Hughen/Starkweather
And with the mountain had gone the marshes (Shifting Shorelines)
Ink on vinyl on metal
8 feet high x variable widths, 2020

This series of 5 site-specific public artworks is in a pedestrian thoroughfare at 950 Tennessee Street in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.

The title of this series of artworks, And with the mountain had gone the marshes, is taken from an 1889 article in the San Francisco Examiner about this neighborhood, and refers to the hills that once existed nearby, including Irish Hill, a bustling, working-class neighborhood. Many of these hills were leveled to make room for development, and more than 100,000 cubic feet of serpentine rock from these hills was dumped into San Francisco Bay to create additional land for industrial expansion. The last remnant of Irish Hill can still be seen today at 22nd and Illinois Streets.

“Great stretches of craggy bluffs have disappeared. Vast masses of rock have been blasted away from the hillsides and thrown upon the marshes. Thousands and thousands sunk into the depths and left no trace, but a time came at last when the vast dumping process had its effect, and the solid earth appeared above the surface. The mountain had perished! That process was necessary to remove so that the great manufactories could take root – and with the mountain had gone the marshes.” San Francisco Examiner, August 11, 1889

To research for this project, the artists worked with local historians to learn more about the history of the area, including a similar pedestrian thoroughfare that once existed nearby — the 3-block-long Kentucky Place. Until it was built over in the early 1900s, Kentucky Place was traversed by workers walking to and from their industrial jobs on the docks. Because hours were long and transportation scarce, workers preferred to live within walking distance of their jobs, despite being surrounded by the noise and air pollution of heavy industry.

And with the mountain had gone the marshes is part of a multi-year project, Shifting Shorelines, in which Hughen/Starkweather investigate the complex human and environmental factors that shape places where water meets land. Their abstract artworks reinterpret the complex narratives of a place, creating new and unexpected forms through which to view the history of a place, and its possible futures. Each project begins with intensive research, including maps, photographs, data, oral histories, and interviews with specialists and community members. The resulting artworks do not offer concrete information, but hope to prompt questions and new perspectives.

The thoroughfare was designed by designed by Fletcher Studio, San Francisco.