The tree burl on Hotel Des Arts

The streetscape of Downtown San Francisco has been altered. If you look attentively that is. A new house has been erected, and its old-fashioned wooden architecture clearly extinguishes itself from Downtown's otherwise impressively tall concrete buildings. Above and between older properties sits a rustic, small, door-less cabin. Floating approximately 40 feet in the air, it has been affixed to the Hotel Des Arts on 447 Bush Street.

The small cabin functions almost like a tree burl, a growth that is part of the tree but that grows in a disfigured manner. I like the comparison to a tree burl. This small cabin works almost like an outgrowth on this hectic street in San Francisco. As a commentary on the economy and the housing crisis, I find it interesting to think of the burl as being the result of a tree affected by some form of stress. An injury, virus, insect infestation, or pollution may cause the outgrowth. Even though there is no beauty behind the cause of a tree burl, it is still quite commonly prized for its artistry. And here, on Bush Street, it is growing in this expensive city where thousands are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. It is beautiful in its awkwardness, it is sticking out from its surrounding, and it will take a lot of willpower to finally get it removed from the structure it is attached to – all qualities easily applied to a tree bur.

This wooden cabin is meant to be stumbled upon. The daily street strollers have the possibility to piece together their own stories based on the fragment that is left, literally dangling in the air. To me it is a reminder that history at great length is dependent on hearsay and storytelling. History is after all nothing but the rediscovery, organization, and presentation of information about past events. Unexpectedly confronting the cabin the street strollers would not be able to depend on anything except their own imagination. Since there is no sign here to inform what the cabin is actually about, they would manufacture their own history about this space based on the limitations of their own mental ability.

The small cabin is titled "Manifest Destiny" and is collaboration between the Brooklyn-based artist Mark Reigelman and the San Francisco based architect Jenny Chapman. Its exterior is made from 100-year-old reclaimed wood from an Ohio barn and solar panels on the roof lights up the cabin's interior by night.

This temporary site-specific installation was commissioned by Southern Exposure and made possible through The Graue Family Foundation. It will remain on view until October 2012.