We dress up our statues here. It began after Waiting for the Interurban was installed in the Fremont district in 1978. The cast aluminum set of five figures was named for the defunct rail line that at one time connected the various neighborhoods of Seattle. But you can’t have five people just standing in the meridian of the street being all gray and stuff...decoration is required! Soon these folks became a canvas for guerrilla artists, or anyone else with a message to promote...or some whimsy to express. A tradition is born!
This custom came to my area of the city in 1986 when Walking on Logs. was installed. It was done by sculptor Phillip Levine, a local artist. It was part of a larger goal to bring art into the area, an effort that also included murals in the business district of West Seattle. The area around it was to be maintained by “the community”.
But unlike that piece in Fremont, this installation is situated in a sort of no-man’s-land on the hillside of the roadway that connects the West Seattle neighborhood with downtown. It’s sort of our front door, yet due to the difficulty in getting to it and given the terrain, it often looked a little shabby.
The site is on land that is controlled by the Seattle Department of Transportation, and they usually have other priorities rather attempt to maintain the hillside. The hillside is constantly wet as water seeps down in its constant quest to reach sea level.
A four-lane roadway in front of it makes it a challenge to reach the site, and is only accessible coming from one direction. There is a gate located on the street above, but it is locked for the most part, and the path from that is dangerously close to the road.
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Yet still folks come with their T-shirts and signs, using the small turnout on the side of the road, and must be aware of the traffic that goes whizzing by.
The man who assisted in getting the installation done dutifully tended the site, but as he was pushing 90, it was getting to be difficult for him. In 2010, a group formed to take on the maintenance of the site, and to put in plants that could withstand the soppy conditions. Somehow I found myself in this group of gardeners and horticulturalists. (I was coming home one evening and I passed by the meeting location. Having participated in a clean-up of that hillside a few years earlier, I was curious to see what the plans were...I was caught and couldn’t escape.) My contributions consisted of smiling at meetings, and donating my labor as we did periodic clean-ups.
With the help of one of our members, a landscape architect, our committee put forth a scheme to improve the place. We got a grant from the city and put in trees and other plants to better accentuate the sculptures. While some of the trees survived the difficult conditions, others did not and the full effect was not realized. Then in 2014, one of the figures was stolen and never recovered, taken for the metal no doubt. (See the preview picture in the YouTube above.) It was sort of an unnecessary wheel, stuck further up the hill than the rest. In a way, it didn’t belong, and it had been remarked by some that four is an unusual number for a composition. But still, not cool. A slap in the face.
Our committee closed shop in 2015, and donated the tools and the remains of our funds to other non-profits. So while our efforts were not 100% successful, I think that we did some improvements. Others are carrying forth.
Do you dress statues, or otherwise “occupy” your public art?
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