The Bulb
The Albany Bulb, simply known as “The Bulb,” is a place of eerie mystery, organic / organized chaos, brackish breeze, and simple beauty. A former landfill, it’s a local unique wonder; as if you rolled a dog park, wetlands, outdoor art gallery, and Mad Max into one destination. And it offers great views of SF and beyond! Check out the short wiki entry for interesting historical, cultural, and political history. Fascinating place.
In the “sculpture garden,” there were lots of entities created from all sorts of found objects and urban junk. There was even a samurai:
Here’s another sculpture (“tortured witch,” I like to call it):
If you’re curious, you can see more photos here. As a perpetually shifting landscape, it probably warrants periodical visits. Your dog will thank you too.
Have you seen any interesting “Asian”-esque outdoor art recently?
7 Responses to “The Bulb”
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Sophia on July 2nd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Hey! It’s Sophia from the EAZB :]
I’ve been to a few outdoor sculpture gardens, one in Washington more than five years ago… and my friend keeps telling me about the Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey. Having never been I can’t personally comment on the level of Asian-esque sculptures, but a quick look through their website yielded this:
http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/c_yjun.htm?phpMyAdmin=rx8QRmkftsxKCJORMPMdrElzfme
Which I found nice.
Indoor galleries sometimes impose a strange context on artwork… there’s something enjoyable about having a walk in a garden and stumbling upon something like this.
nico on July 2nd, 2009 at 9:28 pm
still waiting on someone to kidnap me away to see Maya Lin’s work at Storm King. I last hiked the Bulb in completely inappropriate shoes and a half-functional camera and loved every minute of it.
bittermelon on July 7th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
@sophia thanks so much for visiting our blog. What a pleasant surprise! Checked out that link, I dig the piece. I agree with you on the indoors/outdoors dynamic with sculptures.
@nico Storm King looks uhhhhmazing. Dreamy and pastoral-esque. Thanks for sharing. Also, I think walking the Bulb in inappropriate shoes would be hard on the tootsies.
nahry on July 31st, 2009 at 11:34 am
I have been there! Cool place to hike.
scottflint on October 10th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I know the artist that made the Samurai sculpture. His name is Chris Thompson this was his first sculpture in this medium made to scale. The sculpture was made to honor my brother Matt who had recently passed away.
He made it from scraps of metal found nearby the sculpture. He bent most pieces by hand and cut parts to length by bending them back and fourth until they snapped to the right size. The head of the Samurai is made from a paint can turned upside down.
Chris is an accomplished artist and has over 20 years training in martial arts including Iaido the ancient art of the Samurai warrior.
He teaches at West-Wind Karate school in Berkeley.
bittermelon on October 13th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Hi Scottflint, thanks so much for dropping by and giving us some background info on this piece. Pretty impressive that the artist was able to create something like that out of pure scraps.
OGT on December 10th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
wow these are amazing.