by Kirby Lindsay, posted 6 January 2015
The eleventh installment of the Fremocentrist.com inventory of Fremont’s public art is an attempt to catch us up with recent additions to the extensive, and ever growing, collection. Although our count of Fremont’s public art pieces is incomplete count, installations continue to be added, including:
Interactive Stone34 Flowers
Installed: June 2014 Artist: Casey Curran At Stone34, a Seattle Deep Green building constructed to higher standards of energy and water consumption than ever achieved before, this sculpture interacts with the power grid. The 7-foot by 8-foot metallic depiction of plant life slowly shifts when energy use in the building is high, to make the flowers wilt, yet when energy use minimums are met, the flowers blossom. The piece highlights efforts by the developer, Skanska, to create the most efficient commercial office building in the country.
Location: Inside the lobby of the Stone34 Building, at 3400 Stone Way N
Signal Box Art – Six By Martz
Installed: Winter 2013/14 Artist: Kyler Martz, in cooperation with Urban ArtWorks These pieces started with Kathleen Warren, approaching representatives of the Fremont community about a program, developed by Urban ArtWorks, to decorate City of Seattle signal boxes. Matt Gasparich, with the Fremont Neighborhood Council and donations he collected elsewhere, funded first to have three and then, finally, five boxes painted. The B.F. Day School P.T.S.A. then funded painting of another box, an infamous target of often-foul graffiti, that stands by the entry stairs to the school playground. Urban ArtWorks offered the commission to Martz, who has since designed the 2014 poster for the Fremont Fair, and had his original works displayed at Fremont First Friday Art Walk venues.
Locations: At NW corner of N 39th Street & Fremont Avenue N, at NW corner of N 36th Street & Fremont Avenue N, at SW corner of N 35th Street & Fremont Avenue N, at NE corner of N 36th Street & Phinney Avenue N, at W side of the Aurora Bridge, at N 46th Street southbound entrance ramp, and at B.F. Day Elementary School at 40th Street on Fremont Avenue
The Fremont Cat – ‘Nine Lives’
Installed: November 2013 Artist: Peter Reiquam This 19-foot long, plate aluminum sculpture depicts the ‘Eveready Cat’ ready to spring into action at Fire Station #9. The cat has long been the mascot of the Fremont fire station, although it is a trademarked and copyrighted two-dimensional cartoon image belonging to the Eveready Battery & Lighting Company.
Reiquam, after speaking with members of Station 9, determined how important the image has become to our 100+ year old station, and he decided to create the sculpture – once he acquired formal permission for the three-dimensional representation. While he named the piece ‘Nine Lives’, he looks forward to this art being adopted by our community and becoming ‘The Fremont Cat.’
Location: Leaping off the roof of Fire Station 9, at 3829 Linden Ave N
Saturn
Installed: September 2013 Artist: Brian Regan, and fabricated by B & B Aircraft Inspired by a space theme, Regan took a year to design, have built and fully permit this large sculpture. The piece sits at the edge of the roof of the building – also called Saturn – and its placement requires Regan to pay an annual fee, as the owner of the office building he also built. The sculpture, which Regan doesn’t consider art, (“God designed it, I just copied it,” he is quoted as saying,) draws attention to his building, and he also installed solar panels on the ring that could create 2,800 – 3,000 watts of energy, enough to power lights in parts of the building.
Location: On the roof of the Saturn Building, at 3417 Evanston Ave N
‘Invasion Of The FoundFacians’
Installed: 2013 Artists: Jo Braun and Kate Jessup This mosaic mural incorporates hardware ‘found faces’ into a landscape of 9 feet by 10 feet. Saturn Building developer Brian Regan agreed to Braun’s proposal to create an artwork for the niche in the north-facing wall. With Jessup’s collaboration, the two artists sketched the design in place on six Wedi board panels, which were then removed, fabricated in Braun’s studio, transferred back to the site, and installed.
Location: On north wall of the Saturn Building, at 3417 Evanston Ave N
Fremont continues to build upon its collection of art, without any apparent effort to slow or curate the pieces added. Yet, among the pieces added in a one-year period, the diversity of modality and themes might not have been achieved if attempted deliberately. After all, of the five installations, four were selected by three different developers, with the fifth one influenced by three non-profit organizations. Art in Fremont comes from sources both careful and capricious, and each installation adds to a collection that defies my abilities to categorize it.
I hope you enjoy at least some of it!
Related Articles
- UrbanArtWorks Converts A Signal Box Into An Art Canvas
- by Kirby Lindsay, June 20, 2012
- Brian Regan’s Contributions To Fremont Public Art
- by Kirby Lindsay, September 25, 2013
- Peter Reiquam Creates ‘Nine Lives’ For Station #9
- by Kirby Lindsay, August 2, 2013
Past Inventory Columns
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part X
- by Kirby Lindsay, September 5, 2014
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part IX: Practical Pieces
- by Kirby Lindsay, May 7, 2014
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part VIII: Tiles & Mosaics
- by Kirby Lindsay, May 10, 2013
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part VII: On The Hunt
- by Kirby Lindsay, February 20, 2012
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part VI: The Big Ones
- by Kirby Lindsay, January 13, 2012
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part V: Murals
- by Kirby Lindsay, September 9, 2011
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part IV: At The Center
- by Kirby Lindsay, March 23, 2011
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part III: Evanston
- by Kirby Lindsay, January 21, 2011
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part II: Epi
- by Kirby Lindsay, December 27, 2010
- Fremont Public Art Inventory, Part I
- by Kirby Lindsay, October 15, 2010
©2015 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.