At a meeting last week, a member of the Northeast Waterfront Advisory Group inquired about the sculpture Yin Yang, which has been mysteriously missing for some time from Sue Bierman Park. The two egg-shaped heads, created by artist Robert Arneson in 1992, resided for more than a decade in the park, near Justin Herman Plaza. These days, all that remains of them is a blank patch of dirt in a low circular podium at the park. 

It turns out that the sculpture was removed in August 2013 for much-needed restoration (as anyone who's watched kids scramble on it or birds do their business on it can attest). In March 2014, Kate Patterson-Murphy, communications director for the San Francisco Arts Commission, told the Barbary Coast News that “the heads are in the process of receiving a new, more durable paint treatment at Walla Walla Foundry in Washington state, where they were originally fabricated. The Arts Commission is working with the Arneson estate on an appropriate paint system." She said that the SFAC hoped to re-install the heads by early spring 2015.

Removal of Yin Yang. Photo: San Francisco Arts Commission

This week, we emailed Patterson-Murphy for an update. Her response: "Restoration work is complete and we hope to have [the heads] installed before the end of the year." Asked about the nature of the delay, she replied that "given all of the other projects we currently have underway, this is the timeline for the project."

Yin Yang has been a popular, whimsical landmark since its purchase by the SFAC in 2002. (Though the plaque in the park says the sculpture's name is Yin and Yang, Patterson-Murphy confirmed that the official name doesn't include the "and.") Fabricated from bronze with a white patina, it was one of the final works that Arneson, a UC Davis faculty member for more than 40 years, created before his death from cancer in 1992.