No Man’s Island Floating Around

Hiya Swanhuyser, 2005, East Bay Express

Sonja Meller’s installations are some of our favorites. We first fell for her golden fruits with tiny music boxes inside Oakland’s Chapel oft he Chimes. Now, she’s outdone herself: The Unknown Island is a small, partially anchored boat, home to a single oak tree and some flowers. As it moves around Lake Merritt, the artist e-mailed us, she hopes it becomes „a temporary landmark for the city“. Meller also writes that she took inspiration from a story by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, but the project reminds us oft he dreamy prose of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. It’s rich with possibilities for metaphor – and also plain fun to see. The island floats around until June 30 in Lake Merritt, Grand & Lakeshore, Oakland.

<