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RSS icon Comments on Save Yourselves! Do Not Go Near the Olympic Sculpture Park Today!

1

The Target shite was terribly easy for me to ignore; I've been too conditioned to that kind of messaging; it's elide it or go mad. (As with the two [TWO!] gigantic "12" flags as the only legible messaging stuck to the city recently: I went mad, then put it out of my mind, then laughed out loud when the 12th man got his sad, small-minded hopes crushed like a grape.) My overwhelming reaction to the sculpture park: Why would they open it when it's so very clearly NOT DONE?! Why, Jen, why?

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement | January 21, 2007 11:36 AM
2

Honestly, given the conflict between the need to protect high concept art and opening such a space to public use, OSP was just a poorly conceived idea from the start.

Either throw the sculptures up and throw it to the civic masses, graffiti, trampling and all, or put a fence around it and charge admission.

And LOL to selling out opening weekend to Target. Seattle never misses an opportunity to sell out its major civic events.

Posted by Gomez | January 21, 2007 11:55 AM
3

The ubiquitous (and temporary) Target presence was not nearly as disturbing to me as having to the "Old Spaghetti Factory" lettering peering through the wonderful "Split" tree. Now THAT's unfortunate!

I was dumbfounded by all of the "Do not touch the art" signs. Isn't the point of a sculpture park to get up close and personal with art?! I understand the need to protect art from vandals, but the experience of walking through the park should be tactile and engage ALL the senses. The signs were obnoxious. The art will be touched. To SAM: Good luck with that.

Despite my criticisms, hooray for SAM. Seriously. I love the park. LOVE it. It needs some refinement (and maybe a few more pieces), but it’s a great contribution to our city. I plan to spend loads of time there in the coming years.

Posted by BFDS | January 21, 2007 12:00 PM
4

oh come on. it's opening weekend. a gorgeous day, tons of happy people, kids having fun listening to local hiphop after sunset, free hot chocolate from spaceage backpacks makes you grumpy?

It will be finished later. There will be grass and no tents and time for quiet contemplation then.

But the graffiti on the Serra? lame.

Posted by josh | January 21, 2007 12:06 PM
5

whine whine whine
would it be better to leave everything fenced off till it was 100% completed? I'm grateful they even had a partial opening when they did, and was impressed at the amazing amount of people wandering around yesterday. And as for the Target co-production, well, it's not like I'm able to donate $50,000 ..... or even $500!

Posted by rh | January 21, 2007 12:18 PM
6

ditto rh. take a tranq y'all. the park is open. the grass will take root, and this spring you'll be able to touch anything you want - if you like that kind of thing.

I went down yesterday with the dog, it was awesome! families, couples, kids, everyone had smiles.

Posted by ho' know | January 21, 2007 12:27 PM
7

to be expected the art critic of the stranger has lots of danger expectations

would not be hip to be easy going and go with the flow

love it

Jen, get laid once in a while, the art works better after

Posted by sammy | January 21, 2007 12:40 PM
8

I was just there and it wasn't as crowded as it sounds like it was yesterday. Later in the week will be better. I think it's great to see so many people looking at the park and the ART!

Posted by Prospero | January 21, 2007 12:40 PM
9

When I was wandering around the park yesterday, I said to my friends, "This park will be awesome in 10 or 20 years when all the plants have taken root, the trees have grown to larger sizes and they add a couple more pieces of art. Well, as long as global warming doesn't destroy the city first, anyways."

Even though it's not done yet, it's great to see what they are planning. I'm excited for it to become part of my tour of Seattle that I show friends who are visiting. Great work, SAM!

Posted by Patrick | January 21, 2007 12:56 PM
10

I guess Target is into art now. Last year when the National Portrait gallary reopened in DC after being closed for a number of years for renovation, Target had the same type of presence. Stffed dogs, balloons etc.

Posted by nathaniel | January 21, 2007 1:32 PM
11

Jen, I thought your article in the paper was right on target. Sober and thoughtful. This post makes you sound like a crank. What did you expect?
Maybe that's the dif between blogs and print.

Posted by postergirl | January 21, 2007 3:05 PM
12

Target is a bright-red right-wing company that's one of Bush's biggest backers. Fuck 'em. Don't shop there.

