San Francisco finally gets its hillside sign

Ana Teresa Fernández’s new work of public art shimmers on Bernal Hill in San Francisco.

Keep clicking for doppelgangers to San Francisco landmarks.

Keep clicking for doppelgangers to San Francisco landmarks. Ana Teresa Fernández’s new work of public art shimmers on Bernal Hill in San Francisco. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 47 Caption Close San Francisco finally gets its hillside sign 1 / 47 Back to Gallery

Hollywood has its name stamped into the hillside, and so does South San Francisco. The city itself, however, has gotten by without a mark of delineation — until now, with the installation of the word “DREAM” in shimmering capital letters on the east-facing slope of Bernal Hill.

The public art, to be officially unveiled in a ceremony Friday, Sept. 22, is by Ana Teresa Fernández, but the concept is not original. For years Fernández has driven by “DREAM” in repeated graffiti on a building at the bottom of a hill near the Alemany freeway merge. That piece is derivative from the tagging of the late Oakland graffiti artist Mike “Dream” Francisco, who was shot and killed during a robbery in 2000.

Fernández turned the Dream epitaph into block letters 12 feet high, and raised them off the ground with poles. Each letter is made of reflective aluminum discs that flash and move with the wind. Located next to a billboard, “DREAM” is visible day and night from the northbound lanes of both Interstate 280 and Highway 101.

Have you seen a glittering *DREAM* sign on the 101 & 280? Artist Ana Teresa Fernández tells the story of this new art installation: pic.twitter.com/ShfNKsHOSk — YBCA (@ybca) September 22, 2017

“This is a time when we are being asked who is allowed to fulfill their dreams,” says Fernández, 36, an immigrant from Mexico. “For me San Francisco is a sanctuary city, so let us keep dreaming.”

Though it seems politically timely, Fernández was prescient. It took her years of perseverance to get permission from the city, which owns the hillside.

Commissioned by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts under the Civic Engagement umbrella overseen by Jon Moscone, “DREAM” will serve as an inspirational signpost for nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, which has built an art and music curriculum around it. The sculpture will be up for at least two years, “as a welcome mat,” Fernández says, “to enter into the city and to enter into yourself.”

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Instagram: @sfchronicle_art

“DREAM”: Public unveiling ceremony, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22. Alemany Farmers’ Market, 100 Alemany Blvd., S.F. (415) 978-2787. https://ybca.org