On a clear day at Treasure Island’s Cityside Park, off the coast of San Francisco, a ring of thousands of translucent discs shimmer above a sloping lawn, catching the wind of the bay. On a foggy morning, the same discs blur into a soft, shifting canopy, as if the air has taken form. This is Canopy of Sky, the latest permanent work by environmental artist Ned Kahn.
The installation spans nearly 29 feet and is suspended 15 feet in the air on three curved aluminum poles. Its 7,000 polycarbonate discs move with each gust of wind, creating a flickering surface meant to evoke foliage and water. Depending on the weather, the canopy rustles audibly or glimmers in silence echoing Kahn’s interest in making the invisible forces of the atmosphere legible. Seen from different angles, the canopy reflects and scatters daylight, while from a distance it appears to hover against views of the Bay Bridge and the city skyline.
“I strive to create artworks that enable viewers to observe and interact with natural processes,” said Kahn. “I am less interested in creating an alternative reality than I am in capturing, through my art, the mysteriousness of the world around us.”
Kahn, who once apprenticed at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, has designed exhibits for the American Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum in London, and the now-shuttered Pasadena Museum of California Art. Kahn is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “genius grant,” an annual award for individuals with “exceptional creativity.”
Canopy of Sky marks the second permanent commission for Treasure Island’s redevelopment. It follows Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Point of Infinity, a 69-foot hyperbolic tower installed on Yerba Buena Island in 2023 that doubles as a sundial. Where Sugimoto’s sculpture suggests eternity through mathematical form, Kahn’s piece emphasizes the ephemeral, attempting to record the smallest shifts of air and light that animate the island each day.
Cityside Park, a 24-acre landscape of open lawns and native plants along the island’s western waterfront, was chosen to showcase the work’s visibility and encourage interaction. The project budget was $450,000, funded through the city’s 1%-for-Art program tied to private development.
Together, Kahn’s canopy and Sugimoto’s tower mark the beginning of a planned network of public artworks across Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island. These commissions seek to connect art with the landscape while defining the identity of a growing neighborhood in the middle of the bay.
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