If you spent any time at the new Waterfront Park this summer, you know: It’s packed with people. Which is a good thing, not merely because the city spent 15 years and just over $800 million on the project. Waterfront Seattle reports that the shoreline stretch from Pioneer Square to Belltown now contains “the largest collection of public projects in Seattle since the 1962 World’s Fair.”
That includes a couple of brand-new art installations, one of which features giant puppets hanging out in a parking lot. This newly completed work, Guests, was created by world-renowned artist Ann Hamilton. You may have seen Hamilton’s other Seattle installation and not known it; the Columbus, Ohio-based artist also created the carved-maple floor on the first level of the Downtown Library in 2004. There, textured text replicates the first lines of books.
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In Guests, there is no text, just 42 enormous puppets sporting multicolored Spinnaker sheaths. These “gentle giants” are suspended, marionette-style, from cross-braces in a tall, cavelike void next to the Pike Place Market Parking Garage and under the Overlook Walk. A perforated black screen along Alaskan Way largely obscures the haunting visitors from the streetside during the day, though ovoid peepholes offer a peek.
The figures, whose curious cubist heads were individually carved by Hamilton and her team, gently drift and bob, almost as if treading water. In fact, Hamilton says the work is “inspired by the subtle rising, falling and rocking motions of a buoy at sea.”
Having eagerly awaited this installation for years, I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed on first look. That’s because during the daytime it is hard to see unless you’re inside the parking lot. But when I returned at night, I got it — that’s when, as the city says, “a nocturnal puppet theater emerges” (if you’re into that sort of thing).
During my night visit, I happened to bump into Ruri Yampolsky, the City of Seattle’s Waterfront Program Art Manager. I asked her about the disparity between daytime and nighttime viewing, and she noted that her team had discussed this conundrum but then realized “It’s going to start getting dark around 4 p.m. soon.” Too soon, Ruri, too soon!
But after seeing the puppets at night — resembling a long stained-glass window from afar — my current stance is pro-puppets.
And even more new figures have arrived at the Seattle waterfront, in the form of Family, a three-part sculpture that was installed just last night. Created by Puyallup artist Qwalsius Shaun Peterson, the towering carved-wood piece features three figures — designated as mother, father and child.
The new Family stands about 10 - 12 feet tall, not including the three-foot-tall concrete bases. The idea is to welcome visitors to the homeland of the Coast Salish people, and to honor the Indigenous presence here, past, current and future.
I was nearby (doing my night-puppet investigation) when the figures arrived, laid out on a flatbed truck, and was able to see the Family beginning to move into their new home across from Pier 58. Yampolsky says they aren’t quite ready for prime time, with decorative metal elements coming soon to the bases. But they’ve taken their places just in time for the Waterfront’s Grand Opening Celebration this weekend (Sept. 6, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.).
If it seems like we’ve had quite a few celebrations for the new Seattle Waterfront, you’re right. The city has thrown a series of public events over the project’s 15 years, starting with the Alaskan Way Viaduct’s farewell walk and proceeding through variously completed steps, from the Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion to the Overlook Walk to recent rejoicing in the jellyfish-shaped Pier 58 play structure.
But much like documents titled “final Final FINAL.doc,” this weekend’s celebration surpasses all others. The lineup is mighty, far too long to list here, and will take place across all sections of the Waterfront. See Double Dutch Divas and Seattle Kokon Taiko at the Salish Steps, or bands including La Fonda, The Black Tones, and Reposado at Pier 62. At Pier 58, you’ll find Bailadores de Bronce, K-Pop and break-dance with Massive Monkees. Along the promenade, there’ll be music by the D’Vonne Lewis Trio and dance by Northwest Tap Connection.
And that’s just halfway down the website’s scroll bar. In short, I won’t promise that it’s the “final FINAL!!” Waterfront opening celebration, but it’s certainly the biggest one so far.
This past April, I made the scenic drive to Omak with the Art by Northwest film crew to meet longtime artist Joe Feddersen at his home studio on the Colville Reservation. As soon as we entered the door, Feddersen joked, “I turned a four-bedroom house into a one-bedroom with three studios.”
It was true. The living areas were stacked with art books and his artworks (both finished and in progress): waxed-linen woven baskets, collaged prints, ceramic figures and glass art. He’d turned his basement into a fused-glass studio with two kilns (plus stacks of VHS movies to pass the time during the tedious parts of artmaking). He constructed an outbuilding to house a printing press. Feddersen even replaced the windowpanes of the front door with his own glass art, including his signature glyphs of a coyote and parking lot.
Those two images in particular speak to the longtime artist’s insight and approach. A member of the Colville Confederated Tribes (Okanagan and Arrow Lakes), Feddersen uses Native lore and his own sly humor to tell stories about the local landscape past and present.
His version of “landscape art” is abstract and layered, referencing everything from petroglyphs to the graphic design in Plateau Native weaving traditions to tire tracks and traffic. His point: The timeline of Indigenous art is eons old and immediate.
One of many things that struck me during our visit was Feddersen’s generosity as an artist. He consistently credited the artists and mentors who have influenced him over his 45-year career, and emphasized his commitment to fostering the creative community in Omak.
“It’s multigenerational,” he said of the latter. “It has elders like me, and it has young people, and that dialogue is extremely wonderful and enriching for our culture.”
And when he welcomed our crew into his basement studio, we all came back upstairs with glass pendants he had made for us.
You can learn more about Feddersen and his powerful body of work in Art by Northwest: Episode 4, which comes out today, as well as in my written profile, which lands online tomorrow.
Catching up on Season 2 of Art by Northwest? Check out our profiles of Orcas Island printmaker Eduardo Fausti and ceramic installation artist Io Palmer.
Looking for more regional arts coverage? Watch Art by Northwest, a new television series on Cascade PBS featuring artists from all over Washington. Season 2 episodes are releasing weekly from August 7 through October 2.
