OBJECTS

Fire Station 5 Public Art San Francisco

MEMORY STONE

2022

Memory Stone is a vessel in which we hold our memory. It claims no identity but serves as an offering on which to bestow a meaning that lies deep in our conscience.

Stone holds knowledge and inner strength from being buried, crushed and compressed, and is shaped by its environment. Wax is a malleable material that can hold shapes, seal, preserve, and nurture a flame, giving light. The charred wood is a layer formed around the burning tree to protect itself from further damage. Ash is an element of transition. All of these materials represent moments in the endless cycle of transformation.

Climate change and the pandemic have affected our lives in a deeply fundamental way. Many losses and misfortune brought upon us did not bring us closer but divided us into believers and non-believers. California fires and Covid affected one of the primary mechanisms of our body to survive, which is to breathe clean air. At our vulnerability, I think about humanity, self-preservation, and destruction.

These objects embody the symbolic relationship between humanity and nature.

Fire Station 5 San Francisco
Bernadette Jiyong Frank | Public Art