal 2 ... but this time, I realized, "Hey, that's by Hung Liu."
Liu is an Oakland artist and Mills College professor whose work is currently the subject of a retrospective show at the Oakland Museum of California. I saw it a few weeks ago and fell in love with her work: the circles she employs as visual "pauses"; the intentional drips that lend a look of weathering and wear (like the wrinkles we earn on our faces, perhaps); the brush work; the found objects ... the humanity of it all.
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| Going Away ... |
The Oakland Airport work, which spans 160 feet, was
installed in 2006
in a collaboration with Derix Glasstudios of Taunusstein, Germany.
"Going Away, Coming Home" takes inspiration from the I Ching quote,
"There is nothing that involves only going without returning. It is the
nature of Heaven and Earth. When there is going, there also must be
returning."
The piece features symbols from Liu's
native Chinese culture, especially red-crowned cranes, soaring over four
sweeping satellite images. As you move from right to left ("Going
Away"), the window sections represent the Bay Area, the Northern
California Coast, the entire Pacific Northwest, and finally the Pacific
Rim. There are 80 cranes in flight, and Liu said they represent "80
blessings" to travelers who pass by.
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| ... Coming Home |
The OMCA show,
Summoning Ghosts, is on through June 30, and there's a show of Liu's
recent works planned in San Jose this year, too. But if you miss those, "Going Away, Coming Home" will send you off or welcome you home, today and every day at Oakland Airport.
