Nine Bronze Chairs Appear at Church and Duboce

Nine Bronze Chairs Appear at Church and Duboce
Andrew Dudley
Published on December 06, 2012
Instagramers rejoice: nine bronze chairs have been installed at the intersection of Church and Duboce.

Haighteration experts may recall back in May of 2011, when we mentioned an artist's open call for chair submissions as part of the Church & Duboce Streetscape Improvement. The artist, Primitivo Suarez-Wolfe, had planned to replicate a handful of donated chairs out of salvaged Muni track metal. Unfortunately, Suarez-Wolfe later discovered that this was infeasible, "due to the impurity of the metal," so he used bronze instead. The installation is called -- wait for it -- Chairs Domestic Seating. Two chairs have been installed on the southeast corner of the intersection, two on the southwest, and five on the northwest, by our count.
But Chairs Domestic Seating was just half of Suarez-Wolfe's vision for the area. The other half was a piece called Gateway, which would have involved a 24-foot-tall, 3-legged steel tower. Originally Gateway was designed to be installed at the corner of Church and Market, at the steps leading up to Safeway. But at a hearing in March, it was revealed that Gateway had met an untimely end:
"Because this small plaza area is privately owned property, legal and logistical complications made installing the work at this site infeasible. The artist, Arts Commission staff and the [Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, which was funding the project] developed a plan to move the sculpture to an upcoming bulb out on Market and 14th streets. However, the CBD ultimately was not happy with the change and has decided to terminate the project."
So there you have it -- nine chairs, no gateway. What do you think about these newest additions to our local streetscape? Update 3:20pm: We've just heard from the SF Arts Commission that the name of the installation was changed from Chairs to Domestic Seating.