'36 Views of the Sun" - D.K. Pan

D.K. Pan - My art is often an investigation into the intersections of place and memory. For the Gold Wall, the project is entitled, 36 Views of the Sun, the installation is an arrangement of 36 12-inch convex mirrors which utilize un-contracted Braille to spell out “TIME IS MEMORY”. The title is inspired by Henri Rivière's 36 Views of the Eiffel Tower (which was influenced by Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji), referencing the 36 dots (mirrors) of the Braille sentence. The mirrors are acid-etched with images referencing alchemical/elemental/planetary symbols and the raised fist design inspired by Emory Douglas.

"What's In The Hole?" - Vaughn Bell

"What’s in the hole?

Behind this wall is a big hole in the earth. We know what is going in- a new Sound Transit Station. But what is coming out? What do we imagine is under the earth we stand on? What if we found fossilized remains of unknown creatures or past civilizations? Lets awaken the public imagination, in the spirit of a young child playing in the mud. Lets imagine another world down in the hole." - Vaughn Bell

"With These Hands..." - Carina A. del Rosario

How are we able to do what we do? Who helps us? What can get in our way?

Many of us think of teachers, mentors, colleagues and our parents as being helpful. We think of self-doubt and finances as barriers. But what about the physical, material barriers? Who helps us with those? 

Custodial and maintenance workers are those who take away all the trash, compostables and recyclables, all the germs and hazardous materials that mount up each day. They remove obstacles, clearing our path so we can move forward and do what we need to do.

With these hands... is my public art installation on Sound Transit's construction walls at Brooklyn Avenue Northeast, just south of North 45th Street, the future site of Seattle's University District Light Rail Station. It pays tribute to all custodial and maintenance workers, particularly the 243 who work at the University of Washington (UW), serving 98,000 students, faculty and staff. Together, they:

clean 11.3 million square feet of floors

clean over 4,000 toilets

collect 13,073 tons of waste

recycle 8,569 tons of materials

and clear the way for 98,000 students, faculty and staff. 

The workers I feature on the posters answered the following questions:

What are some things you want other people to know about you?

Why did you become a custodian or maintenance worker?

How do you bring value to your work? What value or benefit do you see in your work?

To see the workers and their answers, please visit my website.

- Carina A. del Rosario

"OPEN TO QUESTION: Activism in Seattle's University District"

Tracing the history of neighborhood activism in the University District, this series of panels outlines the counterculture movements in and around the area. The confluence of academia, youth, and radicalism have fueled a rich tapestry of actions centered around social justice and civil rights.

"Progression Grid" - Allyce Wood

Allyce Wood's 3-panel installation was recently installed on the Gold Wall. The black and white, site-specific series acts as a mirror of the rapidly changing city. A collection of arranged abstracted lines and shapes which both reference and comment on the enveloping area.

From the artist: ‘Progression Grid’ is a graphic mural intended to explore the elements of change brought by development and the passing of time. In a reference to the city that surrounds it, abstracted images culminate to describe elements of expansion, inclusion, and evolution as brought by both cultural and natural efforts.

The three panels act as a triptych, and can be read sequentially from either direction or as a complete single image. Each panel is broken up into a grid of cells; each is painted with symbols and patterns that reference the new language of modern symbols (arrows, stone, leaves, architecture, folded fabric, etc.) Abstracted patterns describe the flow of time and the archaeological settling of material.


For more info: www.allycewood.com

"Life Cycle" - baldman watching



Seattle street artist, Baldman Watching, created an art banner that is now in residence on the southern side of the light rail construction site on NE 43rd Street, between Brooklyn and University Way aka "The Ave". From the artist - "The piece reflects the cycle of life represented through color and line density; earth growing nature and birthing human, earth and sky joining together to create life, and death - making a whole integrated cycle."

Baldman Watching also recently completed an ephemeral indoor mural in South Lake Union. Documentation of past projects can also be found here.

"U District B Side" - Emily Gussin

Installed on the NE 43rd Street gate on the eastern side of the Gold Wall in the U-District, this artwork introduces what will be, as the surrounding art grows, a collection of beautiful and unique stories.

U District B Side by Emily Gussin, 2015

Shiga in the mural, is a reference to Andy Shiga; a pacifist, a champion of freedom, minority equality, and anti-war causes. The store he started, and that still bears his name, has been a U-District fixture since the late 1950’s.

This artwork tells the history of the U-District, illustrating stories and events that helped make the neighborhood what it is today. The artist, Emily Gussin, spent time in the U-District to get a good feel for scale and researching content and context. She included historical references both in wording and imagery.  The mural’s street names refer to the old street names from the former "Brooklyn" neighborhood: Broadway is today's Brooklyn NE and Dartmouth is today's NE 43rd Street. View a map of old street names from 1893 can be found here.

Additional artworks will soon be on view at the U-District, Roosevelt, and Northgate construction sites.