Cosmetic change has a bad rap, but not Tirana, Albania, a blighted city revived by the application of squares of color to crumbling buildings, celebrated by Anri Sala in “Dammi i Colori” (Give Me the Colors), from 2003.
Two public projects tapping the same vein are among the most successful in Seattle’s recent history: Dan Corson‘s Wave Rave Cave under a freeway off-ramp on Alaskan Way in Belltown, and Sheila Klein‘s Roosevennavelt: Columnseum, 10 acres of wasteland under the 1-5 freeway on Roosevelt near 65th St.
Corson’s site is a strip between two chain-link fences. To overcome the impact of those barriers, he created wave-like mounds in concrete and covered them in gravel. During the day, their oddity is charming. They look as if a construction crew longing for the sea took license with company equipment during the lunch hour.
At night, those waves become psychedelic stalagmites.
Klein treated freeway pillars as dresser’s dummies. Vertical lines are so slimming.
You got to admire Dan Corson. He got the SF flower thing down cold in concrete. I’d go there to drop acid, but cops and criminals like to drive by in search of each other.
I drive by Sheila Klein’s pillars every day. They make me happy. Presto! A horrible spot becomes art. Nice to finally know who the artist is.