After the awesome "Three Heads, Six Arms" monstrosity left town, Civic Center plaza has been without an oversized piece of public art for a little over a year now (unless you include the holiday tree, of course). Enter Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa's 24-foot-tall, bright red "Breathing Flower" sculpture.

Unlike the previous installation in Perth, Australia that you see above, San Francisco's big red lotus will rest on an 8-foot-tall pedestal, making the whole thing about five feet taller than the multi-headed beast that used to preside over the plaza. Adding to the intrigue with this big red lotus, the flower's fabric leaves are motorized to open and close just like the real thing. Don't just take our word for it though, here's some delightful time lapse footage of the nature-mimicking sculpture in action:

"Breathing Flower" will bloom in Civic Center Plaza starting in mid-May to coincide with the Asian Art Museum's "Phantom's of Asia" exhibition of contemporary art and will stick around until some time in September.