By Neal Wong

One foggy Sunday afternoon in July, Anna Boyarsky and her two children were biking west along John F. Kennedy (JFK) Promenade in Golden Gate Park when they rounded the bend past the whale tail and spotted something gleaming through the trees ahead. As they got closer, they began to see a teal serpentine sculpture – a 100-foot-long sea serpent. They stopped, craning their necks to take in all the details of the 25-foot-tall sculpture towering over them.

“You can see it from far away, which was really exciting,” Boyarsky said.

“Naga,” adorned with more than 5,000 scales, first captivated audiences at the Burning Man Festival in 2024 and is now surfacing in Golden Gate Park, marking what organizers say is the largest public art installation in the park’s history.

Created by Bay Area artists Cjay Roughgarden, Stephanie Shipman and Jacquelyn Scott, the installation is the result of a community effort involving more than 250 volunteers and – at the time of print – $338,888 in donations towards a $400,000 goal. The project was brought to the park through a partnership with arts non-profit Illuminate and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. Shipman said the sclupture is scheduled to stay for at least two years.

“I have the story about the children’s book that I loved – this doofus sea serpent that saves a ship and becomes a hero,” Roughgarden said. “I searched all through Western mythology to find a more adult version, a grown-up version of a sea serpent that is not just a monster, but I could not find that in any Western mythology.”

She then looked to Asia.

“China has a positive association with dragons; I bet there’s something for sea serpents,” Roughgarden said. “Sure enough, all throughout Southeast Asia – from India, from Thailand and all over to Japan and Laos – everywhere in their folk mythology, there are nagas: treasure-protecting deities.”

Roughgarden did not want to make a half-human, half-snake deity from Asia because it is not her culture.

“But I wanted to borrow the name, so people, when they looked at him and heard his name, maybe it would trigger something different in them, and they might imagine something besides just a monster,” she said.

“Naga” is made with stainless steel mesh, aluminum scales and eco-friendly paint. An epoxy coating prevents the sculpture from rusting.

“Bubbles come out of his nose when it’s not too windy,” Roughgarden added.

The current installation represents only the first phase of the complete vision. The full piece at Burning Man, “Naga and the Captainess,” was an interactive installation that featured a multi-level shipwreck next to the serpent. Due to safety and size concerns, a modified version of the ship would have a seating area and treasure chests and would span approximately 100 feet by 20 feet across three pieces. Its installation – which organizers hope will be added in the fall. For now, Shipman is glad that Naga is in the park.

“I’m so happy that we got placement here. It’s such a thrill to be here,” Shipman said. “We started talking to the park a year-and-a-half ago and it’s so awesome that it’s finally happening.”

Park visitors encountered the installation during its assembly, reacting with excitement.

“It’s fun to get to watch the process of them adding each scale, all the meticulous details,” Boyarsky said. “I love that the park is evolving and changing and has new artwork coming in and going out over time. I think it makes it really special and an exciting place to continue to come back to.”

Jennifer Alvarado was impressed by the number of volunteers and the size of the artwork.

“The park already has so much to it,” Alvarado said. “I think adding this piece beautifies it even more.”

Jenny Pang and Corentin Fabry decided to walk to it after seeing it on social media. Pang said they were captivated by the colors.

“It looked magnificent,” Pang said. “It’s cool to see people actually making it and the details and work that goes behind it.”

Fabry hopes to see even more installations.

“There has been already a lot of art in the park, but the more the better,” Fabry said.

Learn more at nagaandthecaptainess.com.