“Entwined” gives San Franciscans all we want for Christmas: More lights
In Golden Gate Park, Elder Mother’s thousands of LED cubes glow in concert, flashing autumnal fire one moment and waves of pastels the next.
By M. T. Eley
As if from the roots of the Ferris wheel now overlooking Fisherman’s Wharf, a steel-trunked tree has grown at the eastern end of the JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park.
In fact, Entwined: Elder Mother is two art exhibits, grafted into one: Elder Mother, the tree which debuted at the rained-out 2023 Burning Man, and Entwined, the surrounding rod-and-cube shrubs and saplings which have appeared annually alongside other trees in Peacock Meadow since 2020.
Both come to us from Charles Gadeken, a Bay Area artist who describes his industrially ethereal work as “post-nature,” a term I would hesitate to use for any part of San Francisco except Mission Bay. This installation, at least, has an organic sublimity to it.
If you’re going to visit, a suggested approach is from the south. Cross the Robin Williams Meadow, which on a rainy evening is full of the sweet gin-scent of eucalyptus bark and the mystic quiet of oaks, hairy with moss. Behind you is another metal tree, Sutro Tower, disappears halfway into the city-lit fog, warning lights blinking. Having thus prefaced the exhibit, you are ready to climb the hill and see a strange shimmering in the woods’ openings.
Elder Mother’s thousands of LED cubes glow in concert, flashing autumnal fire one moment and waves of pastels the next. Keep an eye out for QR codes that allow you to control certain sections — some with emoji-buttons, color slides, or the sound of your voice. The elder mother is a little deaf, though, so speak up.
The conversation is supposed to go both ways: Elder Mother has six speakers surrounding it telling over 28 hours of stories in 26 different languages, although they were silent when I visited. I rather preferred this: somehow the lambent glow, shifting softly one second, fluttering violently the next, felt like speech.
You’ll find visual stories, too: look out for the little peepholes in the steel trunk, which, when not waterlogged, admit views of chipmunks, cute cats, VW bugs, et cetera. Some are hard to make out, but that’s half the fun.
The exhibit’s timing is incidental to the holidays, but the sense of holiday wonder one feels beneath the tree reminds me of a quip by SF writer Gary Kamiya: “In San Francisco, it is always Christmas morning.” If you are looking for Yuletide cheer, San Francisco’s official Christmas tree, “Uncle John’s Tree,” is right up the way and looking cheerful as ever.
Less obvious is the Elder Mother’s meaning, which I contemplated in the rain for a good while. I couldn’t help but think of another tree as the boughs pulsated and shifted against the cypresses and pines, one which gave a gift of knowledge of good and evil. In a city which flirts equally with life and death, perfection and corruption, the Elder Mother as a stand-in for that tree seems apt.
You have until April 28th to come up with your own interpretation.
M. T. Eley is a San Francisco-based writer.
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