Found under Seneca Street as viewed from Post Alley. It's a mostly concrete location, out of the rain. Cars, food, officespaces. Two heads. Although one huge head covering all the grey might have been better, they feel unresolved with the lower half of their canvas only city grey, punctuated by four industrial dots. Bodyless, virtual ; knowledge workers, telecommuters... with hundreds of real commuters flowing off the Viaduct just a few feet overhead.
All tied up and no place to go. The Hammering Man (Jonathan Borofsky, 1992, #3277164.) was stopped and restrained this last fall as part of the Seattle Art Museum's huge construction process. If you haven't been downtown, the SAM is sporting a fancy, skyscraping new appendage off its Northside: The new WaMu Tower. Fortunately for SAM, this will increase the museum's floorspace. Meanwhile, the iconic, ever-hammering Man was stopped while fences surrounded his feet (and the rest of the building) and the construction pushed on.
He really deserves the rest: "The Hammering Man's arm "hammers" four times per minute from 7 am to 10 pm every day. He rests its arm each evening and every year on Labor Day." One day off a year? 15-hour days? He's a throwback to the American capitalism of the late 1800's, or the Asian capitalism of today. A time we'd be best off only remembering. (Of course with increasing overtime and lousy vacation compensation, Americans may be slowly moving back there anyway.)
At last visit a week ago, he'd actually been disassembled in part -- dis-armed, actually -- with no date posted as to when he'll be back on the line, banging away. Probably soon though, since the skyscraper thing (described as 'flute-like' by The Stranger's art critic Jen Graves) is finished and partially occupied already.
This alley, just off Union somewhere near 15th, is one my current fave art gallery in the city. A mish-mosh of portraits, still lives, and metal dragons in a variety of styles, it's a cacophony of color, and excellent for it. Out there, in the weather, near the trashcans, brightening your day with ludic zen silliness.
I love the way the trees are a part of the whole collage effect. Blended, integrated. Although you can say that it looks thrown together or "disjointed" or something, but the art at once stands out individually and becomes a whole together. It's bits of art, and it's just wallpaper. Much of it is not very "good" in a "true art" sense, but it remains weirdly inviting, welcoming even, and asks you to look closer.. no, closer... So much to see.
Even the telephone pole gets a treatment -- chinese angel-dragons ascending to heaven perhaps. The yellow painting of the flower vase remains the visual entry point.. it catches your attention immediately, while it also blends with the fall colors beneath it, and then you see the heart.. From there your gaze moves around to other pieces and shapes, weaving haphazardly. Who needs the Seattle Art Museum when you have alleys like this?! It's fantastic.
