Cupids Span
San Francisco California
It's 60 feet tall and 140 feet long. It's called Cupid's Span and made out of fiberglass and stainless steel. It was installed in 2002 and is the work of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, who have created lots of other big things around the country and around the world.
When Coosje van Bruggen found this position too stiff and literal, she suggested turning the image upside down: the arrow and the central part of the bow could be buried in the ground, and the tail feathers, usually downplayed, would be the focus of attention. That way the image became metamorphic, looking like both a ship and a tightened version of a suspension bridge, which seemed to us the perfect accompaniment to the site. In addition, the object functioned as a frame for the highly scenic situation, enclosing — depending on where one stood — either the massed buildings of the city’s downtown or the wide vista over the water and the Bay Bridge toward the distant mountains.