After enduring three and a half years of near-total deadness at the Olympic Sculpture Park, I am inordinately overjoyed (is that redundant? I AM SO INORDINATELY OVERJOYED THAT I DON’T CARE!) at what’s going down there now. The highlight is five brand-new ephemeral sculptures by contemporary artists (Jenny Heishman, Whiting Tennis, Andrew Dadson, Mungo Thomson, and Jessica Jackson Hutchins—each and every one awesome). Starting June 19, there’ll be free yoga on Saturdays, and from July 15 to September 9, a farmers market will happen every Thursday. Now that’s what outdoor sculpture can do for you. (Olympic Sculpture Park, 2901 Western Ave, www.seattleartmuseum.org/getout. 30 minutes before sunrise–30 minutes after sunset, free.)
Jen Graves (The Stranger’s former arts critic) mostly writes about things you approach with your eyeballs. But she’s also a history nerd interested in anything that needs more talking about, from male... More by Jen Graves
As a long time non fan of the sterile SAM sculpture park, I admit this is a good sign.
Are they going to let us touch any of the art? Honestly, outdoor art is meant to be touched, and even climbed. Go to any real city (Chicago, LA, NY, Philly, San Fran) and you’ll be able to walk up to and kiss any number of pieces of prominent art. Oh but this is Seattle, don’t put your dirty fingers on our outdoor art. We only want the salt water to corrode it, not your seeking, probing, experiencing people parts.
Set in spectacular scenery, Sculpture Park ignores that context and displays clownish, absurd and bizarre human perversions, sculpting the twisted sensitivities of Seattle’s elite. Don’t like the traffic? Rubbed in your face with giant traffic cones. Have a concern for the environment? Install a metal tree, a giant land-scraping ‘plow’ mistitled ‘wave’. The only bit of nature in the park, a small grove of trees surrounds a giant metal turd, reverence for nature shat. Care about the economy and jobs? Install an orange ‘shipping crane’ to match those on the waterfront, also misnamed ‘eagle’ depicting American big business ‘disinterest’ in Americans. Tired and want to sit? Patio chairs in a row, orange to subconsciously relate to the shipping cranes and global trade in full view of a medieval torture device. No yoga nor health food stands will make Seattle less a demeaning psychological experiment upon humanity conducted by upper class douchebags.