Illuminate SF

See Dazzling Light Art in Golden Gate Park

Charles Gadeken

Charles Gadeken's Entwined quickly became one of the most popular Illuminate installations when it first appeared. This year, a new iteration, Entwined: Elder Mother will welcome visitors to JFK Promenade in front of Golden Gate Park's Peacock Meadow. The defining new feature is the Elder Mother tree itself. Elder Mother is a monumental shade-bearing tree that moves in the wind and speaks through the language of light and color. The 30-foot metal sculpted tree carries a 25-foot canopy, offering a place for park-goers to gather day and night with ever-changing, interactive illumination and color.

“Psychedelic Photosynthesis” is a colorful, illuminated, moving projection on the Conservatory of Flowers that harkens back to the Summer of Love in San Francisco. Developed in partnership with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, the joyous installation compliments the endless parade of rare and unusual flowers on display inside the conservatory.

James Turrell

Created specifically for the de Young’s Osher Sculpture Garden, “Three Gems” is a subterranean installation that features a view of the sky altered by LED lighting effects that highlights changing light and weather conditions outside. The sculpture is sited in a grass-covered hill. Visitors walk through a short tunnel cut into the hill, and then enter into a cylindrical space carved out of the hill. The retaining walls are white concrete and the floor is red stone. At the center of this cylindrical space is a rough-hewn, black basalt stupa form. Entering the round stupa through a door, viewers sit on a stone bench and view the sky through an oculus cut in the roof of the chamber.

Illuminate

To honor Golden Gate Park's 150th Anniversary, the 120-year-old Spreckels Temple of Music Bandshell in Golden Gate Park was been upgraded with a new stage, built-in theatrical lighting and sound systems. Across from the SkyStar Observation Wheel on the Music Concourse, the Bandshell lights shine nightly from sunset to park closing.

Jim Campbell

“Ocean Mirror with Fragments” displays moving images of waves in the Pacific Ocean, recorded from a point directly west of the artwork, to create a mirror image. Set in the eastern end of a hidden outdoor courtyard, the artwork is a low-resolution LED display contained within a freestanding six-by-six-foot glass wall. Seven glass cubes scattered within the garden area also have LEDs in them, each synchronized to a different block of the display grid. The movement within and between these scattered glass cubes creates the effect of the ocean waves going beyond the display grid into the garden area.