Weird fingerprint art at Oakland airport

I took this (crappy and blurry) photo of a giant framed fingerprint at the Oakland airport. There's one for the men's room, and another for the women's room. "We know who you are, even when you're using the toilet."

[#1 posted by mistervega , November 14, 2007 11:26 AM]

that just goes to show how poorly they clean and disinfect things. maybe it's a friendly reminder to wash your hands.

[#2 posted by Anonymous , November 14, 2007 11:56 AM]

I wonder whose fingerprint it is... Easter egg, maybe?

[#3 posted by Flying Squid , November 14, 2007 12:09 PM]

Mark, you and I must have been in the same terminal around the same time assuming you took that yesterday. Cool.

[#4 posted by weaponx , November 14, 2007 12:25 PM]

Both of you near the bathroom at the same time...I hope neither of you bumped into Larry Craig.

[#5 posted by JMT , November 14, 2007 12:38 PM]

Ewww, you were in Oakland?

[#6 posted by Anonymous , November 14, 2007 12:48 PM]

I don't know if it's still running in the video loop, but by the baggage claim at OAK they have a giant video screen on the wall. Last time I was there I saw there was this extreme closeup of a persons face showing just the eyes. It gave the area this very Big Brother type feeling. Add this to the fingerprint artwork, and really one has to wonder who's choosing the art for this place.

BTW- C'mon JMT don't hate on Oakland. There are parts of it that have huge social problems that need to be worked on, but really it's quite a nice place to live. I've been here 12 years and love it.

[#7 posted by AJ , November 14, 2007 3:15 PM]

Is the TSA agent in the photo checking for liquids ?

[#8 posted by kanaloa , November 14, 2007 5:24 PM]

Lol, I remember thinking those were tree rings. Or something. They are rather creepy, but I got used to them after spending three days staring at them, they loose that.

[#9 posted by anthonys82 , November 14, 2007 5:48 PM]

thats awesome. i wonder what the backstory is? Was an artist commissioned to create some public art and did this as a subtle jab at the TSA? i know of a few cases where that sort of thing has happened.
The scary option is if the management knowingly went for the big brother decor.

[#10 posted by jimh , November 14, 2007 10:25 PM]

I think it would be really awesome if it was a giant lcd screen and the fingerprint would change with a motion activated sensor as a person walked through the door. Like it was scanning you! You could have 5 or so different prints in a rotation.

[#11 posted by rerutled , November 15, 2007 5:51 AM]

According to the Port of Oakland website:

Four restroom entrances in the new Terminal 2 concourse boast wall reliefs by Emeryville artist Robert Ortbal. Borrowing their collective title from the Beatles' lyric I am you, he is she, we are all together, two of the four installations feature fig leaf patterns, and two use the artist's fingerprints - produced using a combination of limestone, plaster, mirrors and glass.

Magnified to the point of abstraction and highly reflective, these images are experienced differently, depending on the viewer's proximity to the walls.

Both of these artworks are made possible under the Port of Oakland's Public Art Ordinance which makes public art a requirement for all major construction projects. A total of $1.2 million is earmarked for the public art component of OAK's Terminal Improvement Program.

The Port of Oakland paid $60,000 for the four works according to recent minutes: Here is his proposal, as it appeared in those minutes, in its entirety:

Robert Ortbal
Privacy Walls Proposal for the Oakland International Airport

I am you, he is she, we are all together.

I have chosen this familiar line from a Beatle's song as the title for my proposed installation for the four privacy walls to help expose the delightfully paradoxical nature of this site for a public art commission, and to provide an additional point of access to the art work for the millions of passengers visiting Oakland International each year. As the title suggests, the connections between all of us run deep. It is these connections that I plan to reveal by carving the structural patterns of selected species into large plaster slabs.

I propose to make four works that explore the connection between the three broadest divisions of the natural world – plant, animal and mineral. Two of the works will feature the venation patterns of fig leaves (plant kingdom) and two will use my fingerprints(animal kingdom). I will transform these unique patterns into works of art using a combination of domestic materials-- a limestone plaster, mirrors and glass – which invoke the mineral kingdom, as well as elements in our day-to-day environment that are often overlooked.

The - Iam you, he is she – part of the title will be tangibly experienced by passengers as they approach and see themselves reflected in the pattern of my fingerprint . The divide between male and female will be suspended as a woman may, for a moment, contemplate how she could ever be me. Reproducing my fingerprints in mirror not only serves as an emblem for the animal kingdom but also reinforces the vanity and egotistical tendencies of our species and sets in motion the realization of the deeper and more fundamental connections we share with the other kingdoms.

After passengers have experienced their own existence in the mirror, and come closer to the work, they may see the space between the reflective mirrored surfaces of the fingerprint and leaf venation patterns as an aerial view of the canyons and valleys of some distant land -- a land many passengers will cross as they travel into or out of Oakland.

As passengers continue to their gate walking past additional restrooms, they will see a three-by-five foot leaf in front of the men's room . Many will recognize the pattern as a fig leaf, and perhaps recall the biblical reference of Adam and Eve's fall from grace or the Victorian practice of placing a carved plaster fig leaf over the private parts of classical masterpieces. Perhaps too, their minds may flash back for an instant to the title or hear the Beatle's song .. .we are all together. This leaf, those mountains, and the artist -- they are all parts of the bigger picture we call home, the universe -- both real and imagined.