Skip to content

Food & Drink

Say Goodbye to SAM’s Flying Cars, Hello to a Floating Tree

By D. Scully January 13, 2017

0117_forkintheroad

This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.

Say good-bye to Cai Guo-Qiang’s “Inopportune: Stage One” neon car crash—the commentary on 9/11 and terrorism that has greeted visitors to the Seattle Art Museum lobby since 2007—and hello to Seattle artist John Grade’s 105-foot-long “Middle Fork,” which will be suspended from the entire length of SAM’s lobby ceiling on January 17 and officially open on February 3.

In 2014, Grade (pronounced “GRAH-day”) spent two weeks 85 feet off the ground in a 140-year-old western hemlock near North Bend, creating casts of its bark to make “Middle Fork” for the 2015 reopening of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art’s 140-year-old Renwick Gallery. The sculpture, comprising half a million bits of cedar, will eventually wind up back in North Bend, where Grade will let it rot into the mossy forest floor at the foot of the tree from which it was modeled. But not right away.

“It might be here two years, or three years,” says SAM spokesperson Rachel Eggers, “but people are clamoring to show it, so it might go somewhere else after SAM. Someday, it will return to the forest.”

 

Follow Us

Public Art in Motion

Public Art in Motion

Kinesis Project’s free dance performances hit downtown and the waterfront

If you’re downtown this week, don’t miss one of the best things about living in the city: spontaneous, free public art in the middle of Seattle. Kinesis Project dance theatre is transforming Harbor Steps Staircase Plaza and the new Overlook Walk into its stage, bringing large-scale, site-specific performances to the waterfront — and anyone can…

Seattle Art Fair is Back: Here’s What to See 

Seattle Art Fair is Back: Here’s What to See 

Four not-to-miss happenings during the city’s most creative weekend

Last year, I wrote about Seattle Art Fair’s buzzy uptick in energy and doubled-down commitment to the local creative community. With the 9th edition opening this Thursday, everyone is eager to uncover what awaits at the Lumen Field Event Center — and beyond.  “We’re expecting that energy to grow even stronger this year,” says Seattle…

Fave Five: Bright and Breezy

Fave Five: Bright and Breezy

Shakespeare, sunset cruising, and fizzy rice wine

Seattle summer doesn’t need selling. We wait all year for this.The long light, the beaches, the breeze that sneaks in just when you need it. Here are five ways to make the most of it. 1. Watch Shakespeare under the trees GreenStage has been performing free Shakespeare in Seattle parks since 1989. This year’s lineup…

Why I Said Yes to Leading Theatre Off Jackson

Why I Said Yes to Leading Theatre Off Jackson

The stage can be an epicenter for social change

There’s no other place in Seattle that has shaped me more as an artist than Theatre Off Jackson (TOJ).  It’s a small theatre in the Chinatown International District where I cut my teeth in the craft of performance, selling out shows, and building community. It has fundamentally changed my life, catapulting my arts career as…