Geological & Biological Evolution of Mt. Diablo, as told in five stones
Doron Rosenthal, Sculptor
The permanent original installation will consist of five natural granite boulders to be placed randomly ascending the grand staircase of Olympic Place, Walnut Creek, California. The stones will be sandblasted with images of the geographical and biological evolution of Mt. Diablo. The timeline will be from 165 million years ago at street level to today at the top of the installation, and entry to the mall.
This design is intended to acknowledge the local pre-historic rock paintings.
The pictograph represents the movement of the earth itself over 165 million years, beginning with oceans over a mantle of earth, under pressure, and on the move. As the viewer climbs the staircase, the oceans recede and Mt. Diablo appears at the entry to the plaza. The climbing of the staircase itself a metaphorical response of moving in time, culminating at the present, and entry.
FOSSILS EXPOSED
Doron Rosenthal, Sculptor
Commissioned by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and the Hillcrest Business Association.
The permanent installation of natural granite markers into the sidewalk of San Diego’s Hillcrest District in an effort to offer an educational walking experience for its diverse and growing community. The title for this original project is FOSSILS EXPOSED. Installation is scheduled to begin October 1998.
FOSSILS EXPOSED involves the creation and installation of 150 circular 4.5 inch granite markers. Each represent the artist’s interpretive carvings of local and regional fossilized plant and animal life, which are sandblasted into granite. Each marker will be sunk into existing concrete sidewalks over a one mile area; beginning at Park Boulevard and continuing west on University Avenue to First Street. There will be identification markers at the corner of Fifth Street and University Avenue.
The objective of FOSSILS EXPOSED is to reinterpret the experience of fossil hunting in nature by creating “urban fossils” and setting them randomly into the sidewalk over a one mile area. The intentional random positioning allows for individual discovery, forcing the viewer to seek out, hunt for and finally “discover” fossils of past plant and animal life indigenous to the San Diego area.
Due to its dimensional qualities, the sculptures change throughout the day. They interact with the course of the sun, both by reflection off the highly polished surface as well as by moving shadows. Maps will be distributed to the Hillcrest business community for their customers, encouraging participation to do rubbings of the stone carvings.