Skip to main content

'((BORDERS))' & 'The Blue Trees' at Westlake Park

For the last few weeks, two public art projects have coexisted at Westlake Park, in the thick of Seattle's downtown.

'((Borders))' is by Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, a metal sculptor who seems primarily interested in featureless people in various states and positions.  Originally installed outside of the U.N. headquarters, it is supposed to reflect something (or other) about multiculturalism.  Passersby seem most interested in the composition of the statues. Thoraninsdottir's site is pretty cool, by the way.

Konstantin Dimopoulos's 'The Blue Trees' is meant to bring trees into contrast with their surroundings, and so remind people of them.  By extension, this is supposed to bring attention to deforestation, over-logging, and the like.  The actual effect is mere surreal wonderment, but anyone so confused can read the small sign standing in the middle of the park for clarification.

I'm not sure how successful these are in achieving their stated intentions, but, together (which was neither artist's decision, so far as I know), they definitely cause people to stop and wonder why the hell there are metal people and blue trees in the park.  Surely, getting people to think is an accomplishment of sorts.




Labels:
Location: 1550-1596 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101, USA

Comments

  1. Anonymous7/06/2012 10:51 PM

    I think about deforestation all the time...I was just thinking about on the way home tonite, in relation to all the possums and deer that get run over on roads, and how there really aren't that many uninterrupted stretches of forest, and the people who will clear hundreds of trees off a hill top just so they can build a house there.

    Also, the silver guy in the second picture looks like he's taking a wiz.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown7/07/2012 1:33 AM

    Raising awareness of deforestation is a pretty good cause. There's a lot of logging in the Pacific Northwest, and very little of it is pretty (morally or aesthetically). I'm just not sure painting trees blue is going to help at all.

    By process of association, my mind took your comment about whizzing statues, thought about those fountains you see with cherubs peeing into pools, and brought it back to some other Steinunn statues I saw on his sight (which look like they feature bullet wounds), and decided he should make those statues into fountains. Less humorous, I know.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown7/07/2012 1:34 AM

    It would be much cooler if I had seen the statue with his sight, rather than viewing it on his site. Oh well. Can't have everything.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7/07/2012 9:32 PM

    It might be kind of funny if the water were dyed red and sometimes instead of trickling out of the wounds would burst out like a geyser and knock passersby over...

    Probably not...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown7/07/2012 10:16 PM

    No, no. I think it would. The thought made me laugh, at least.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown7/07/2012 10:20 PM

    Also, Steinunn is a woman, so I got her pronoun wrong earlier. Shows what I know about Icelandic names.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous7/07/2012 10:35 PM

    You also spelled her last name differently the two times you wrote it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unknown7/07/2012 11:07 PM

    In fact, I suck at Icelandic names altogether.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An introduction to a book that doesn't exist:

Prose and verse are generally accepted as distinct writing formats with their own rules, styles, and grammars.  Though their borders are somewhat vague, they have come to be seen as something of a dichotomy in the eyes of the general public.  There are, however, at least 3 other popular approaches to writing as exhibited in picture-books, comicbooks, and plays.  Though sometimes given short shrift, these styles are accepted as literature.  They are included in libraries, book stores, and academic study.  Most importantly, they are read. In the general case, there is clearly writing being done in the creation of any one of these.  But what of the wordless comic or silent play?  Should we consider scripts written, but fully realized plays, comics, and picture-books, to be performance, art, or some other kind of non-literature?  These worries of theory are kinks to be worked out, surely, but they are not of immediate practical concern to the writer...
12 comments
Read more

Magical Unrealism

The same men who say global warming is a hoax, Obamacare has been failing for eight years, and abstinence-only sex-ed works are also convinced even basic gun control is an impossible and useless approach which would only make us less safe. These are also the dudes most likely to tell you black and brown folk have it too good, Obama is a secret Muslim born in Kenya, and Sharia law is being forced on American legal systems. I wonder if there's some sort of overarching thread or theme to all this.
2 comments
Read more

Every thief must go.

Robin , chapter 5  Previous Chapter Robin kept herself busy through her unemployment doing chores and practising martial arts, but mostly she spent time playing in the woods.  The bears avoided her, and she kept out of the thieves' way, as much as she could.  This was no easy task, for Sherman's Forest had its share of scoundrels. Chief of these was Lance Bucskin, infamous for scamming old ladies and still more renowned for his hatred of puppies, which he would kick whenever the chance arose.  Even his own men found his proclivities distasteful, but he had a way with weapons and highway robbery which held his fellows in awe. LANCE-- [clad in all green with a pointed cap; has a devil may care attitude; close cropped blond hair with a well waxed van dyke beard; 28 and in peak condition, he loves exhibiting his physical prowess as much as he enjoys booting little dogs; he is holding up a family as his rapt minions stand by] They're really not all that hard to im...
6 comments
Read more