Matts Photo Journal

By photomatt

Father and Son, Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle

Father and Son is a fountain installed where the sculpture park meets Myrtle Edwards Park. The sculpture includes models of a nude father and son reaching for each other but the other is obscured by the water. The artist explains that the nudity and obscurity represent vulnerability and the way male familial relationships deteriorate. Each figure will be obscured by water gushing over their surface as Louise Bourgeois described the work in her proposal. The volumes of water will be on a timer to mark the 24 hours of the day, accompanied by the ringing of a bell. On the hour, the water will be lowered to reveal the son. At the next hour when the bell rings, the water will rise hiding the son, while the other mound of water will descend to reveal the father. The figures when revealed will seem to float in the air above the water.
The piece was commissioned as an estate gift after the death of Stu Smailes, an executive of Safeco. Smailes specified a million dollars to the city of Seattle on the condition that it would purchase public art including realistic, life size, and nude male figures. The city gave the money to the Seattle Art Museum, which commissioned this piece.
The fountain has been victim of a prank common to water fountains, dish soap, which creates very large amounts of bubbles. This sculpture is particularly vulnerable to corrosion from this because the detergents in the soap react with the metal in the sculptures.[7] - Above taken from Wikopedia.

At the time of posting (4:53 PM PDT), I am pretty wiped. Left the house at 3:50 AM EDT (12:50 PDT) and arrived in Seattle at 10:30 PDT (1:30 PDT). We are going to force ourselves to stay up late so we can quickly get on track with the time zone difference. Hope you all are well and thanks for stopping by...

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.