Art Interruptions, an annual temporary art program created by the Office of Arts & Culture in partnership with the Seattle Department of Transportation, is offering ephemeral moments of surprise in the Rainier Valley East-West Neighborhood Greenway. Seven art installations along the Greenway have been on view in New Holly, Othello, Brighton, Lakewood and Seward Park neighborhoods since September, inspiring the route with an element of the unexpected until January 2, 2017.
Seven artists designed a series of small-scale temporary artworks that are installed on city-owned street furniture and infrastructure, including signal boxes, sidewalks, and trees. Six of the selected artists participated in the 2016 Public Art Boot Camp, a free two-day intensive basic training overview offered by the Office of Arts & Culture’s Public Art Program for artists who are ready to translate their exhibition experience to the public realm.
Vikram Madan’s Mini-Murals is a menagerie of whimsical vignettes sprinkled behind Greenway street signs with the intent of enriching the pedestrian experience with unexpected elements of humor and surprise. Featured are assortments of human, animal and anthropomorphic figures, showing Madan’s love for humor, poetry and cartooning.
Melissa Koch’s art installation uses imagery inspired by butterflies as a metaphor about cultural diversity, cross pollination and the beat of life. More than 200 butterflies cascade down a tree, flutter by a nearby street sign and embellish the entry to a building on the Greenway. Jazzed celebrates the importance of the butterfly as one of earth’s pollinators and its significance as a representation of transformation.
Ulises Mariscal photographed people in the Rainier Valley neighborhood and created visual scenarios representing the Greenway and values of the community. Greatness Starts Here is a series of six stencils, created from the photographs, featuring community members that bring positivity to the pedestrians of the Greenway.
Kemba Opio created two portraits fabricated from collaged aluminum cans donated by local DRY Soda Company. The portraits feature two African-American women (one is Opio’s older sister and the other a local musician), reflecting the beauty and diversity within women and, in particular, women of color.
Talia Silveri Wright, or little talia, honors the history of Seattle transit with a transportation-themed scavenger hunt. The tiny artworks, measuring approximately 1.5”x.75”, are installed in unexpected locations along the Greenway. The sculptures are inspired from historic and current-day street cars and include buses, trains, bikes and other forms of transportation.
Gathering Existence is based on the idea of gathering everything together with a furoshiki, a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth used to transport gifts and other goods. Junko Yamamoto created an installation by wrapping a cluster of street furniture (pole, utility box, signal light and bollards) with vinyl stickers collaged with repetitive patterns and forms.
Vikram Madan’s Mini-Murals is a menagerie of whimsical vignettes sprinkled behind Greenway street signs with the intent of enriching the pedestrian experience with unexpected elements of humor and surprise. Featured are assortments of human, animal and anthropomorphic figures, showing Madan’s love for humor, poetry and cartooning.
