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Light, truth, and the SF Bay Bridge

By Carole Bass ’83, ’97MSL | 6:41am March 06 2013

Leo Villareal ’90 takes his Lux et Veritas literally. The Yale-educated artist creates spectacular light sculptures, mostly at art galleries, but now in one of the most public of places: the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

His bridge installation—consisting of 25,000 computer-controlled LED bulbs, chasing up and down the 1.8-mile bridge—is "a digital campfire that people can be around and enjoy," Villareal said as he flipped the switch last night. "This piece is incredibly accessible: you don't have to buy a ticket, you don't have to go into a building, it's there and available."

The lights, which will be illuminated nightly for the next two years, are mounted on the outside of the Bay Bridge's cables and are not visible from cars on the bridge.

“My inspiration," Villareal says, "comes from the motion around the bridge, the kinetic activity of boats, water, clouds, traffic.”

The privately funded project costs $8 million, with donors invited to "give the gift of light." And that's the truth.

Filed under Leo Villareal, San Francisco Bay Bridge
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