Nine urban fossils face up to surprise, entice, and awaken residents, pedestrians and bus commuters to imagine a different landscape as it may have appeared in another time. The public might reflect on the history of the site, ghost-like impressions from past inhabitants, the neighborhood and the city.

Inset into the sidewalk, the works initially appear to be different types of portal covers. Framed within the tops of these doors are cast impressions and text which relate to the site, the environment, and the different inhabitants which once occupied the site; human or otherwise.

The portal selection is based on contrasting shaped doors of various sizes, typically found flush with the sidewalk in the Bernal heights neighborhood. For example, a rectangular telephone wire port, a circular water door, or an electrical access opening.

The “underground” is often looked upon as an active analogy for the subconscious mind. The aim is to seize certain archetypal imagery and cast it into a format that suggests an opening into another state of perception. The portal, an urban passage into the underground juxtaposed with new unexpected imagery and text, invites the public to enter a non-ordinary space of thought and connection to place. Each offers an unexpected impression, where the concrete uniformity of the urban landscape is awakened through recontextualized imagery which resonates with the historically significant and mysteriously poetic. Visual Haikus.