The Golden Gate Bridge usually basks in all the good press and movie cameos, but ever since the debut of the art installation "The Bay Lights" on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the wheel of fame has finally turned. Out There has always had a thing for the Bay Bridge - it's got such a masculine, Art Deco, industrial-chic thing going on - so it's great to see artist Leo Villareal's masterpiece grab a piece of the spotlight for it.
Its 25,000 LED lights strung along suspension cables along a 1.8 mile span of the bridge make "The Bay Lights" the biggest public artwork we can think of. Pepi and OT have gone to check out its constantly mutating light show from several different vantage points on the waterfront, and it never loses its appeal. We've been following Villareal's ethereal light sculptures for years, since we first encountered his permanent installation Multiverse at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He was the subject of an impressive retrospective at the San Jose Museum of Art a few years ago that showed the range and appeal of his art. Now, with this enormous gift of art for the public, the whole world knows his work.
"The Bay Lights" will be on display every day for two years, from dusk until 2 a.m. For a map of the best views and more, go to www.thebaylights.org.