Bill Fontana: Spiraling Echoes

Curator. San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries: City Hall. February - December 2009

Spiraling Echoes is a site-specific sound sculpture by San Francisco-based sound art pioneer Bill Fontana, commissioned for the Rotunda of historic SF City Hall. The installation weaves together a rich tapestry of past and present audio moments recorded throughout San Francisco, from Enrico Caruso’s voice to the chimes of cable cars. By layering historical and contemporary sounds, Fontana transforms the Rotunda into an immersive sonic environment that engages visitors with the architecture in entirely new ways, revealing both the building’s design and the city’s auditory landscape.

Four specialized transducers—directional speakers that focus sound narrowly—are mounted along the circular colonnade of the dome. As the beams of sound reflect off the Rotunda’s surfaces, they create spiraling echoes that gradually soften from the upper walkways to the floor. Walking through the space, visitors encounter fleeting auditory glimpses of the city: birdsong, fog horns, the crack of a bat, and the roar of crowds at AT&T Park. Each sound appears randomly, appearing only for a moment before fading, emphasizing the ephemeral and layered qualities of memory, history, and place.

Spiraling Echoes not only celebrates Fontana’s mastery of sound as a sculptural medium, but also foregrounds the interplay between art, architecture, and civic space. The installation invites reflection on San Francisco’s sonic identity and the ways in which everyday sounds shape our experience of the city. Positioned within City Hall during its tenth anniversary since renovation, the work elevates the Rotunda into a living instrument, connecting visitors with both the historical legacy and the contemporary pulse of San Francisco.

This exhibitions was made possible through the generousity of the National Endowment for the Arts, SF Grants for the Arts, and Haines Gallery, San Francisco