Cupid's Span

Rincon Park, San Francisco, California

Stainless steel, structural carbon steel, fiber; reinforced plastic, cast epoxy, polyvinylchloride foam; painted with polyester gel coat
60ft. (182.3m) high

Installed November 21-22, 2002

Statement About the Project by the Artists

The Large-Scale Project for Rincon Park, Cupid's Span, relates to the extreme spaciousness of the site along the bay of San Francisco and to the monumental Bay Bridge in the background.

Coosje van Bruggen's associations, starting with the bow of a violin - while thinking of the symphony orchestra - continued into other objects involved with string—the bow and arrow. She in turn thought of Cupid's Bow, a specific form of double curves and a stereotype of Love so accepted that it is reproduced in Webster's Unabridged dictionary.

In taking Cupid's bow as a subject, the aggressive content of the instrument and its historical burden is defused. To further defunctionalize the subject, the point of the arrow is directed into the ground and buried, along with the front part of the bow.

This position gives the effect of connecting earth and sky and makes a sort of writing quill out of the feathers. It also strengthens identification with the suspension bridge by placing emphasis on the bowstring. In its location on the incline of Rincon Park, the bow provides a frame for the spectacular landscape, and at the same time makes a broad wing-like gesture which embraces the sky. The form of the bow links up with a slice of the moon, a rainbow, a ship's keel, a nautical quadrant and the shape of the park itself. The feathers, which are the most free, most elaborate and most colorful part of the work and suggest the birds soaring along the waterfront, become the focus of the composition.

Park visitors may imagine the ships that are said to lie buried under the site, while the feathers far above their heads suggest the sails and rigging which once filled the harbor.

Arriving at San Francisco airport, one is greeted with a recording by Mayor Willie Brown which extols the city as a place with "heart." Countless songs and stories celebrate San Francisco as the realm of Love. It therefore seems fitting to embed the arrow of Cupid in its ground.

Click here for a link to an article written by Kenneth Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle, on December 23, 2002, titled, "Take a bow: Sculptors Oldenburg and van Bruggen talk about their 'Cupid's Span'".

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen

Fabricated by William Kreysler and Associates, American Canyon, California.
Commissioned by D&DF Foundation

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