Sunday, August 19, 2007

Seattle Colors

My second piece for exhibition in the upcoming group show at Seattle's Center on Contemporary Art is "Seattle Colors."
Seattle Colors
Wood, Glass, Northwest Native Berries
9" x 7" x 2"
2007
"Seattle Colors" is a reflection of some of the social and political tendencies found among Seattle's human residents. The berries were collected all within Seattle's municipal boundaries, and often were located an arm's length from bus shelters I frequent. Berries are from left to right: hawthorn, mountain ash, snowberry, red alder, oregon grape and salal.

The piece will not retain its color unless the perishable material is periodically replenished. Such interaction with the piece reminds me that peace and tolerance are not static sentiments, and that different components can arrive at the same outcome. (Different berries are available at different times of the year.)

Two common uses of rainbow symbolism and the motivation for this assemblage are the Pride and Pace (peace) flags. A third use of the rainbow flag, by the worldwide co-operative movement, also finds friends in Seattle.

My other pieces are viewable at Nature, Reordered.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

how can you have a legit berry collection without the ubiquitous blackberry?

thomas robey said...

Himalayan blackberry is an alien species. Not that I am opposed to immigration... For this project, I chose to use natural natives.

Also, blackberries failed the mold test. These six will last on display for a month in a sealed container.

Anonymous said...

excellent. the high point of summer visits to rain-land is the hood canal oysters and blackberry pie. both invasive species so one can be an eco-warrior at the same time. schweet.

Anonymous said...

hey, this is great art! i'm a seattle native, so it's nice to see someone incorporating berries into their design.
p.s. when my grandpa from iowa visited, he insisted on digging up a blackberry bush in our backyard, to bring back to iowa with him (it didn't make it through a winter). we kept telling him that they're WEEDS in seattle, but he wouldn't listen...