With New Light Installations San Francisco Is Quickly Becoming a Destination for Illuminated Art

With an influx of new light installations popping up throughout the city, San Francisco, California is becoming a destination for illuminated art as reported by KQED Arts. With the “The Bay Lights” now a permanent fixture, installations such as Caruso’s Dream in downtown and Bayview Rise at Pier 92 have all started moving San Francisco in that very direction.

In a recent stream of consciousness statement in the San Francisco Chronicle, former Mayor Willie Brown put forth a “modest proposal” for a “Season of Lights” with a contest for the most creatively illuminated building, citing City Hall and Embarcadero Center as great examples of what light can do. This year the San Francisco Travel Association self-branded the city as a “national leader in light art,” with a new website that invites “art and culture lovers” to “embrace the power of light” with a self-guided tour of sixteen disparate light installations around the city ranging from meh to spectacular. If this all sounds like a fervent grab for the attention of Burning Man aficionados in the off-season, well, it might be. Two new works this year, Brian Goggin’s and Dorka Keehn’s Caruso’s Dream downtown and Bayview Rise by Haddad and Drugan on Pier 92, reveal a lot about the possibilities of “light art” and the driving forces behind a movement to light up the city.

Bay Lights by Leo Villareal

Caruso’s Dream by Brian Goggin and Dorka Keehn

Bayview Rise by Haddad and Drugan

images via Scott Beale, Sergio Ruiz, KQED Arts