Those visiting the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art may notice a beautiful new art installation. Around 75,000 handmade kites now float above the ground floor of the museum. Visitors can walk, sit or even lie down beneath the enormous suspended installation.
Jacob Hashimoto: Giant Arc opened Aug. 22 inside SFMOMA’s Roberts Family Gallery. The museum describes it as the largest work of Hashimoto’s career.
Each element was built by hand using bamboo and Japanese paper. Together, the kites form a canopy stretching from floor to ceiling and wall to wall across the gallery.
The installation is free to visit without a museum ticket. In an SFMOMA interview, Hashimoto says Giant Arc will remain on display through June 2028.
A Cloud of Kites Fills the Gallery
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Some of the kites are blank or covered in solid colors, while others contain geometric shapes and collaged-paper graphics. Hashimoto arranged them in overlapping clusters that resemble clouds suspended at different heights.
The work can also be seen through the gallery’s two-story windows facing Howard Street. The glass walls rise 25 feet, allowing the installation to be viewed from different angles, outside and inside.
Its title comes from the Giant Arc, an immense formation of galaxies and other cosmic objects. Hashimoto translated that astronomical shape into a canopy resembling an arc or rolling wave.
Bay Area Species Appear in the Patterns
Hashimoto created new designs specifically for the San Francisco installation. Their patterns reference Northern California plants and animals, including dahlias, checker lilies and Sonoran blue butterflies.
Other elements come from installations made across his 30-year career. Some incorporate paper dating to 2000 and wrapping paper from 1998. Hashimoto and his team spent approximately two months sorting, repairing and repackaging older kites before the installation.
The artist began experimenting with kites while attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1990s. After suspending 40 homemade kites from a wire in his studio, he began considering how repeated paper forms could create a larger sculptural environment.
The Ground-Floor Gallery Requires No Ticket
SFMOMA is located at 151 Third Street in San Francisco. Giant Arc occupies the admission-free Roberts Family Gallery on Floor 1, so visitors do not need to buy tickets for the museum’s ticketed galleries.
Current museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, plus noon to 8 p.m. Thursday. SFMOMA is closed on Wednesdays.