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'((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.




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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

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