UNION
Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, WA
47.635460, -122.295824
2023
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Opening Event September 24, 2023, 10 am – 1 pm: Washington Park Arboretum, 2300 Arboretum Drive E, Seattle WA 98112
The opening includes docent led tours, hop-on/hop-off tram tours, food trucks (food for purchase), live music, and plant sale.
Union is comprised of 6,300 individual cast resin parts framed in laminated ceiba wood suspended from two large nets spanning 100 feet between eight trees in the middle of Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum. The upper net is 38 feet wide and the lower net is 28 feet wide.
The sculpture was inspired by a fallen western red cedar in Seattle’s Discovery Park. The top of the trunk of the fallen tree was divided into two slender leaders. Broken by the fall, both leaders revealed their concentric growth rings. Focused on the similarities and differences between each of these cross sections, Union is a magnified representation of the cell structure of each of the two leaders.
The cupped forms hanging from each net collect and then shed rainwater. When dry the two sets of forms merge together, and when wet, the two forms separate slightly due to the increased water weight collected by the sculpture.
This long-term temporary installation is open to the public daily, dawn to dusk. A map is available in the Graham Visitors Center. The welfare of birds and other animals in the park was considered carefully prior to installing the sculpture. After consultation with ornithologists and forestry academics we field-tested several prototypes under controlled conditions. Several similar installations have been installed since 2017 in Italy, the U.K. and in the U.S. and we have had no incidents or harm to birds or any other wildlife.
UNION
Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, WA
47.635460, -122.295824
2023
Opening Event September 24, 2023, 10 am – 1 pm: Washington Park Arboretum, 2300 Arboretum Drive E, Seattle WA 98112
The opening includes docent led tours, hop-on/hop-off tram tours, food trucks (food for purchase), live music, and plant sale.
Union is comprised of 6,300 individual cast resin parts framed in laminated ceiba wood suspended from two large nets spanning 100 feet between eight trees in the middle of Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum. The upper net is 38 feet wide and the lower net is 28 feet wide.
The sculpture was inspired by a fallen western red cedar in Seattle’s Discovery Park. The top of the trunk of the fallen tree was divided into two slender leaders. Broken by the fall, both leaders revealed their concentric growth rings. Focused on the similarities and differences between each of these cross sections, Union is a magnified representation of the cell structure of each of the two leaders.
The cupped forms hanging from each net collect and then shed rainwater. When dry the two sets of forms merge together, and when wet, the two forms separate slightly due to the increased water weight collected by the sculpture.
This long-term temporary installation is open to the public daily, dawn to dusk. A map is available in the Graham Visitors Center. The welfare of birds and other animals in the park was considered carefully prior to installing the sculpture. After consultation with ornithologists and forestry academics we field-tested several prototypes under controlled conditions. Several similar installations have been installed since 2017 in Italy, the U.K. and in the U.S. and we have had no incidents or harm to birds or any other wildlife.