Posted by Fnarf | January 21, 2007 3:44 PM
13

whine whine whine - before I moved to Seattle from Vancouver BC, the Old Spaghetti Factory was always one of the fun parts of Seattle for me. And Bush lost - big time.

Posted by Will in Seattle | January 21, 2007 4:41 PM
14

As a gardener I can say what you were told is correct. While established grass could take the heavy foot traffic and be fine, this is likely new turf recently installed and has yet to get its roots down the full 18" it needs to be healthy and tough enough to withstand opening day crowds - especially this time of year when it is saturated as well. Give it full growing season to settle in and there's no reason to have gates anymore. This time next year it'll take anything you throw at it.

Posted by greenguy | January 21, 2007 4:51 PM
15

I went down today. And I found it too crowded to be enjoyable. But that will pass. Also, the whole Target thing, and the unfinishedness, will pass.

More importantly I think is that the art is, for the most part, dull. It feels like the sort of art placed in an apartment building's courtyard. Nice enough as a distraction, but not destination art. Makes the whole thing seem more like a nice new park with a little more public art than usual, rather than an outdoor sculpture museum. Perhaps I should have adjusted my expectations, but I was disappointed.

Posted by YLlama | January 21, 2007 4:51 PM
16

Yes, the place was a bit crowded, and yes there were some corporate sponsorship swag. But it was still nice to see people turn out for art, music, and public places. In other cities, people turn out for shopping malls and ugly developments. At least this was for a new park.

Posted by George | January 21, 2007 5:36 PM
17

Jen, could you please lighten up?

Heaven forbid we might give stodgy old SAM a tiny break for playing the corporate sponsorship game so it could pay for the park and not charge admission. (We aren't all blessed with press passes, you know.) And can we blame them for trying to protect something they just pumped $85 million into, so there might be something left to enjoy AFTER opening day?

No, it's not perfect. And no, it's not finished. But it IS already beautiful and it offers a little hope to see so many people actively engaged with public art.

Posted by Art Schmart | January 21, 2007 5:40 PM
18

Boo Hoo. Boo Hoo. Whine. Whine.
Whine.

Just wait till you have the chance
to enjoy the Art with me and my
friends while we enjoy a bagged
bottle or three of Night Train.

Night Train fortified wine...Our corporate sponser.

Posted by Bacchus | January 21, 2007 6:06 PM
19

Considering the contentiousness of Jen's opening day post, we're now all on tenterhooks as to whether she will find Louise's statue bourgeois, meritorious, pornographic, pedophilic, suggestive, cute or - the worst judgment of all - boring. Let's see when there's that round red thingie with a yellow (or black) center, doesn't that sort of say: "target me"?

Posted by OPENING DAY DUH-NESS | January 21, 2007 6:13 PM
20

Waaaaahhhhhshington much?

Jesus Fucking Christ. Do you ever listen to yourself? Most people can't stand to hear themselves bitch. Graves, you seem to walk around with "Bitch" already dialed and one finger hovering on the fucking send button. You deserve to live in a utopia of your own design you miserable crank.

Posted by Cry Tough | January 21, 2007 6:20 PM
21

You are all fucking jackasses.

The whole point of a public space is that it's a public space, not that you get herded along predetermined paths in a particular order, shuffling toe-to-heel behind the next peon, pausing only to look up and snap photos and read the label of the art you've been instructed to like. And yeah, when a public art space opens with a 6-foot-tall canine corporate mascot prancing around and taking photos with little kids clutching miniature replicas of himself, it's noteworthy. And fucking creepy.

It's not about being cooler-than-thou. It's not about lightening up. It's about the way SAM chose to handle its opening -- poorly. Felt like fucking Disneyland. Does that change the park's potential or its value as a space for all of us downtown? Uh, no. But yeah, it was cheesy (costumed women on stilts?), and corporately overshadowed, and zoolike, and that's worth pointing out, whether it's because of bad management of the event or because they chose to open the park too soon.

Posted by Superfurry Animal | January 21, 2007 6:51 PM
22

21: How does that make US all jackasses? Sounds like your beef is with SAM.

Posted by ? for #21 | January 21, 2007 7:19 PM
23

I totally am a crank when I have an experience like this. Does there really have to be that much distance between rhetoric and delivery? It reminds me of the political process.

