Rocketship Unveiling – Out of this World
The sun was blazing on Friday, as a large group of artists, passersby, city officials, and space enthusiasts gathered to celebrate the unveiling of The Raygun Gothic Rocketship at San Francisco’s Pier 14. The temporary art installation is the latest in the Black Rock Arts Foundation’s (BRAF) Civic Arts Program.
The ceremony was filled with great live music. The Phenomenauts played sci-fi punk/rockabilly tunes and the Space Cowboys DJ collective provided stellar beats. Gastronaut provided the creative and delicious “space” refreshments for the crowd to munch on.
The festivities started with speeches from BRAF reps and the artists who created the sculpture.
David Chiu, District 3 Supervisor for San Francisco, was also on hand. He gave a speech to the crowd and discussed the temporary art initiative with enthusiasm. He praised San Francisco for being such an artistic city and told the crowd that the cost of an art installation for one year costs the city the same as a billboard for one month. He also fessed up to a love of bottle rockets as a child.
Mayor Gavin Newsom then arrived and praised BRAF’s work and spoke about how difficult it was to get approval for public art installations when he was first in office. Using the term “temporary,” he explained, was the loophole that enabled the art pieces to go up in the city. After discovering that, temporary art installations have been popping up all over.
The mayor went on to discuss the city’s relationship with BRAF and how proud he was of the 20 or so large, significant public art installations within the last few years. However, he did say the rocketship was his favorite.
Mark Sinclair, Principal from The New Technologies Group, donated his engineering services to the project was on hand to enjoy the festivities.
