This summer, Sound Transit has brought more than a light-rail line down Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. Way South. The agency has decorated the corridor with an intriguing mixture of art deliberately created to start dialogues. After all, the collection is called "Culture Conversation."
CONTROVERSIAL CONVERSATIONS
Some pieces sparked conversation and controversy well before fabrication. Roger Shimomura created "Rainier Valley Haiku," a totem of objects selected to represent the experience of immigrant, and specifically Asian, culture in America.
The original design had a Caucasian hand atop the pillar and a banana as one of the objects. Community input declared the banana too obvious as a representation of white-on-the-inside, yellow-on-the-outside labeling, and Shimomura replaced it with a Creamsicle. The hand, which could be seen either as pressing down or protecting the stack, was replaced with a mortarboard.
According to Sound Transit art program manager Barbara Luecke, Shimomura often explores questions of culture and identity in his work. "Is it better to assimilate," she paraphrased, "or keep our unique cultures?" A Sound Transit summary of the works along MLK stated, "Is our culture becoming a melting pot or a tossed salad?"
Another art work, this one intended for the Sound Transit station on Capitol Hill, involves adaptation of a fighter jet. The proposed piece, created by Mike Ross, drew community controversy, but Sound Transit spokesperson Linda Robson wrote by e-mail that "there have been some refinements to the design, the most notable is some structural supports."
The contract for the piece will go before the Sound Transit board at its next meeting.
THE POWER OF ART
"It is not unusual for art to be controversial," Luecke acknowledged.
Luecke does know about art. She has been at Sound Transit for three years, and before that she worked at 4Culture (of King County). She believes she got that job from attention she drew while organizing a community art installation on a bit of unusable land as a volunteer.
Luecke has volunteered frequently for the Fremont Arts Council (FAC), and she co-founded the neighborhood's Solstice Parade. In 1989, with the FAC, she organized a grant application, a call to artists, public jury process and fabrication of two tons of ferro-concrete into the sculpture known as the Fremont Troll.
"The Troll was my first experience with public art," Luecke admitted, adding that the power art has to bring a community together. "When they feel they own their place, they take better care of it."
The lack of much preexisting art along MLK gave artists freedom but also less precedent for working within the community. "An artwork corridor was created where there wasn't one," Luecke observed.
According to Luecke, lead artist Norie Sato chose the theme for MLK because she "had a hope that the artists would talk with one another and collaborate."
THE PROCESS OF PUBLIC ART
For "Culture Conversation," 30 artists created 35 different pieces. Where once artists submitted fully developed proposals for a planned space, such as with the Troll, Luecke explained most projects of this scale today send out a Request for Qualifications (RFQ). RFQs were sent to a roster of 500 artists.
Artists submitted applications that included 20 images of their past projects. The lead artist, a design team and community representatives reviewed the RFQs, heard interviews and presentations.
Luecke facilitated these reviews, organized and kept track of who all the artists were. As she explained, "Reviewers went through 130 artists [portfolios] on a recent project."
Some art selected flows all along MLK - such as the overhead contact-system poles and a braid incorporated into station paving. Also, several laser-cut metal banners were installed between power-system poles along the line, as designed by six artists led by Peter Reiquam.
Created as part of infrastructure improvements done along the light-rail line boulevard. specific art pieces stand adjacent to stations on triangular properties. Victoria Fuller's "Global Garden Shovel," a 35-foot, cast-bronze sculpture, is at the Columbia City Station, while at Othello are "Rainier Valley Haiku" (which also shields a sub-station) and "Come Dance With Me."
Luecke admitted many people call the latter piece, created by Augusta Asberry, "The Dancing Ladies." Unfortunately, Asberry passed away before she finished fabrication. This is the first time Luecke recalled being pressed to complete a work for another artist. With the help of Asberry's friends, "we had to figure out how to paint the figures," she explained.
Another artist, Richard (Dick) C. Elliot did finish his brightly colored panels of reflectors arranged in geometric patterns before his death last November. His piece, called "Sound of Light," covers a zig-zag retaining wall at South Hudson Street.
SOMETHING NEW
These artists had established reputations and images of 20 past works. For new or emerging artists, the RFQ process can be prohibitive but Luecke agreed they might collaborate with better-known artists to gain a body of work.
Additionally, Luecke has considered using some emerging artists in the temporary pieces to be installed for two years or more at the construction site on Capitol Hill.
Luecke admitted, "We're on the ground floor of deciding what to do for screening. It's up to the artists."
While a protective wall must be installed during construction, Luecke suggested it might be something more creative than a fence covered in decorative murals.
Sound Transit did use art creatively when they helped maintain pedestrian flow along Broadway by temporarily filling storefronts left empty by demolition plans with art displays.
Even before the inaugural ride of the light-rail line, Luecke admitted, "I'm getting requests for supplementary art. Neighborhoods are clamoring for it."
Along MLK the art often came with fresh pavement, landscaping and seating. As the art and the line become daily fixtures here, Luecke acknowledged, "How they get used by the neighborhood remains to be seen."
Kirby Lindsay learned about community building growing up in Fremont. She welcomes your comments about all the communities that make up Seattle at fremont@oz.net.[[In-content Ad]]
