First Thursday: Tigard Transit Center Max Station

Unfortunately because of several large projects being due next week, I didn't make it to First Thursday and decided to choose an art project a little easier for me to access.

This particular piece called the "Tigard Interactivator" became my focus due to the playful nature as well as this being part of a set. The first time I've ever seen this table of bronze heads was driving past the Tualatin MAX station on Boonesferry Rd. near Haggen. I did not expect it to be such a wide spread set with Interactivators not only in Tualatin and Tigard, but also in Beaverton, Wilsonville, and at the Hall/Nimbus Station.

For the Tigard Interactivator, the faces are bronze cast with I'm guessing a sort of resin or enamel over them. Some are extremely colorful while others much more plain, choosing only a patina and buffed bronze for definition. Each face has a name like "The Vegetable Head", a potato looking face, "The Blind Head", a head with a scarf tied around the eyes with a mirror attached to the back of the head, and, my personal favorite, "The Mirror of Illusion", an oval, chrome plate almost an inch thick with a small head on one side of the mirror and the small head of a terrapin on the other.

All the heads and a large train engine are set on a steel table that has twisting paths so someone who is waiting for the MAX can entertain themselves by scooting the objects from one side of the table to the other. Given that the paths look limiting at first, they are set up in such a way that a head can move into a "dead end" on the path to let another head be moved past.

The intention of this work was made very clear with an engraving. In one inch tall letters, the artist has written this message:

"This sculpture, a theater of sorts, explores human interactions fround in places where people come together, such as a train line. The cast of characters express various traits, gestures, states of mind, emotions, feelings and fantasies. You decide who goes where and what path they take. By activation you will create new scenarios between the characters. Use your imagination, trust your instincts, and have fun."

My initial reaction to this work while walking past it was the assumption that it was some sort of recreation of buildings or architecture, maybe an interpretation of the map of the transit lines. I had seen children moving the pieces around a couple of times, but it wasn't anything too interesting. A closer look makes me think that this is really a great idea. The faces are all very different with big personalities. For something made of bronze, typically drab in coloration for public art, this is a very lively piece and much preferred to standard commissioned public art in which the artist is often restrained from utilizing their full creativity.

I love that this is one part of a rather large set along the Max WES line. Even though the line is obviously connected by track, having this reoccuring art really makes the line feel unified and offers the same interest when a child goes from one playground to another, all the essentials are there, but the different placement make it interesting, new, and fun. I also like that children are considered in this. Many, many times I have seen children running around restlessly, being harped on by their parents to hold still or the children squatting off in a corner trying to entertain themselves. These Interactivators give them something to think about, something to play with, and while they can't pick up the heads, the ability to scoot them along the tracks with very minimal effort makes them very accessible. This is not to ignore the older transit rider who just needs something to do while waiting.

All in all, while at first kind of funky looking, The Interactivator series was a great investment for the cities involved on the WES line and for Trimet as a whole.

If you want to see more, here's a pdf on the project: http://trimet.org/pdfs/store/Interactivators.pdf and the Trimet Website's page on them: http://trimet.org/publicart/wespublicart.htm

Bubble Gum street Art

British artist Ben Wilson uses squished pieces of bubble gum on sidewalks as his canvases. Given our latest project involves public art and installation, I figured he would be another good example of subtle intervention art. It might not be 3D, but I feel it is definitely something to consider.

I don't think this is a repost on this blog, but my apologies if it is.

Here are some links:
A Flickr gallery.
A brief article from the Huffington Post
BBC mini documentary

Early Native American Ceremonial Art

Often times art is overlooked when discussing topics like ancient civilizations. Indeed the frustrations are further aggravated when the particular subject of Art History arrives. In any global art history survey book available at ordinairy book shops, the "global" or "world" aspect of that art stems only to "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Hokusai, a painting by the Mexican artist Frida, and, if you're lucky, a small mention of Hiroshige when comparing Van Gogh's replications to the original Japanese wood block print.

This tendency to overlook one culture by a more prominent one causes great frustration for funding and for determining what an extinct culture may have looked like. Such is the case for this artifact from the Jagetagatejudi (pronounced já-gĕ ta-gá-tĕ jú̆-dĭ) tribe of Utah.

Little is known about the Jagetagatejudi Tribe except they arrived approximately 200 hundred years after the arrival of the Apache and Navajo tribes in the midwest in 1400 CE. By the time Jagetagatejudi arrived in Utah, the Navajo tribe had already well established their nation and their land.

Jagetagatejudi differed from their tribal cousins in they were much smaller and more peaceful, focusing on harmony with nature and their neighbors than worrying about expanding their lands and war. In fact, to date, no weaponry of the Jagetagatejudi tribe has been found other than sharpened skinning rocks and antelope traps (Jagetagatejudi being a name given by the Navajo tribe meaning "antelope". Little documentation of Jagetagatejudi language exists today so it is uncertain how they would have referred to themselves).

Given the little artifacts that exists today, this celestial, ceremonial sculpture was truly a remarkable find. It was found surprisingly close to Navajo ruins in the National Parks in Southern Utah. Please note that the intern pictures is actually holding the artifact upside down.

The thick pink slabs are thought to be representations of a thick cake made out of corn and suit made of rendered antelope fat and blood, hence the pink coloration. In order to duplicate this, the cakes were crudely duplicated through chiseling away chunks of pink Jurassic sandstone almost exclusive to Utah and the midwest. Some art historians speculate that there once was writing on the sides of these slabs, but since they have deteriorated greatly due to long term exposure to wind, it is unclear whether or not their was any particular pictographs or lettering.

The strange, grey worm-like creatures seemingly crawling along the slabs are made of the same material as the grey patty inside the sandstone. This grey matter is crushed sunflower seed and ash of the yucca tree, specifically rinds of the fruit of the yucca tree.

While it is hard to determine how many other layers there are within this ceremonial sculpture, three layers have been confirmed to be of antelope hide, dried meat, and pounded leaves of the Yucca tree.

Given the strange nature of this sandwich-like sculpture, what meaning can we determine from this? It is clear thanks to the location where this was found and what little we know of the Jagetagatejudi tribe (mainly through oral Navajo tradition), that there was great respect particularly for the sunset and sunrise. It is thought that the pieces of sandstone are to represent the harmony of the pink earth and pink sunsent, a unity of earth and sky, the ethereal and the mortal. The interior, being flattened and pounded by the vast nature of both earth and sky, are to represent a sort of natural hierarchy, antelope hide (typical material for Jagetagatejudi dress), antelope meat, and yucca. The large paddy of yucca ash and seeds are thought to represent the silhouettes of the mountains of Utah.

The "worms" crawling about the "sandwich" are actually representations of the arches of the Utah's great landscape. If depicted upside down, they are seen as gateways to the spiritual world.

From this brutish and fascinating piece we can both affirm theories on belief and learn about the Jagetagatejudi Tribe's religious practices. It is clear now that the natural beliefs of the tribe particularly emphasize the union between Mortal and Divine envisioned through the sunset and sunrise. This is truly a remarkable piece.

The Quizmaster Award

My award was a golden statuette of a question mark head figure holding a microphone and a sheet of paper. The award went to my friend Jordan for best Trivia Night MC at Hamburger Mary's for the past two weeks.

He accepted it with grace and was delighted that not only did it spin, it was slightly askew.

The tilted nature of the award was not intentional, but oh well.

It's made of a floral wire armature with Sculpey and fancy gold spraypaint. The base is wooden.

-Emily Codino