But the reason I bother writing -- bitching -- is because I do have high hopes for the park. I think the person who asked "what did you expect?" was right. Openings always suck. Still -- I just wanted to give y'all a heads up.

Posted by Jen Graves | January 21, 2007 7:46 PM
24

The only furry that I saw was what I assumed to be the SAM camel.

Posted by another furry animal | January 21, 2007 7:47 PM
25

There's too much gravel. Is it a sculpture park or a trailer park?

Posted by DOUG. | January 21, 2007 7:49 PM
26

I ride my bike to work every day through the park coming downtown from Interbay. It has been a very cool experience having them build this and still maintain access, I have watched every day that they've been working on it, except for that month when the seawall was replaced.
Most of the plants on the west side went in Thursday after 10am, so fencing was required to keep the plants alive. The installation with the red glowing "&" was still in shrink-wrap when I rode home Friday night too,crews were working well after 5:00.

Posted by langston | January 21, 2007 8:44 PM
27

Thank you Jen and SFA @ 21. Advertising aimed at children is the most tasteless thing they could have done. Suddenly this great art experience was now only about small stuffed animals to all the kids under 8, an opportunity to discuss art with a child ruined by a fixation on the toy that all the kids have. Thanks, Target fuckers.

Thanks again Jen, all of what I found distasteful about the opening you put into the exactly right words.

Posted by Nathan | January 21, 2007 9:18 PM
28

Dudes, Disneyland? You're kidding right? It was great. It's a park (with outstanding views). Get over it.

Quick constuctive comment on the gravel. I've been going by every day for months watching this thing come to life, but hadn't been on top so expected asphalt paths. the gravel was a pleasant/welcome surprise - totally worked for me. The one spot I'm unclear it will work is on the inclines from the Cloud Bridge down to the water - there it seemed dodgey, even with the drainage system, seemed like real potential for gravel being washed/worn away by water and foot traffic, maybe even some puddling/uneveness, all the more an issue since the ramps were designed for ADA compliance. I'm sure they'll work it out.

Posted by ho' know | January 21, 2007 10:48 PM
29

The comments here are hilarious. If the city propagandists weren't so mindlessly devoted to the notion that the Plop Art Park makes us Just Like New York (tm), most of you would be calling the it what it is: lame.

Parks are great. Sculpture can be great. But from what I've seen, the PAP is neither a great park, nor a great artistic achievement. It's yet another example of Seattle's World Class inferiority complex, manifesting itself in odd municipal phenomena.

Meanwhile, the acquisition budged for the SAM is still a laughable $300k per year....

Posted by A Nony Mouse | January 22, 2007 12:30 AM
30

Target's logo is a dog?

Posted by Giffy | January 22, 2007 8:00 AM
31

#28: Gravel was a pleasant surprise? Yikes! I was hoping for something more akin to Myrtle Edwards: a meandering pathway through grass and plantings. This is a ROAD running through a park.

Only in Seattle, where automobile access reigns supreme!

Posted by DOUG. | January 22, 2007 8:41 AM
32

This town is so ridiculous sometimes. It's exactly the kind of oxy-moronic shit I'd expect in Seattle. I'm surprised you were surprised. Our P.R. rarely describes our passive aggressive under acheivment accurately.

Posted by duh | January 22, 2007 9:39 AM
33

#31: I agree. I felt like this was a throughfare, not a park. It's incredibly exposed with few contemplative places.

I'm glad it's there and I'm looking forward to it being completed, but I didn't fall in love with it.

Posted by Yup | January 22, 2007 10:25 AM
34

Let's judge the Park when it can actually be used in the way it was intended...with less than 2000 people crammed in it at once, without corporate logos, and without a muddy slope down one side.

The test of this park will an individuals personal experience in it when it's finally completed. The art will be better without teeming masses.

You can argue your personal preferences for the space, but you can't argue that it's not a giant improvement over what was there before- for each individual and the whole city.

Posted by Alex | January 23, 2007 10:23 PM
35

You're a hater. It's a free park. It's free art. Is the fact that the grass is not "established" within the timeline that you would like the one thing you have to bitch about? Really?

Posted by brooke | January 24, 2007 10:48 AM
36

Why you all hatin?

Grab your cameras, take some creative shots at the park and post them in our Olympic Sculpture Park Flickr group...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/36699021@N00/

Posted by B Mully | January 24, 2007 11:21 PM
37

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