• Welcome
    • About Landscapology
    • About Amalie
    • Speaking and Writing
    • Thumbs Up
  • Projects
  • News
  • Get In Touch
Menu

Landscapology | landscape architecture

The Basement, 'Craigston', 217 Wickham Terrace
Spring Hill Q 4000
+61 (0)416 185 590
design to connect people, landscapes, and life outside

Your Custom Text Here

Landscapology | landscape architecture

  • Welcome
  • About
    • About Landscapology
    • About Amalie
    • Speaking and Writing
    • Thumbs Up
  • Projects
  • News
  • Get In Touch

S is for Sculpture

September 13, 2015 Amalie Wright
Typographic design by Nicole Arnett Phillips.

Typographic design by Nicole Arnett Phillips.

When it comes to garden sculpture, the battle lines are clearly drawn: you’re either Team Plastic Flamingo or Team Tyre Swan.

I know, I know, touchy subject, isn’t it.

Or maybe you have a beloved who fashions sculptures out of treasures bought home from the tip?

(I went to a party recently where – impressively - the host and birthday boy had created his own enormous roasting spit out of a hulking old hills hoist, creating something that was not just sculptural, but useful!)

The king of the contemporary metal sculpture has got to be Richard Serra, although to the best of my knowledge you can’t cook a meat feast on a single one of his works. 

Serra’s work is no less powerful for this lack of multifunctionality: I still remember the thrill of experiencing his incredible Te Tuhirangi Contour at Gibbs Farm outside Auckland.

Also a dab hand with the oxyacetylene was Alexander Calder, whose Butterfly is the centerpiece of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Sculpture Garden.

Heroic works by Calder and Serra also dominate proceedings at Olympic Sculpture Park, in Seattle.

 

In easy walking distance of the both the Space Needle and Pike Place Markets precincts, Olympic Sculpture Park unites a large, steeply sloping waterfront site that had been gouged into three separate parcels by a freeway and a railway.  
 
0
0
1
45
259
Landscapology
2
1
303
14.0
 
 

 

 
Normal
0




false
false
false

EN-US
JA
X-NONE

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="fal…

View from the Space Needle by M.O. Stevens via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons License https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Olympic_Sculpture_Park_from_Space_Needle_-_Seattle.JPG

Today a bold zigzag slashes through the site, leaping across the two transport corridors and simply and effectively drawing visitors down to the shoreline and back up again. (Click through the slideshow to take the journey...)

Landscapology_Sculpture23.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture24.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture25.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture26.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture27.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture28.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture29.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture30.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture31.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture32.jpg Landscapology_Sculpture33.jpg

Most importantly, the whole site was designed as a new way of experiencing sculpture in the landscape.

 

The signature work is Calder’s Eagle, and its big red swoop is visible from everywhere.

Near the sleek pavilion building an amphitheatre steps down to Serra’s Wake, five rusty ellipses beached on the gravel like the conning towers of a fleet of futuristic buried submarines.

As drivers approach the tunnel that will take them, briefly, under the park, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s enormous Typewriter Eraser, Scale X teeters, precariously, on the slope above.

Landscapology_Sculpture14.jpg

Stretching along the bridge crossing the railway line is Seattle Cloud Cover, by Teresita Fernandez. The canopy panels mimic the daily atmospherics: glowing and warm on sunny days, and flinty and cool under cloud cover.

Works by other distinguished artists can be found along the shore and discovered amongst the planting.

Bunyon's Chess, Mark di Suvero

Bunyon's Chess, Mark di Suvero

Stinger, Tony Smith

Stinger, Tony Smith

Eye Benches, Louise Bourgeois

Eye Benches, Louise Bourgeois

In a city with many parks, pioneering Gasworks Park and Freeway Park amongst them, Olympic Sculpture Park is the only large open parkland in the downtown area. Over 60,000 people came to visit when the park opened in 2007.

It is incredibly well used by locals and visitors, and comfortably welcomes large groups as well as the solitary stroller.

If you're lucky enough to find yourself in Seattle, do drop by.

 

“What interests me is the opportunity for all of us to become something different from what we are, by constructing spaces that contribute something to the experience of who we are. ”
— Richard Serra


Olympic Sculpture Park is part of the Seattle Art Museum.

