Public Art / Project Record
Tides
University of San Francisco
Permanent installation · 2019
Carrara marble · Bardiglio Imperiale marble
01A Gift, Fifty Years Later
Returning to Lone Mountain
Fifty years after graduating from the San Francisco College for Women, members of the Class of 1968 returned to Lone Mountain with the intention of leaving a permanent gift.
Their anniversary project helped create the Sacred Heart Garden and included commissioning a permanent work of sculpture. A competitive artist selection process was held. Yoko Kubrick was selected as one of the finalist artists; the alumnae interviewed the finalists themselves, then selected Kubrick to create the work that became Tides.
Women returning fifty years later chose a contemporary woman sculptor to make a work for the landscape.
02Time Made Physical
A wave, translated into stone.
Tides was inspired by the movement of ocean waves, especially the Banzai Pipeline on O‘ahu’s North Shore, where Kubrick lived as a child.
Its curves move inward and outward around an open center. There is no fixed front: the form changes with each viewpoint, as a wave changes while it is being watched. The movement carries the sense of time passing — fifty years, changing lives, and a changing institution.
03The Women of Lone Mountain
A site with its own history
The San Francisco College for Women was established by the Religious of the Sacred Heart on the Lone Mountain campus. It later became Lone Mountain College before being incorporated into the University of San Francisco. The Class of 1968 returned to that layered site fifty years after graduation, making a lasting gift to the landscape.
04The Site
Encountered in ascent
Tides is installed in the Sacred Heart Garden at Lone Mountain, University of San Francisco. It is encountered through approach, stairs, and changing points of view rather than in a single frontal presentation.
Sky, light, planting, and the surrounding landscape pass through the open form. The sculpture does not replace the garden; it becomes part of how the garden is read.
05From Water to Marble
Fluid movement, resistant material
A wave is momentary. Marble suggests geological permanence. Tides holds those opposing conditions together: movement carved into a material that resists change. The sculpture is carved from Carrara marble and set on a Bardiglio Imperiale marble base. Together, sculpture and base weigh approximately 8,322 pounds.
06Engineering Permanence
The quiet work beneath the work
A permanent public artwork depends on structure as much as image. The installation included structural engineering, an engineered concrete footing, stainless-steel pinning, transportation, professional rigging, and site coordination.
07Installing Tides
Poetic intention, precise logistics
The sculpture was installed with a 75-ton crane. Approximately 20 gallons of crushed ice formed a temporary cushion while nearly 5,000 pounds of marble were lowered into position. The ice allowed precise placement without leaving shims trapped beneath the sculpture. The installation took approximately 4 hours and 44 minutes.
08A Heart in the Stone
A visual discovery
From a particular approach, a heart-like form becomes visible within the sculpture’s curves. Because the work is installed in the Sacred Heart Garden, the coincidence is quietly resonant. It is a discovery made by looking, not a claim about the work’s intended symbol.
09A Work That Remains
Change carved into permanence.
Now in the permanent collection of the University of San Francisco, Tides lives with the garden’s paths, light, planting, and weather. The wave remains in motion through the people who encounter it and the landscape that holds it.
Explore more of Yoko Kubrick’s sculptural work, the public art practice, or the studio.
Project Record
Tides
Permanent collection, University of San Francisco
- Artist
- Yoko Kubrick
- Year
- 2019
- Site
- Sacred Heart Garden, Lone Mountain, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California
- Commission
- Alumnae of the San Francisco College for Women, Class of 1968, in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of their graduation and the creation of the Sacred Heart Garden
- Selection
- Competitive artist selection; Kubrick was selected as a finalist, interviewed by the alumnae, and chosen to create the permanent sculpture
- Material
- Carrara marble
- Base
- Bardiglio Imperiale marble
- Dimensions
- 48 × 55 × 53 in / 122 × 140 × 135 cm
- Weights
- Sculpture: approximately 4,794 lb / 2,174 kg. Base: approximately 3,528 lb / 1,600 kg
- Fabrication
- Tuscany, Italy
- Installation
- University of San Francisco, 2019
- Scope
- Structural engineering, engineered footing, stainless-steel pinning, transportation, professional rigging, crane-assisted installation
- Crane
- 75 ton
- Collection
- Permanent collection, University of San Francisco
Continue through the site: view the Filoli exhibition or read about commissioned sculpture.
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