Sound Transit is extending Link light rail service to Capitol Hill and has purchased the property required to build a station under Broadway, with construction scheduled to run from 2009 - 2016. During the transition between purchasing the buildings and preparing them for removal, Sound Transit's art program, STart, created an opportunity for artists to create installations in a number of storefronts along Broadway.
Artists were challenged to submit proposals for installations that would reflect the spirit of Capitol Hill, keep the streetscape active and engage the public as they traveled through the two-block stretch of Broadway both during the day and at night.
The result was "STart on Broadway," curated by Christian French, which helped to maintain the two-block stretch of Broadway as a destination point for the neighborhood and Seattle at large.
Special thanks to Carl Smool for his guidance in the planning stages and for kicking off the installations, and to Marc Lawrence of Argon, Inc for signage.
View Google map of installation area>>>
About the Installations
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John Berry - Exterior of Twice Sold Tales, and exterior wall facing Jack-in-the-Box EYE CAN DEED ~ ICON DUDE Berry utilizes balance, proportion and repetition to create stencil patterns that adorn the exterior wall of the Everyday Music building. |
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Ben Thompson - Twice Sold Tales GRAPESTEM A stainless steel representative of a bundle of grapes nearly consumed, Thompson's sculpture highlights the beauty of nature's seemingly random patterns and shapes. |
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Chris Dacre - Chamber of Commerce/KT Imports WAR IS FUN Why are wars fought? Who wins them? Do they solve anything or serve any real purpose? Chris Dacre's installation inspires strangers on the street to engage in a dialog of the nature and meaning of war and what role they have in modern civilization.
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Evan Blackwell - Perfect Copy INFLATE The next chapter in Blackwell's installation "Life Cycle," in which a series of suspended decommissioned meteorological balloons repeatedly demonstrated their own life cycle as they slowly inflated and deflated over time.
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Jennifer Carroll - Ace Barber SKY DANCE "Sky Dance" celebrates 40 years of collaboration between Jennifer Carroll and Steve Walker. Ballet costumes and shoes dance about the space of the former Ace Barber shop on a cheerfully sunny stage. Jennifer and Steve dedicate this installation to their daughters, Leila and Alisa Walker. |
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Mark O'Connell - Welcome Nails WELCOME O'Connell dissects a 2D painting and prints the layers on fabric. Once lit at night, this abstract painting comes into focus as the layers blend together.
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Kuros Zahedi - Breezeway between Welcome Nails and Hour Eyes NEW CONSCIOUSNESS BORN THROUGH THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF THE EARTH Zahedi's artwork utilizes reclaimed street garbage and recycled doors to create a work of art that transforms waste into an example of what can be accomplished through adopting a sustainable approach to our daily acts and interactions.
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Susan Phillipsen & Tyler Potts - Hour Eyes LINK LIGHT LOOP Phillipsen and Potts utilize a bank of television screens to create a study of movement in the landscape.
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Christian French - India Imports DOCTRINE OF THE VOID This multimedia exhibit marries western symbols of accomplishment with the eastern doctrines of Zen Buddhism, examining what it means to acheive intellectual and spiritual understanding, and how that attainment is measured. |
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Kelly Lyles - Piroshky FUR-NITURE The former Piroshky Restaurant is transformed into a fur-covered living space, including a couch, TV and original paintings. Included among the artwork is a green shag painting titled "St. Paul's Cathedral" by Rebecca DeVere.
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Julia Wharton - Breezeway between buildings Flanked by the buildings housing the former Piroshky and Tobacconist shops, Julia Wharton's glowing octopus adds light and whimsy to an unexpected space.
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Tomiko Jones - The Tobacconist Engaging audiences with sight, sound and movement, this multimedia installation studies transformation, a process that can be seen happening throughout the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
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Tim Marsden - Makeovers WHEN THE REVOLUTION COMES... Marsden uses a collection of 2- and 3-dimensional objects to create a tableux that plays with the theme of revolt, poking fun at both the forces of progress and resistence to change.
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Jodi Rockwell & Toi Sennhauser - Body Jewelry Plus (north) TRANSPULSE A drift of flour creates a blanket of snow upon a collection of branches creating a spontaneous winter scene.