This is a great map of the park with info on the artworks.

It was designed by Weiss Manfredi, and there are great photos and drawings of the project on the firm’s website.

In 2015 Garden Alphabet, landscape, parks, art Tags Olympic Sculpture Park, sculpture, public art, Seattle
← T is for TimeR is for Ruin →
Blog welcome.png

Welcome Friends, to our collection of landscape musings, discoveries and curiosities.


Archive
  • April 2024 1
  • August 2023 1
  • November 2020 1
  • October 2020 1
  • September 2020 1
  • July 2020 3
  • February 2019 1
  • December 2018 2
  • October 2017 2
  • July 2017 1
  • November 2016 1
  • October 2016 2
  • August 2016 1
  • July 2016 8
  • June 2016 1
  • May 2016 2
  • April 2016 10
  • March 2016 14
  • February 2016 23
  • January 2016 12
  • December 2015 2
  • November 2015 2
  • October 2015 2
  • September 2015 2
  • August 2015 3
  • July 2015 2
  • June 2015 2
  • May 2015 2
  • April 2015 2
  • March 2015 3
  • February 2015 2
  • January 2015 2
  • December 2014 2
  • November 2014 5
  • October 2014 5
  • September 2014 4
  • August 2014 5
  • July 2014 4
  • June 2014 5
  • May 2014 4
  • April 2014 4
  • March 2014 5
  • February 2014 4
  • January 2014 40

26 Weeks of Garden Alphabet - Catch Up

A is for Apple

B is for Bay

C is for Chook

D is for Dune

E is for Eucalypt

F is for Fairy

G is for Grass

H is for Hive

I is for Incinerator

J is for Junk

K is for Kitchen

L is for Lime

M is for Magic

N is for Nightshade

O is for Occasion

P is for Play

Q is for bbQ

R is for Ruin

S is for Sculpture

T is for Time

U is for Utility

V is for Veg

W is for Water

X is for Xanax

Y is for Yack

Zzzz is for four more sleeps...


Search


Categories

  • landscape
  • gardens
  • parks
  • design
  • Brisbane
  • architecture
  • 2015 Garden Alphabet
  • art
  • water
  • delight
  • Design Class
  • Future Park
  • books
  • events
  • public art
  • workspace
  • research
  • Grounds
  • A Growing Interest
  • competition

Instagram

Made wonky bowls too 😵&zwj;💫
Made wonky bowls too 😵‍💫
When life gives you lemons, lockdown tastes sweeter!
.
. 
(Thanks Team Dawson St for the 🍋)
When life gives you lemons, lockdown tastes sweeter! . . (Thanks Team Dawson St for the 🍋)
Happy Caturday 
.
.
#CatsOfInstagram #SkatCat
Happy Caturday . . #CatsOfInstagram #SkatCat
Home again, home again, jiggity-jog
Home again, home again, jiggity-jog
Made some more wonky pots
Made some more wonky pots
Da-da-da-dahhhhhh&hellip;wonderful to hear an orchestra in full flight again (yes, yes, there is no orchestra in this photo, stop it now)
Da-da-da-dahhhhhh…wonderful to hear an orchestra in full flight again (yes, yes, there is no orchestra in this photo, stop it now)
What light through yonder dirty window breaks? . . #bunurong #melbourne #landscape #sunrise #sky #clouds #nofilter
Sun &amp; moon over Bunurong country
.
.
#bunurong #melbourne #landscape #sky #nofilter
Sun & moon over Bunurong country . . #bunurong #melbourne #landscape #sky #nofilter
Sunday
Sunday
This morning… . . #melbourne #bunurongcountry #landscape #sunrise #nofilter

Twitter

  • Amalie Wright
    Looks fantastic - congratulations! https://t.co/c9hnleVBMN
    31 Mar 2023, 9:36 am
  • Amalie Wright
    ❤️ https://t.co/FGF254dLIC
    24 Mar 2023, 5:07 pm
  • Amalie Wright
    RT @alanfyfe01: The Hello Keanu anthology is now calling for submissions. $100 for pieces on Keanu Reeves - his characters; his pol… https://t.co/151MCvAvyO
    17 Mar 2023, 2:25 pm

Our spiffing new website layout was created with expert assistance from top bloke Justin at Flying Fox Media.