- Name of Piece: Home and the World
- Artist: Ranu Mukherjee
- Category: Public Art
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Date: January 2025
The new Mercy House California (MHC) development located at 600 7th street in San Francisco, CA is now home to Home and the World by artist Ranu Mukherjee.
Four custom relief sculptures—conceived as illuminated lanterns—activate the building façade along 7th Street, transforming a vertical surface into a dynamic, light-responsive installation. Drawing from diverse historical references, the forms include two influenced by the Amsterdam School, one inspired by traditional Filipino parol lanterns, and one referencing vintage railroad and Tole lanterns—bringing together architectural and cultural motifs into a unified contemporary composition.
Gizmo Art Production, Inc. fabricated each piece in stainless steel, utilizing precision CNC cutting to achieve highly detailed perforations. The lanterns were then powder coated for durability and colorfastness in an exterior urban environment, ensuring long-term performance as permanent public art.
The surface patterns—derived from Piña cloth, Art Deco geometry, Ikat weaving, and Irish lace—are engineered to perform across changing light conditions. During the day, the sculptures read as bold, graphic interventions on the façade. At night, integrated illumination transforms them into lanterns, projecting intricate patterns of light and shadow into the surrounding streetscape.
This project exemplifies Gizmo’s role as a design-build fabrication partner, translating complex artistic references into durable, large-scale public art—engineered, fabricated, and installed in San Francisco.
