The largest public art installation in Golden Gate Park history was lit up and started breathing bubbles Monday night, as the 100-foot-long sea dragon sculpture called Naga now rules the roost over Rainbow Falls Pond.
When we learned earlier this month that a 100-foot-long sculpture of a sea serpent was coming to Golden Gate Park, the sponsoring arts organization Illuminate billed it as “the largest public art installation in park history.” The sculpture known as “Naga” (or by its technical name "Naga & the Captainess," as more artistic embellishments are coming to the installation) also stands 25 feet tall out of the water, and we were promised that nighttime LED lighting was coming to the sculpture, just like it had when it debuted at Burning Man last year.
Meet Naga, a radiant, 100-foot-long, 25-foot-tall sea serpent being installed in the Rainbow Falls Pond along JFK Promenade on San Francisco’s Golden Mile. When completed, Naga will be the largest public art installation in the park’s history.@sfrecpark pic.twitter.com/D9NT4reHI8
— ILLUMINATE.org (@IlluminatedArts) July 10, 2025
People have been noticing that the artwork has been installed in the park’s Rainbow Falls Pond over the last couple of weeks. And the dragon sculpture by Cjay Roughgarden, Stephanie Shipman, and Jaquelyn Scott had its official lighting ceremony Monday night, so SFist was on hand to get pictures and video from the scene.
Before we get to the lighting, though, we’d like to call your attention to how the dragon Naga really does blow bubbles out of its nose, giving it a daylight feature attraction during the hours when the LEDs are not lit up.
Though this leads to a pretty substantial accumulation of bubbles inside Rainbow Falls Pond.
Okay, on to the moment that Naga was lit up in the park! There was not a proper “5-4-3-2-1” countdown to the lighting of the work. But the video above depicts the very moment it came on, as evidenced by the ooohs and ahhs from the crowd of Burner types in their blinky gear, and the little girl next to me exclaiming “Finally!!!” after she’d been standing there for an hour waiting for this.
People will inevitably complain about the cost, though that’s a misplaced concern, because this installation is almost entirely privately funded. And there’s more to this that is still coming, as the Examiner reports that the work "will ultimately feature a 100-foot climbable seating area resembling a shipwreck, interactive treasure chests for children and a street mural painted to look like the ocean."
Someone was flying a drone out there for Monday night’s ceremony, and that pretty impressive video can be seen below.
So Naga is ready for its first big weekend of major visibility, for those Dead and Company shows in Golden Gate Park that start in just three days. Then the next weekend, it will dazzle for the Outside Lands festival as those partygoers straggle in and out of the park.
So how long will this sea dragon remain in the waters of Rainbow Falls Pond? Illuminate founder Ben Davis tells the Examiner that the installation is “technically only permitted for a year — maybe it’s two years.”
Related: Illuminated, 100-Foot-Long Sea Creature Installation Coming to Golden Gate Park [SFist]
Image: East Bay Burners via Facebook
