Public Art Consultant Annual Review.
This documentation is an example only.

Project: The Rainier Beach Library, South Seattle SAC/SPL. 2001-2002

REPORT Presented at PEER REVIEW PANEL
of Public Art professionals, March 18 2002.

Introduction:

My approach to public art is to foster community through artwork that questions, creates dialogue and triggers associations with the site - its historic, current and future uses. I work to integrate appropriate imagery and conceptual concerns, together with meeting the practical parameters of the architecture and site. 


Public Art (Budget $24,000 incl.taxes + Artist's Fee of $7,000) for the Rainier Beach branch; to increase the visibility, civic pride and cultural identity and awareness for the entranceway of the library expansion. 

A Design Team collaboration between Streeter & Associates Architects, Nakano Associates, interior space designer, landscape architect and myself. As a public artist, I arrived at a unified contextual theme based on knowledge of diverse cultures and the natural environment that constitutes the Rainier Beach community. 

Rainier Beach has a historical connection to the land as it was a farming valley that soon looked to its natural cove beach for recreation and pleasure. Originally named "Atlantic City Park", for many years it was a traditional swimming beach and amusement center for the community. Today, Rainier Beach has a boat marina harbor fronting on Beersheva Park, which is maintained and improved by the community through the Department of Neighborhoods Grant Program. 

The future vision, expressed in the 2014 Rainier Beach Neighborhood Plan, describes a revitalized Central Business District adjacent to the library, named Beach Square. Hence, the artwork will support the underlying waterfront theme concept in the Neighborhood Plan.


Conceptual Approach:

Three themes, distilled as important to this site, as developed through two neighborhood focus groups, community networking, interviews and personal research over a ten-month period:


1) Immigration theme:

- Rainier Beach has had a history of various waves of immigration over the past century. - Today's immigrants have a well-developed sense of dual identity. 
- Residents have retained their native language and customs, over and above a common desire for assimilation. 
- Rainier Beach residents might come from either end of the spectrum: economically disadvantaged persons with few educational and lifestyle choices, or residents who favor the American urban, multi-cultural village and who take advantage of the opportunities of global travel.
 
The Artwork needs to 

a) provide image to the various cultural traditions within the broader community.
b) help address tolerance and dialogue rather than resurgent nativism, especially in a more competitive regional and global economic climate.
c) provide a context and container for these issues.


2) Communications theme:

- Today's library is a center for convenient and easy access to multi-media, the web, email and electronic databases. 
- Digital communication can be seen as a universal language system in which we all share, across all cultures. 
- The advances in communication through the ages may be seen as a vehicle for the development of cross-cultural understanding and systems of knowledge.


3) Wave Imagery theme:

- The imagery of waves illustrates the three major concepts for the Public Art, immigration, communication and recreation.
1. Waves of immigration and the early passages made to America by boat.
2. Waves of electronic communication that underlie our daily human dialogue through digital means.
3. Waves of the Rainier Beach shore on Lake Washington, only a stroll away from the CBD of Beach Square.

How the ARTWORK will be realized:
(an edited version of the presentation)

My concept design proposed artwork is 'in dialogue' with the wave pattern represented in the proposed entryway 'hardscape' paving (Nakano and Assoc.) and which act to direct a patron's arrival to the library entry from the re-developed plaza below, adjacent to Rainier Avenue South. The art will guide one to the library destination: a storehouse of knowledge and treasure trove of resources! 

Proposed Ceramic Wall Relief for the exterior wall of the Community Meeting Room, facing Rainier Avenue South. 

In Design Team Consultation meetings it has been determined that artwork on this wall should be of a scale that engages both pedestrians and vehicular traffic in signifying 'LIBRARY' and marking its new contextual theme identity.

- The tidal-pool wave patterns of the wall relief will rise as a vertical rendition of the shoreline of the entrance plaza paving surface. (Please see site plan)
- The imagery will be both detailed for appreciation at an intimate distance, and bold enough to create a striking pattern from afar.
- It will integrate with, break up and segment the brick veneer cladding the wall. 
- It will variably both respect and intersect the rectangular panels created by the darker colored brick reveals, creating a dynamic with the geometry of the building statement.
- It will be created from durable fired ceramic or a stone resin product and be of an off-white, natural color, selected to both contrast and complement the rich red brick.
- The artwork will have sufficient depth in its relief for visual readability and sculptural quality, yet insufficient to provide an outdoor climbing surface or footholds for youth or vandals.


IMAGERY Detailing:

The relief on the Artwork Wall will make reference to culture, communication and the waterfront. 

1. "Tidal Pool" Culture
- Small objects will be gathered during sensitive conversations with community members from different cultural groups -- both general and prized cultural, historic or personal possessions (rather than typical tourist objects). They will be individually cast and returned. 
- Imagery about identity may also include references to mapping or geography, to add depth and interest.
2. "Tidal Pool" Language
-Characters from certain languages (ten or more language groups make up Rainier Beach residents) as well as computer coding and futuristic digital languages will also be created, cast and will intermingle with the other images, forms and objects. 
- Artifacts about communication, body language or gestures, and hearing-listening may be represented. 
3. General
- The above objects will be arranged into the larger wall relief of tidal pools and swirls, and placed with concern for balance, proportion and form. Separate "subject matter themes" will be captured within the different "tidal pools". 
- Shells or textile patterning will represent the underlying interconnectedness theme. 
- Natural rock formations and sinuous sea creatures will intermingle with the rest of the art imagery.