''Sun God'' is a monumental statue by French-American sculptor

Niki de Saint Phalle Niki de Saint Phalle (; born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle; 29 October 193021 May 2002) was a French-American sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and author of colorful hand-illustrated books. Widely noted as one of the few female monume ...

located on the campus of the

University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is th ...

. The figurative sculpture is a multicolored bird-like creature, perched atop a tall arch-shaped, vine-covered concrete pedestal. Erected in February 1983 as the first of the Stuart Collection of public art projects, the polyester and fiberglass ''Sun God'' has become a notable feature of the UCSD campus. It is located on a grassy area between the Faculty Club and Mandeville Auditorium, on the eastern periphery of the

John Muir College John Muir College is one of the seven undergraduate colleges at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). The college is named after John Muir, the environmentalist and founder of the Sierra Club. It has a humanitarian emphasis focused ...

campus. Since the 1980s, the UCSD Associated Students organization has sponsored an annual event, the Sun God Festival, with the statue as its official

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

. Over the years, numerous visual-arts students have accessorized the statue with items such as sunglasses; a

cap and gown Academic dress is a traditional form of clothing for academic settings, mainly tertiary (and sometimes secondary) education, worn mainly by those who have obtained a university degree (or similar), or hold a status that entitles them to assum ...

; an ID card; a large, water-spraying phallus; and even a

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

with eggs painted in the statue's trademark bright colors.Hardie, Raymond. ''UCSD Alumni Magazine''. May 2006, Volume 3, Number 2.
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References

External links

photo gallery {{coord, 32, 52, 42.76, N, 117, 14, 23.08, W, display=title Outdoor sculptures in San Diego University of California, San Diego 1983 sculptures Fiberglass sculptures in California 1983 establishments in California Stuart Collection