The giant statue of a woman outside the Ferry Building, R-Evolution, is being joined by a whole set of temporary outdoor statues. First up is a mermaid statue named Coralee. This is by the same artist who created Tara Mechani, which was on display at Patricia’s Green about six years ago.
There’s something about this sculpture though that felt missing. It wasn’t the size — mermaids are supposed to be quite small.
Then it hit me: it’s the location. If you look at the artist’s page for the statue (see first paragraph above) it was originally built for a lush green park in the UK. That setting breathes life into the work in a way that the Embarcadero waterfront can’t with its gray sidewalks, gray skies, and the gray reflections on the water. I think it would have been a better fit for one of the waterfront parks.
I will say that the idea of temporary public art is appealing, especially given the state of the “permenant” public art in the area. The Vaillancourt Fountain has been drained of water more often than not in recent years (and may be slated for demolition!) and not to mention the glowing Embarcadero Ribbon which was installed to much fanfare in the mid 90’s and then promptly forgotten, neglected, and stopped functioning after a couple years.
After all if we can’t maintain the art we have, let’s at least be realistic about how long we expect it to last.
