Ben Davis planning to light up the town
Ben Davis, founder of Illuminate, which has spread shimmering radiance around some of San Francisco’s iconic structures, is on a crusade for light. With guiding principles that include the idea that no Illuminate project will require any fee to be seen, Davis has conceived of, organized and done fundraising for Leo Villareal’s “Bay Lights” on the Bay Bridge; has created, with Obscura Digital, “Photosynthesis: Love for All Seasons,” the light show projected on the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers; and organized both “Harvey’s Halo,” a temporary Harvey Milk tribute with rays shooting to the sky from the roof of a former bank at Market and Castro, and a permanent neon installation quoting Milk (“Hope will never be silent”) on that same building.
He stopped by at The Chronicle the other day to talk about some other projects in various states of planning/execution:
“Lightrail,” previously described in The Chronicle, was at first envisioned as streams of light running overhead on Market Street parallel to Muni Metro cars running underground. There are plans afoot now to give Market Street a major makeover, to remove its bricks, its curbs and most of its overhead wires. The light would then move along ribbons embedded in the border lines between the sidewalks and the street.
“Love Above” involves reimagining Sutro Tower as a structure for lights, turning the landmark into an art object.
Changing the lights along Market Street, already done by the city for a few blocks westward from the Ferry Building. Harsh orange lights are being replaced with softer, whiter ones that are more energy efficient.
“Southern Hills Lights” would place colored light panels in the windows along rows of Daly City houses along the curved streets on that city’s hillsides.
“Grace,” a timed project to light the interior of Grace Cathedral.
“Troubadour,” in which an old American-made streetcar is outfitted like an art car, its outside covered with blinking lights, its inside usable at night as a mobile performance space on Muni’s F-line light-rail tracks.
The 150th anniversary of Golden Gate Park will be in 2020, and Davis had such a good time working with parks chief Phil Ginsburg on the Conservatory project that he hopes they’ll be able to cook up something for that occasion.
Davis knows that the challenges of this work go way beyond the struggles of fundraising. Sculpting with light, he says, is about “transformation. You have to believe in the city . ... You have to break through the despair of impossibility.” That’s no small goal.
Adda Dada is just back from Paris, where in the window of Philippe le Libraire bookstore, there was a handwritten sign that said, in French: “The goal of (this) bookstore is to represent artists for they are the best representatives of society, humanity, democratic ideas and a revolutionary new life.”
At Copenhagen Bakery in Burlingame, Greg Zompolis overheard a couple somewhat heatedly discussing whether it would rain this week. The grand finale was when the husband, “slightly exasperated,” in Zompolis’ description, blurted, “It’s a prediction, not a promise!”
Meanwhile, back east, John Antoun saw a social media posting from someone apparently hunkered down for a storm, having stockpiled necessities. “I have the bread, milk and toilet paper. But now I can’t find the recipe.”
As to the San Francisco-specific question, “Who is the new Rose Pak?,” Scott Goble, manager of Modern Appealing Clothing, opined that “If Mark Leno wins, it’ll be Juanita More.”
Browsing through Craigslist’s postings looking for talent, Peter McKenna came across “Looking for ‘Spicy Meatball,’ ” a posting from someone whose grandmother is nearing her 85th birthday. The woman has dementia, “isn’t super aware most of the time. But she has always been a major flirt, and me and my family say that is the last part of her that will go. Whenever she is in a mood or just zoning out, the second she sees my handsome boyfriend she is the same old her again.”
The boyfriend, alas, is out of town, so for the birthday celebration, the family is “looking for a handsome fella, or as my noni (grandma in Italian) would say, a ‘spicy meatball’ to come to her birthday party and maybe dance with her to a couple of songs . ... Price is negotiable. ... This post is a long shot but hoping I can find somebody willing.”
PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING “I don’t need anger management. I just need people to stop pissing me off.” Man to man, overheard near Peet’s Coffee in Montclair by Kathleen Costa