Belltown Bent

A glimpse of the future

On this blue-sky autumn evening, graced with high cirrus clouds and the likelihood of a colorful sunset, most of Seattle Cloud Cover, by Teresita Fernandez, is still obscured by safety nets and other construction materials, offering just a glimpse of what her vibrant vision will add to Belltown's shoreline skyline.

When fully revealed, some 3,000 square feet of multi-hued, photographically treated laminated glass, spanning 200 feet, will bridge railroad tracks, connect precincts of the Olympic Sculpture Park, and alter the perception of space of those who approach and through her work.

As a sculptor, Teresita pushes the boundaries of installation art into the realm of architecture and landscape, incorporating optical effects to alter color and light in the spaces she fills. In September of 2005 she received a call, out of the blue, informing her she had been named a MacArthur Fellow, affording her the "unfettered opportunity to explore, create, and contribute," through the rest of this decade.

In the not-too-distant future, we will have the opportunity to walk through this space created by her imagination, reconsider our perceptions of the surroundings, and contemplate what might come next.

Works and exhibits: Bamboo Cinema | Fire | Immersion | Borrowed Landscape

The fabric of music and life

Dobet Ghanoré sings to the politicians of Côte d'Ivoire. Songs heard on the world's stage sometimes command more attention than the voices of the governed. She sings, with a social conscience, about family and roots, and prays for an end to war, a cure for the AIDS pandemic, and for the orphans both leave in the street.

Her music is woven, like fabric, from the languages and styles of her pan-African culture -  lyrics in Bété, Fon, Baoulé, Lingala, Malinké and French - and the music of Manding melodies, Congolese rumba, Ivorian Ziglibiti, Cameroon Bikutsi, Ghanaian High-Life and Zulu choirs.

"Atho"

Dobet made her North American debut at Seattle's Jazz Alley, along with Mali's Habib Koite, as they launched the U.S. leg of Putumayo's Acoustic Africa Tour. The tour will visit 40 cities, joined by Vusi Mahlasela of South Africa. All three artists are social activists successfully drawing attention to Africa's challenging social issues with their music.

The tour is also introducing audiences to Oxfam America, an organization committed to creating lasting solutions to global poverty, hunger, and social injustice. One immediate opportunity to contribute to their effort is to support the passage of H.R. 6142, currently in the House Ways and Means Committee. The bill will amend the African Growth and Opportunity Act and extend a provision allowing sub-Saharan African countries  to export clothing to the U.S. made from third-country fabric. Their emerging clothing industry provides nearly 300,000 workers, mainly women, with jobs that put food on the table, send children to school, and pay for health care.

Sometimes our politicians listen to us, even if we don't lift our voices in song. Contact your Representatives and ask them to support H.R. 6142. Seattle's 7th District Representative, Jim McDermott, is on the Ways and Means Committee, and can be contacted here.

Images: Dobet at Jazz Alley - Oct 2006 | Habib at Jazz Alley - Jan 2004 |
More: Dobet's debut CD Ano Neko | Dobet and husband Colin Laroche de Feline performing Mindile (Quicktime) - Paris, Oct 2004 | Dobet's Bio @ Contre Jour Records

The Eagle has assembled

Sure, the headline is not likely to live on in memory like Neil Armstrong's famous line when the Apollo 11 Eagle landed on the moon in 1969 (listen to him - it still sends chills), but seeing the final section of Alexander Calder's Eagle lowered into place recently was a memorable sight, nonetheless.

Real eagles, as well as the afore mentioned lunar module, really fly and land (check these wonderful shots by photographer Doug Lloyd if you haven't seen any bald eagles do either lately). But monumental sculpture, like the Olympic Sculpture Park's iconic Eagle, are very carefully "flown" into place.

While the "beak" (or tail, I'm still not sure) seen dangling from a crane is reminiscent of Calder's well-known mobiles, Eagle is one of his best-know stabile pieces. Created in 1971, during the latter part of Calder's career, it was one of several works that helped define a whole new period of public sculpture. Weighing in at around 6 tons and standing over 38' tall, it was never meant to leave the ground.

But in 1972, not long after Calder created Eagle, he was approached to apply the colorful abstract ideas displayed in his mobiles in an entirely new way - by painting a DC-8. He replied, "It would be a flying mobile. I like that." The idea, and the bird, flew.

Learn more: the Braniff story | the installation | Seattle Times images by Erika Schultz

Reaching closure

Sometimes you need to close one thing to open another. You have to take something away, temporarily, to provide something better, for the future.

The walking, skating and biking path connecting Broad Street at Alaskan to Myrtle Edwards Park will close from Monday, October 2, through Friday, October 20. The closure will allow Seattle Art Museum project and construction teams to improve, and fully integrate the path into the forthcoming Olympic Sculpture Park, to provide a richer, more seamless thoroughfare along the city's northwestern edge.

The Olympic Sculpture Park will merge the Belltown/Uptown area with with over eight contiguous acres of free, landscaped, waterfront space, providing Seattle residents and visitors with vistas, and room to roam and relax. And it will be filled with world-class art.

A Seattle Department of Transportation map identifies downtown bike and pedestrian route options, although the site doesn't announce, or provide recommendations specific to, this temporary closure. There will be a one-day reopening of access on October 7th for the Seattle Hospitality Oncology Fun Run.