Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Art in the Parks 2: Dreaming of a Bandshell



Though not "art," exactly, these two abandoned television sets at Rossi Park on Arguello in the Richmond District definitely seemed to be part of an artistic statement.



"DON"'T WATCH ME!" one of them has nicely written across the top.



Not many blocks away, at 10th and JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, just past the Rose Garden, another bit of Burning Man surrealism is sprouting from the grass.



The Pepe Ozan sculpture is called "The Dreamer," and made its debut at Burning Man 2005 (click here for more info about the piece and the organization).



It's already been damaged by a bunch of drunken boors climbing all over it during last May's Bay to Breakers race, but the artist has gone back and repaired the surrealistic skull.



Also being sponsored by the Black Rock Arts Foundation, among a number of other arts and governmental entities, was the construction of a temporary bandshell in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle in the Haight-Ashbury.



The bandshell is an ingenious assemblage of recycled materials...



...that includes car hoods, computer motherboards and plastic bottles.



Though there were many objections from nearby residents over possible noise and congestion problems, their fears seem to have been allayed once amplification and "drumming circles" were banned at the performing space. If you'd like to perform there, just show up, or reserve a slot ahead of time (click here for their extensive webpage).



There were no performers on Tuesday afternoon, but a bicyclist was using its stage as a resting place between sprints...



...and a collection of children were having a blast using the structure as their own personal fort, though the young blonde boy above wasn't feeling so happy because the older kids "wouldn't play with him."

3 comments:

janinsanfran said...

The sad thing about Mr. Big Head in purple is that he's been repaired without ears! Here he is with ears. Sorry to hear it was "runner" who did the bad deed.

Civic Center said...

Dear Jan: Oh, no, he HAS lost his ears! Maybe the piece should be retitled "The Nightmare."

MOTHER OF MANY said...

The band shell is amazing, a really impressive piece of work.
The head in the grass reminds me of a painting by Sir Stanley Spencer called Resurrection in Sandham Memorial Chapel.It is a painting of soldiers from World War 1 who died in battle and it is a painting of the soldiers climbing out of the earth on resurrection morning. I am a humanist but I still find it very emotive.