FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PORT OF OAKLAND UNVEILS FIRST MAJOR PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION
IN NEW TERMINAL 2 CONCOURSE AT OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Hung Liu’s Going Away, Coming Home Offers 80 Blessings to Travelers;
Three Additional Commissions to be Installed in Early 2007

November 14, 2006, Oakland, CA—Late this evening, the first passengers will arrive at gates 29–32 in the new Terminal 2 concourse at Oakland International Airport (OAK).Welcoming them will be the first major public art installation under the Port of Oakland’s landmark public art policy.

Going Away, Coming Home (2006), by critically acclaimed Oakland artist Hung Liu, is the first of four site-specific commissions included in the Port of Oakland’s Terminal 2 Improvement Program. The artwork comprises 64 panels of glass windows that span 160

Artist Hung Liu in front of Going Away, Coming Home (2006).Frederic Larson, Photographer Courtesy of the Port of Oakland and Oakland International Airport

feet along the transit corridor leading to the new gates. Going Away, Coming Home marks the first time that Liu has worked on glass, a medium that allows her signature “drip” painting style to boldly characterize the 80 red-crowned cranes she hand-painted onto the panels.

As with all Liu’s art, Going Away, Coming Home incorporates many symbols from the artist’s native China. Traditionally an Asian icon of longevity and good fortune, the red-crowned cranes were selected by the artist specifically as symbols of blessing and safe travel—the color red itself is considered in China to bring good luck—as well as for their heaven-ward motion. Liu explains, “For me, the birds embody the beautiful. They encourage us to get rid of our burdens, find victory over what ties us down, defy gravity, and feel the freedom of flight.” Marrying ancient Chinese imagery with 21st-century technology, the cranes appear to soar above satellite photo images of the West Coast and the Pacific Rim that have been sand-blasted, enameled and fired into a second layer of glass panels, which lends the installation tremendous depth and dramatic impact.

Liu’s site-specific work is the first to be unveiled under the Port of Oakland’s Public Art Ordinance of 2002. This innovative policy was the first in the country to bring together three different revenue divisions under one umbrella and makes public art a requirement for all major construction projects and for private development on land purchased or leased from the Port. A total of $1.2 million is earmarked for the public art component of the OAK Terminal 2 Improvement Program. The Oakland Museum of California implements

Detail from Hung Liu's Going Away, Coming Home (2006) at Oakland International Airport. Jack Fulton, Photographer Courtesy of the Port of Oakland and Oakland International Airport

and oversees this public art program and administers OAK’s airport exhibition program on behalf of the Port.

“The millions of passengers who travel through Oakland International Airport annually will have the opportunity to view and appreciate this impressive new work,” says Port of Oakland Commissioner and First Vice President Darlene Ayers-Johnson, who also serves on the Port’s public art committee. “This far-reaching public art program underscores the Port’s commitment to promoting local artists of exemplary talent and to helping bridge global cultures.”

Lori Fogarty, executive director of the Oakland Museum of California, adds, “The breathtaking artistry of Liu’s work is an auspicious start to the Port’s generous commissioning program. All of the Bay Area artists selected for the OAK project are of the highest caliber, and we are both proud and excited to play a central role in making such innovative and exciting art available to the public outside the museum’s walls.”

Additional Commissions
Three additional sites in Terminal 2 have artworks scheduled for installation in the coming months: baggage claim, escalator wall, and restroom entrance walls.

A media wall of 18 monitors in the new Terminal 2 baggage claim area (completed in July 2006) will present a continuous loop of works by four Bay Area artists. San Francisco media artist Rebeca Bollinger will create a meditative and sculptural work using water as a central theme. Arthur Carson, a multimedia artist based in Berkeley, will use the media wall as a virtual 18-paned window, with images of children peering as if into a dollhouse; the children’s faces will be representative of the Bay Area’s diverse communities and will be interspersed with local landscapes.

Oakland filmmaker Mateen Osayande Kemet will create a short narrative film called Oakland Be Mine, in which a young man falls in love with a woman he sees in the Airport baggage claim. He follows her through a romantic dreamscape of Oakland neighborhoods, hoping she will notice him. San Francisco-based Cause Collective: Hank Willis Thomas, Jessica Ingram, Ryan Alexiev, Bayete Ross-Smith, and Jorge Sanchez will create a dynamic mosaic of video portraits of Oakland residents, which illustrates the breadth of Oakland’s, and the greater Bay Area’s, diversity and vibrancy.

Oakland-based sculptor Alan Rath’s kinetic wall sculpture entitled Birds in Flight will be located on the wall adjacent to the escalators inside the new security checkpoint area. The work will consist of three pairs of aluminum wings, each eight feet in diameter, mounted on a sky-blue background. Rath’s custom-built computer will program the birds to bank left or right, flap up and down, and glide both in unison and independently.

Four restroom entrances in the new concourse will boast wall reliefs by Emeryville artist Robert Ortbal. Borrowing their collective title from the Beatles’ lyric I am you, he is she, we are all together, two of the four installations will feature fig leaf patterns, and two will use the artist’s fingerprints—all of which will be produced using a combination of limestone plaster, mirrors and glass. Magnified to the point of abstraction and highly reflective, these images will be experienced differently, depending on the viewer’s proximity to the walls.

The Terminal Improvement Program                     www.oaklandairport.com
Begun in 2004, Oakland International Airport’s $300 million Terminal Improvement Program is designed to add even more convenience, security and service to the travel experience. In Terminal 2, the program encompasses a new seven-gate concourse and waiting areas; expanded ticketing, security and baggage claim facilities; and a modern, centralized food, beverage and retail shopping area. Additional improvements to the terminal roadway and curbsides will improve access and ease traffic congestion in front of both terminals. Program completion is expected in 2008.

Port of Oakland                                                          www.portofoakland.com
The Port of Oakland oversees the Oakland seaport, Oakland International Airport, and 19 miles of waterfront. The Oakland seaport is the fourth busiest containerport in the U.S.; Oakland International Airport offers over 200 daily nonstop flights to 39 domestic and international destinations; and the Port’s commercial real estate includes Jack London Square, Oakland's premier entertainment spot along the waterfront. The Port of Oakland was established in 1927 and is an independent department of the City of Oakland.

Oakland Museum of California                                                www.museumca.org
In addition to its permanent art, history, and natural sciences collections, the Oakland Museum of California provides exhibitions, festivals, and programs to generate an understanding and appreciation of California and its people. Museum events vary from film screenings, live music, and crafts to nature drawing workshops, gallery talks, and panel discussions. All programs are designed to be responsive and accessible to the public—families, school children, teachers, scholars, the immediate Oakland community, and an increasingly diverse California population.

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For more background please see the Hung Liu Fact Sheet