A Relic in the Garden - Gale McCall
Station Platform
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| Explore To look into closely, investigate; To travel in for discovery; To examine gathered knowledge |
Magnify To cause to be held in greater esteem or respect; To increase in significance, intensify or exaggerate; To enlarge in fact or appearance |
Two bronze magnifying glass sculptures rest in the planter boxes of the station platforms, inviting visitors to the station to look through the filigree "glass" and explore and discover relics that form both the Columbia City neighborhood and the world at large.
Bronze, internally lit garden baskets act as beacons to the station entrances and metaphorically offer a place to gather the ideas found in exploration.
Global Garden Shovel - Victoria Fuller
Martin Luther King Jr. Way @ Alaska Street
While researching the Rainier Valley, artist Victoria Fuller was struck by the presence of a large number of personal gardens in the neighborhood housing, coupled with trees all around. From this she drew inspiration as she contemplated the rich diversity of the area and cultivation being a common ground for all people.
The Global Garden Shovel is a 36' tall bronze shovel cast from a mold of hand-carved plants, fruit and vegetables that are indigenous to different areas from around the world. Plants included are the banana and coconut trees and a coffee plant.
"Plants symbolize growth, renewal, rebirth, hope, beauty and sustenance," says Fuller. "The earth that the shovel's tip is buried in symbolizes fertility and possibility, from which all life has sprung. The shovel breaking the ground signifies a new beginning."
Garden Windows - Juan Alonso
Martin Luther King Jr. Way @ Edmunds Street
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Continuing with a gardening theme, artist Juan Alonso has created a series of steel-cut and glass windows and entrance gate for the systems building located at Edmunds Plaza. The shapes of the windows as based on abstracted flowers with a central stem and branches reaching out to the sides.
Alonso notes that this shape is recurring throughout nature and the built environment; rivers with their tributaries and the land formations old ones leave behind can have the same basic shape of a tree and its branches; the human circulatory system, nervous system, and to a lesser extent the spine reach out to the body's extremities; the built interstate freeways branch out much the same way.
"Garden windows" invites the rider to contemplate how, by using the transit system, they themself are able to "branch out," and explore.
Pride - Norie Sato
Martin Luther King Jr. Way @ Edmunds Street
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Stone lions guard the entrance of the station's south plaza, ensuring and a safe, welcoming journey for patrons. Each lion is customized to reflect the diversity of the Rainier Valley and Columbia City, creating "conversations" between the lions evocative of the conversations between various cultures. A hand-carved brick lion was made in collaboration with master-carver Mara Smith.
For more information on this or any other STart project, please contact:
Jennifer Babuca
Art Program Coordinator
Phone:206-398-5120
jennifer.babuca@soundtransit.org
