Sharing this artistic achievement with the larger Bay Area community is cause for celebration! Please join us for the Opening Reception!

Burning Man festival participants have come to expect art that impresses, outdoes previous projects, and pushes the limits of scale, engineering, and visual spectacle. But at 2010’s festival, one work stood out among the rest. Both visually breathtaking and a feat of construction, Marco Cochrane’s Bliss Dance necessitates public exposure. A work of this caliber deserves to be shared with our larger community.

BRAF is thrilled to collaborate with Marco Cochrane and his crew in showcasing this work publicly 2011. Bliss Dance will be on display on Treasure Island from April 19, 2011 until further notice.

Bliss Dance is located at
The Great Lawn, near 9th and Avenue of the Palms
Treasure Island
San Francisco, CA 94130

Click here for more detailed directions. 

The sculpture’s lighting effects turn on at 8:30 P.M. and turn off at 1:00 A.M., every night. You can control the sculpture’s lighting effects with an iPhone app!

“The Black Rock Arts Foundation is proud to help inaugurate another location for public art in the Bay Area by bringing Marco Cochrane and his teams’ Bliss Dance to Treasure Island,” said Executive Director Tomas McCabe. “This project is a bull’s eye for us as it allows us to help support and highlight a local artist, collaborate with Treasure Island Development Authority in their efforts to incorporate art, and provide an opportunity for folks who were not able to see this amazing piece at the Burning Man event to interact with it in a whole new setting.  Bliss Dance takes a classical art form to a whole new level in terms of scale, technology and beauty –  and with the amazing San Francisco skyline as its backdrop, it’s sure to inspire all who see it.”

Without the support of our community we could not have entertained the ambition of bringing cherished works such as Bliss Dance into public view. Thank you for believing in us! However, we have not yet met our fundraising goal for this project. Help us sustain the growth and exposure of our artists, and make a donation to our Civic Arts Program today!

The sculpture, of a dancing woman, stands 40 feet tall, weighs 7000 pounds and is ingeniously constructed of triangulated geodesic struts. By day, the dancer’s ‘skin’, made of stainless steal mesh, shimmers in the sun. By night, it alights brilliantly with a complex array of 1000 slowly changing l.e.d. colored lights. Viewers may interact with and manipulate the lighting effects with an iphone application. The dancer’s delicate, graceful form precariously balances on one foot, adding to the astonishing impression of imminent movement and lifelike presence.

To learn more about Bliss Dance, click here.

Thanks to David Yu for his stunning photographs of Bliss Dance on Treasure Island! Click here to see more.

Bliss Dance at Burning Man, 2010. Photo by Jon Evans

About the Artist

In 1962, Marco was born to American artists in Venice, Italy, and raised in California in the midst of the political and cultural movement. As a result, Marco learned respect for oneness, balance, the sacred, and the imperative to make the world a better place. In particular, he identified with the female struggle with oppression, and he saw feminine energy and power as critical to the world’s balance. Supporting this change quickly became Marco’s life’s mission, although, it never occurred to him that art would be the vehicle. On a dare, he explored sculpting people and found a talent he was unaware of…the ability to re-create a person’s essence in figurative form. When Marco started sculpting, he realized he was pursuing the mission he’d set out to do…to empower women.

www.marcocochrane.com

Event Info

Heart Deco will be making a special appearance, providing sound, and featuring Heart Deco DJ’s Jen Woolfe and SEVA!

Entertainment schedule:

• 6:00 pm: DJ Jen Woolfe (Heart Deco)
• 6:30 pm: Leslie Goldman (opera)
• 6:35 pm: Remarks
• 6:55 pm: Deja Solis, artist’s model for Bliss Dance, performs
• 7:45 pm: DJ Jen Woolfe (Heart Deco)
• 8:30 – 9:30 pm: DJ SEVA (Heart Deco)

Food vendors:

• Spencer on the Go (Chez Spencer’s food truck,www.spenceronthego.com)
• Smoke Barbecue (www.smokebbqsf.com)
• El Tonayense Taco Truck (eltonayense.com)

This is a Leave No Trace event! Please pack out any trash you generate!

Public Transportation: Treasure Island is accessible by the MUNI 108 bus line. The 108 line leaves from the temporary Transbay Terminal located at Howard and Beale Streets in downtown San Francisco. A connecting shuttle from the Treasure Island Front Gate serves Yerba Buena Island. Click here for MUNI 108 route and schedule information.

Driving: Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands are accessible via the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge/Interstate 80. Whether travelling from San Francisco or the Oakland/East Bay area, follow Interstate 80 onto the Bay Bridge and take the “Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island” left-lane exit at the halfway point of the Bay Bridge span. If traveling from the East Bay, a toll is required to access the Bay Bridge. Once through the front gate, stay to your left on Avenue of Palms along the water for approx 1/2 mile until you arrive at the Great Lawn

There are no gas stations located on-Island.

Support