A towering 45-foot-tall statue of a naked woman has sparked uproar in San Francisco after it was unveiled along the city's iconic Embarcadero.

The sculpture, titled R-EVOLUTION, is the work of California artist Marco Cochrane and was first unveiled at Burning Man in 2015.

The statue - weighing a staggering 32,000 pounds - was too heavy to be installed in New York's Union Square earlier this year, where it was initially headed.

Instead, it has now found a temporary home in Embarcadero Plaza.

But its latest appearance - standing completely nude in a major public plaza - has ignited fierce backlash online and in the city.