LED installation artist Jim Campbell has something new up his sleeve for the top of Salesforce next weekend.
In honor of Halloween during this, the spookiest of pandemics, Campbell is reportedly working to program a new LED light display for the top of Salesforce Tower, with the theme being "blood red river." We learn the news via rep for Campbell who spoke to BrokeAss Stuart, and there's no further info or renderings of the finished product, so you may just have to wait until Halloween — unless it pops up in testing before that.
The crown of the tower has been lit up since April with images of clapping hands — in honor of frontline workers — as well as swaying trees in Golden Gate Park, and prayer flags. The refresh occurred just a few weeks into the pandemic when much of San Francisco was fully locked down with many residents remaining primarily indoors.
Campbell has semi-regularly updated the LED display cycle since the crown first lit up with these video images in mid-2018, and in between he's also put up some special one-offs like that "Eye of Sauron" that appeared in honor of Halloween 2018.
But a couple of times now he's had to adjust the public artwork in order to be sensitive to current moment. Last Halloween, in the wake of the Kincade Fire and other wildfires last fire season, he put up a different version of the eye without all the flames around it.
And in early April, he took down the images of people walking through bustling SF streets that had been displayed for nine months because they'd become depressing during the lockdown — replacing them with images of togetherness and hope, he said at the time.
And, with Halloween coming just a few days before a historic — and historically intense — presidential election, why not just light the thing up with a river of blood!?
We'll update you if any images of the planned display arrive. Otherwise you'll just have to be surprised.
Photo by Riley/Unsplash. Photoshop rendering poorly done by SFist.