“Hey mom! Yeah, I’m still on that project in San Francisco… You might not want to go online today…”
San Francisco is a city that’s both loved and hated, sometimes both, and always depending on who you ask.
Undeniably, there’s absolutely gorgeous parts. The Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, The Painted Ladies, Lombard Street… The list of iconic landmarks and beautiful visuals on the Pacific coastline is nearly endless.
But… the city’s also gotten quite a bad rap in recent years for homeless encampments, human excrement and dirty needles flooding the streets, and just the general degradation of public spaces. The truth lies somewhere in the middle (my parents, mother-in-law, and some friends have all visited over the past year and have confirmed the beauty and existence of areas you don’t want to go anywhere near), but apparently the city had enough of the remarks and decided to try and revive the cultural arts scene by erecting a new statue at the Embarcadero, the eastern waterfront port.
A 45 foot statue of a naked woman standing proudly, titled R-Evolution, has been unveiled and has captured the eyes and comments of people online for a number of reasons.
For starters, it’s a naked woman and that’s going to draw some comments. If you have even a slight exposure to classical artworks than this shouldn’t come as any surprise, Roman and Greek paintings and figures were nearly always naked and while people smarter than me can explain the exact reasoning in much greater detail, you can at least say that art is supposed to be revealing and what’s more revealing than a nude body?
But of course there’s many comments from people saying it embodies satanism and is just an eyesore that doesn’t accomplish the stated purpose of beautifying the area. As with anything, sides have been drawn, teams picked, and that will be that. My opinion? It fits right in with California’s “free spirit” lifestyle.
However, there’s another reason people are talking about this statue and this reason is objectively, without question, downright hilarious.
During the construction process, two men had to be hoisted up to the, uhm, backside to do a bit of work and someone was able to take one of the greatest videos of all-time when one of the men dove headfirst to get the job done.
That’s right, one of the construction workers had to literally climb into the butthole of this statue for one reason or another…
It’s so weird. New statue in San Fran getting a rectal exam. pic.twitter.com/UMZ1aaHqT3
— The Redheaded Troublemaker (@try2underit) April 11, 2025
The designer knew exactly what he was doing…
I guess it does give a natural portal to the inside structure that would be more or less hidden from the general gazing eye? Or maybe it’s just a funny way to make something and if you’re not having fun while making art, why are you even doing it?
The artist behind the statue is Marco Cochrane and he originally made this statue for Burning Man 10 years ago. It was originally supposed to be put in Washington DC’s National Mall but those plans fell through and after a brief stay in Miami (which makes complete sense) eventually found its way to San Francisco, though temporarily as the city has only approved the display for the next six months.
At night, the statue will glow and for one hour each day she breathes, whatever that means… (though it does seem like it could be pretty cool.)
Cochrane said about the project on his website:
“R-Evolution is more than a sculpture; it’s a 45-foot tall symbol of feminine strength and liberation… With this piece, Model Deja Solis explores and expresses what she feels like when she can just be…a whole person… a woman, radiating her energy into the world calm.. just breathing.”
If you’re going to be in San Fran in the next half year, might want to stop by and see what this looks like in person.
There was a statue in San Francisco today of a woman. Ya'll I ran over there so fast. #sanfrancisco #ferrybuilding #sanfranciscostatue pic.twitter.com/BvTUi1WLlM
— Reika (@r_eik_a1) April 11, 2025
