A new star-shaped, gold-painted sculpture, which will cast entrancing shadows from a light within it at night, has just been installed at Mint Plaza.
The beleaguered Mint Plaza could use a helping hand these days. With that in mind, the SF Arts Commission approved a new piece of public art for the plaza last year.
"The artwork is intended to activate the plaza in the evening so that the space is more welcoming to enter at night," the commission said in its project proposal.
After submissions from multiple artists back in 2018, a proposal by artist duo Hybycozo was selected. Much of the duo's work evokes the perforated metal lamps of Middle East and Morrocco, and is typically illuminated, and this piece, titled Aurum, is no exception.
The piece's "exploding" three-dimensional star shape and gold coating makes reference to the site's history, with the Old Mint — as it's often called — being a key nexus in the San Francisco Gold Rush.
"Six billion years ago, the explosion of super-heavy stars shot gold out into the primordial ooze,” says artist and co-creator Yelena Filipchuk, speaking to the Chronicle. “That is how the gold got to what would become the earth and would eventually change the course of California history.”
She added, of its illuminated look at night, "Light and shadow will spill out of the sculpture to remind viewers that there is a light within each of us."
Hybycozo's work, which Filipchuk creates along with co-artist Serge Beaulieu, has appeared on the playa at Burning Man multiple times, including the piece above, Point of View, in 2022. A tribute to Filipchuk's native Ukraine, during the first year of its invasion, the piece uses embroidery patterns from Ukrainian folk tradition.
The duo also has pieces permanently installed outside the Wynn resort in Las Vegas, outside the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and their oak tree-inspired piece (below) sits at 26th Street and Valdez in Oakland, near Lake Merritt.
Hybycozo was formerly based in San Francisco, and is now based in Venice Beach, California.
The Mint Plaza piece cost $250,000 and is being paid for as part of the 1% Art Program.
