Earlier this month the plaza across the Ferry Building at between Market St. and Embarcadero became the temporary home of R-Evolution by Italian-American artist Marco Cochrane. The metal lattice sculpture depicts a woman standing tall with her shoulders back and her palms facing out. It’s part of Cochrane’s Bliss Project series of sculptures and made its debut at Burning Man in 2015 before going on tour.
When it was first announced the statue would be displayed in San Francisco, it was going to be located on top of Union Square. That didn’t pan out due to concerns about the weight of the statue damaging the square’s granite tiles. So it was moved to the waterfront instead.
The couple of times I was in the area, I noticed dozens of tourists stopping by to take photos of the statue and selfies with it. The local media tells a different story with various controversies, both real and imagined. (Media literacy protip: “controversial” is the most overused weasel word in journalism.)
One of the most ridiculous concerns is that it would block views of the Ferry Building. Not only is the sculpture about a third of the height of the Ferry Building tower, but both are easily dwarfed by the buildings around it. If anything, the existing palm trees on the plaza are tall enough to block views of the sculpture.
Another point I’ve heard come up is that it should have been placed at Patricia’s Green in Hayes Valley. I suspect this idea comes from another temporary sculpture of a woman, Tara Mechani, which was located there six years ago. The difference is scale: R-Evolution is about three times taller than Tara Mechani. While there’s obviously precedent for putting Burning Man art at Patricia’s Green on a temporary basis, it’s a tiny park and I doubt there would be room for the base of the sculpture — let alone any place to attach the external lighting.
Perhaps the best critique of the sculpture I’ve heard so far is summed up in this KQED opinion column:
R-Evolution, in a very old-fashioned way, is not a singular person, but a self-declared symbol of “divine feminine energy” — a giant nude sculpture of a woman made by a man. We should know by now that a depiction of a woman is not inherently feminist.
Well… yeah. Fair enough.
But to me it it seems the critics on both sides are missing the point. As art goes, R-Evolution is bland and uninteresting. There’s nothing about it that rewards multiple viewings or looking at it from different distances and vantage points. It’s more like the type of decoration you’d expect to see outside of a shopping center, not a museum-worthy piece.
Art has to have depth to it, something that evokes a reaction. R-Evolution doesn’t do that; it’s merely something to snap a photo of on your way to grab a coffee.
R-Evolution will be located at Market St. and Embarcadero for approximately one year.
