Saltwater Streets
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Precast colored concrete and stainless steel artworks installed in sidewalks | Multiple locations in Seattle, WA
“The streets are our watershed.”- Seattle Public Utilities staff
Through words and imagery of aquatic animal and plant beings, we are invited to imagine our bodily, urban, and ethical relationship to a water system often invisible in our everyday lives. Each circular artwork is a portal from the street and sidewalk infrastructure to the watery world underneath stretching to the Salish Sea. Pathways from home to sidewalk to an underground conveyance tunnel to the large storage tunnel to the wastewater treatment plant and ultimately to Puget Sound are made visible. Poetic orienting phrases and words point to the past as well as presenting hopeful and symbiotic visions of the present and future.
Saltwater Streets aligns with a massive storage tunnel diverting combined sewer overflows from the Ship Canal - the Ship Canal Water Quality Project. The project encompasses multiple neighborhoods and several construction sites. The public art creates a connective thread amongst artists, neighborhoods, and waterways. Vaughn Bell conceptualized and led the public art project and designed multiple artwork portals. Vaughn also invited collaborating artists Preston Singletary, David Franklin, RYAN! Feddersen and Jeffrey Veregge to design the portals near their large scale permanent public artworks.
Commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art in partnership with the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.
Photos by Spike Mafford.
Thanks to the amazing team at Intention Space for the collaborative fabrication!
Artworks installed and planned 2024-2027.
“The streets are our watershed.”- Seattle Public Utilities staff
Through words and imagery of aquatic animal and plant beings, we are invited to imagine our bodily, urban, and ethical relationship to a water system often invisible in our everyday lives. Each circular artwork is a portal from the street and sidewalk infrastructure to the watery world underneath stretching to the Salish Sea. Pathways from home to sidewalk to an underground conveyance tunnel to the large storage tunnel to the wastewater treatment plant and ultimately to Puget Sound are made visible. Poetic orienting phrases and words point to the past as well as presenting hopeful and symbiotic visions of the present and future.
Saltwater Streets aligns with a massive storage tunnel diverting combined sewer overflows from the Ship Canal - the Ship Canal Water Quality Project. The project encompasses multiple neighborhoods and several construction sites. The public art creates a connective thread amongst artists, neighborhoods, and waterways. Vaughn Bell conceptualized and led the public art project and designed multiple artwork portals. Vaughn also invited collaborating artists Preston Singletary, David Franklin, RYAN! Feddersen and Jeffrey Veregge to design the portals near their large scale permanent public artworks.
Commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art in partnership with the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.
Photos by Spike Mafford.
Thanks to the amazing team at Intention Space for the collaborative fabrication!
Artworks installed and planned 2024-2027.
