FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 2, 2012

MEDIA CONTACT: CLARENCE JOHNSON PHONE (510) 891-4745 cljohnson@actransit.org

Artist Mark Brest van Kempen Transforms 8,000 lbs of Sidewalk into Living Artwork
Press and Private Dedication: Tuesday April 10, 2012, 10:30 a.m. to Noon 1172 45th Street, Emeryville, CA The Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) announces the installation of its first work of art commissioned for a public setting. Created by Oakland artist Mark Brest van Kempen, Relic pays tribute to natures complex eco systems and provokes reflection on the intricate relationships between plant and animal habitat, contemporary infrastructure and sustainability. Adhering to the City of Emeryvilles ordinance mandating the inclusion of public art in new development, Relic was commissioned for AC Transits new HyRoad Fueling Station, a state-of-the-art facility that dispenses hydrogen made both from natural gas and from water and solar electricity for use in AC Transits zero-emission fleet, as well as for passenger cars. Located a block from Pixar Studios, the public side of the station is accessible to anyone driving a fuel cell vehicle and offers hydrogen made from solar electricity and water. Brest van Kempen will be acknowledged for his artistic contributions to the project on April 10th, as AC Transits Board of Directors, General Manager David Armijo, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and other dignitaries dedicate the new station. Relic uses an 8,000 lb fragment of a city street as an armature for life to grow. The discarded section of street, normally so familiar that it is completely overlooked, is displayed like a relic from some past culture. The utilitarian street markings, patches and repairs take on their own aesthetic, having been stripped from their original context. Water, controlled by power from solar panels, periodically mists the side of the road which was formerly underground creating a habitat for moss, ferns and other plants to colonize. The boundary between what is called nature and what is called manmade is uniquely challenged in this single object.

Taking The HyRoad

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Marks sculpture adds an important dimension to the meaning of our hydrogen fuel cell program, says Jaimie Levin, AC Transits Director of Environmental Technology and Fuel Cell Program. He has imaginatively captured the importance of creating an organic, carbon-neutral space to offset and dampen the hard edges often associated with the infrastructure of the built environment. Describing his inspiration for the work, Brest van Kempen states, For many years I have created large-scale public art projects that refocus our attention on our environment. My art often functions like a lens that reveals our surroundings in new ways. My motivation lies in exploring the range of issues and emotions that are embodied in our complex relationship to the landscape. I am interested in creating interventions in the existing fabric of our social environments. My artwork strives to reinterpret and question the understanding of specific places, and challenge the often invisible hierarchy embedded in them. ### Mark Brest van Kempen has created a variety of artworks using the landscape as sculptural material, from the Free Speech Monument on the UC Berkeley campus to Land Exchange at the National Academy of Art in China. He has received public art commissions from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the City of Palo Alto, the City of Seattle and the Haas Foundation, and has been an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center. He has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and Stanford University.

Taking The HyRoad

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