21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
A giant sea serpent sculpture has arrived in Golden Gate Park. Here's an early look
Hannah Macauley and Alex Zaldastani were walking their mutt Ruby through Golden Gate Park on Sunday morning when out of the mist came their favorite memory from Burning Man 2024. There, resting in a dry lake bottom along the JFK Drive pedestrian promenade was Naga, the 100-foot sea serpent that had been a highlight on the playa.
'I thought we'd never see it again,' said Macauley, who was so shocked at the sight that she had to stop her walk and join a crowd of gathered admirers. 'That's the most magical thing about San Francisco. You are out walking and you stumble upon your favorite things.'
Sometime this week it will get more magical than it was in the Nevada desert because Rainbow Falls, the 50-foot manufactured waterfall that has been turned off during the installation, will be activated to pour water down and fill in the pond where Naga sits. After a grand opening Saturday featuring bubbles and mermaids, it will have a night lighting ceremony on July 28. The sculpture, at the western end of the promenade, just uphill from Transverse Drive, will be the payoff for making the trek downhill from the de Young Museum.
'The park is our favorite city escape, and the dragon will make it more so,' said James Mitchell of the Outer Sunset, who has been watching its progress by riding his bike through with his sons, Jay, 4, and Theodore, 2, in a covered wagon. On Sunday the progress was far enough along that they stopped and all three dismounted, with the two boys immediately headed toward the dry lakebed. 'The dragon is not to play on,' Mitchell scolded the boys while allowing them to climb the hillside at the dragon's tail to get an overview.
'It's going to be super cool when they put the water back,' he said.
Even with its concrete base fully exposed, the spectacle was cool enough to cause a foot- traffic backup during AIDS Walk San Francisco as people posed for group photos and selfies.
'Kind of like the Loch Ness Monster, with lights,' is how Richmond resident Francine Prophet described it. Even the firefighters from Station 23 in the Sunset came roaring up in their engine to stop, get out of the truck and take a look.
'A waterfall with this thing, that's going to be awesome,' said Mike Crehan of Station 23. 'What's going to come out of the tail? I hope it's not fire.'
The artist, Cjay Roughgarden, 41, of Richmond, likes that idea, 'but the permits for that would have been impossible,' she said Sunday afternoon while adding scales at the water line to ensure that the concrete foundation will be invisible. She also noted that dragons, not serpents, deal in fire, a common mistake. 'Sea serpents don't breathe fire, they blow bubbles out of their nose, obviously.'
Roughgarden, who owns a metal fabrication shop called Element 26 at Seaport Studios in Richmond, took a year off work to dedicate herself to the construction of Naga, which is named after a species of mythical Southeast Asian protectors. It is assembled from five separate humps, each made of a steel frame and mesh, covered by aluminum scales painted teal, in eco-friendly paint. Each scale was hand-shaped, more than 5,000 by a small navy of volunteers, more than 250 people in all.
The serpent, which took three years end to end, was paid for by Roughgarden's credit card. She estimates the total bill at $350,000, 'but if we had paid everyone it would have been like $2 million.'
Burning Man was Ben Davis, founder of the public art organization Illuminate, saw a rendering of 'Naga' at a cocktail party and immediately knew it would work in the park. He brought it to the attention of Rec and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg, who greenlighted it for the greenish pond before it was even built. Illuminate helped raise funds and is the presenter of all the temporary public art on the Golden Mile of JFK Drive, where it is closed to auto traffic.
After its premiere at Burning Man, it became the largest public art installation in the history of Golden Gate Park, said Davis, who has been doing art in the park since the Summer of Love 50th anniversary psychedelic light show in 2017.
"With its dazzling lights and larger-than-life scale, Naga is a breathtaking work of art — and Rainbow Falls is the perfect home for it,' Ginsburg said, noting that it is the largest art installation on the JFK Promenade. 'Public art is meant to inspire connection and spark conversation, and thanks to our partners, this installation is certainly accomplishing that.'
The conversation will not be complete until a second part of the installation is completed this fall — a shipwreck to be built off to the side. The shipwreck's fundraising is ongoing in hopes it will be installed in October by Stephanie Shipman (yes, it is a namephreak) and Jacqulyn Scott. The goal is $250,000.
The title of the work in totality is 'Naga & the Captainess,' and it is a complicated story, worthy of a graphic novel that Roughgarden has in mind.
'Naga is friendly, but he'll sink your ship if you're doing the wrong thing, like a good protector does,' she explained. 'I hope he helps bring back some of the spirit of the old San Francisco, to help people step out of the mundane.'
It worked for Beth Ludwig and Margaret Campos, who drove in from Walnut Creek after reading about Naga on social media.
'We like seeing the sculptures from Burning Man around the Bay Area,' said Ludwig, who was only mildly disappointed to find the artwork uncompleted. 'We'll come back,' she said. 'A lot.'
