"Bliss Dance," a 40-foot statue of a naked dancing woman by local sculptor Marco Cochrane...
...has just been installed on Treasure Island with her behind facing the San Francisco skyline.
"Bliss Dance" is very striking, both as a major piece of engineering and ecstatic sculpture (click here for a website detailing its manufacturing).
It first appeared at the 2010 Burning Man Festival, where it was the hit of the Nevada desert, and the dancing woman will be temporarily gracing Treasure Island from May through October.
On Thursday evening, hundreds of "burners" showed up on Treasure Island for an opening celebration, where they were greeted by food trucks, dance music and freezing cold winds pouring in through the Golden Gate Bridge.
My hostesses were from the Black Rock Arts Foundation, and they were a smart, funny collection of characters.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (above left) gave a speech extolling art on Treasure Island, and promised to bring Hillary Clinton to see "Bliss Dance" when she rolls into town for a conference later this summer. He also hinted that some day he might even visit the Black Rock Desert for Burning Man himself, which made everyone chuckle.
The sculptor Marco Cochrane (above left with the mayor) was next, and he started his speech thanking his "hippie parents who allowed for a certain puppy-dog quality to be nurtured in my character."
We left just as the statue's changing, complex interior lighting display came on because the winds had grown too insistent and cold. This was my first visit to Treasure Island, and it confirmed a suspicion that the place is perfect for temporary large artists' studios and installations, while the plans for high-rise housing developments are completely insane.
3 comments:
Thanks so much for joining us in our celebration of Bliss Dance and for the lovely photos and post.
Dear affinity: I had a lovely time, and please give Jane a kiss for me.
Completely and utterly batshit insane. The idea of several hundred cars trying to get onto the upper deck of the Bay Bridge from the Treasure Island onramp is enough to curdle the blood. And curdled blood is probably one of the more innocuous substances under the artificial surface of TI, the Navy not being known for leaving places as they found them.
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