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Maia Brown - Body Jewelry Plus (south) BEFORE WE MET Brown's project grew out of a collaboration with the counselors and children of Seattle's Middle East Peace Camp, a grassroots coalition of the Arab and Jewish communities. MEPC seeks to create a space where children of both backgrounds can come together to learn about each other's cultures in order to build friendships, understanding and compassion. In the installation, a wall is broken down to give way to a collection of hamzas with family stories and memories from the MEPC project. |
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Kristen Ramirez - Everyday Music A collection of posters advertising homes and amenities to be found on "millionaire's row," Ramirez' artwork speaks to the history and place of Capitol Hill. The posters serve as a reminder of how the neighborhood was built, and of the changes that are to come.
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Rob Zverina - Everyday Music & Jack-in-the-Box parking lot TRASH CYCLE-OWN (Everyday Music) A cyclone of garbage swirls inside of a large, brown garbage bin. Originally created for the RE Store's 6th Annual Recycled Art Show, Cycle-Own its symphonic clashing of garbage invites viewers to rethink the waste humans create and the new life it can take on through recycling. You can watch Trash Cycle-Own in action at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsFe_X7qmaA
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FLATTENED CAN SPIRAL (parking lot) Over 1,200 car-flattened cans, collected by the artist over the last three years, are arranged into a spiral in the parking lot of the former Jack-in-the Box. This is the 6th incarnation of this ever-growing installation, the first occurring in 2005 with a mere 163 cans. See a time lapse video of installation #4 at www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRC-giQXbJY.
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Friends of the Nib - Jack-in-the-Box (Aug - Sept) A collection of artwork by cartoonist group Friends of the Nib lined the windows of the Jack-in-the-Box building. Nib members include Jim Woodring, Bob Rini, Tom Dougherty, David Lasky, Mark Campos, Dalton Webb, Scott Faulkner and Ellen Forney.
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Gretchen Bennett - Jack-in-the-Box (Sept - Oct) Bennett embellishes the former restaurant with a series of large format paper stickers depicting imagery that studies the origins of the rock band Nirvana, its members and the landcape in which they were formed.
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Webster Crowell - Cafe Vivace PARASOL Over 100 paper parasols printed with one frame of imagery made up a short film of the same name. The parasols, in static form, fill the windows of the former Cafe Vivace, creating a soft, elegant curtain.
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Robin Stein & Perrin Teal Sullivan - US Bank (south) REMAINS OF HILLS A collage of 3D images put the construction of Link light rail in the context of its historical precedent: the foresight and efforts of past generations and the projects that were undertaken to create the infrastructure of this city. Stein and Sullivan use historic imagery to create a composition that brings public works projects into one unified landscape that amplifies the effort and vision of each awesome engineering feat.
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Jason Puccinelli - T&T Hair Salon Using a process called anamorphosis, Puccinelli breaks apart an image into many layers that are suspended thoughout the space of the former hair salon. Only by viewing from one magic vantage point does the full image, a portrait of the artist's father, come into full focus.
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Joanna Lepore - Ace Cash Express RECLAIM (ACE) What would happen if we abandoned Seattle? If Broadway and its storefronts were left to the mercy of nature? How would these structures decompose? What kinds of plants would thrive there, and how would they grow? Most importantly, without humans around, what would these places look like? "Reclaim (Ace Cash Express)" gives Seattle a glimpse into this alternate future. |
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Monika Proffitt - State Farm GARDEN OF LIGHT Hand-blown glass, coffee filters, fibre optics and LED lights create a atmospheric space of pulsing light in the former State Farm branch. The garden pulses and glows, responding to pedestrian traffic, reflecting the liveliness of the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
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Cameron Anne Mason - Nini's Nails SEEN/UNSEEN Hand-painted draped fabric depict a world in which crows occupy Nini's nail salon and claim it as their own. The republic of crows, ubiquitous yet unseen, animates the changing urban landscape.
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Ingrid Lahti - Mongolian Grill 2001-2008 In this continuing series, 2001-2008, Lahti creates messages in neon, a material more commonly used in commercial signage. Through use of font, color, and language the signs express contradictions, tensions and conflicting impulses in our culture. The short messages, for example, PLEASE LIE in white neon, attract and repel at the same time. |
Comments?
For comments about this STart project, please contact:
Jennifer Babuca
Public Art Program Coordinator
(206) 398-5120
jennifer.babuca@soundtransit.org
