Exhibit
Art & Poetry
Ocean Habitat
Exhibit Art & Poetry
STELLER COVE'S 1% FOR ART PROJECTS
In
1980, the City of Portland and Multnomah County passed a local ordinance
setting aside a percentage of major city and county construction costs
for the purchase and display of art. Metro, the Oregon Zoo's governing
body, adopted their ordinance in 1987, which devotes one percent of
construction costs towards art in an effort to encourage public dialogue
and understanding of works of art. The goal is to select and display
art which not only represents the best in artistic skills, but that
which reflects the essence of the zoo's exhibits.
The Zoo
has chosen the following art projects for Steller Cove
Poetry
| Kinetic Sculptures | Sonisphere
| Sculpture | Illustrations
| Photography
The words
of poet Kim Stafford illustrate the essence of the coastal environment
in two poems – one placed near the kelp pool and one on panels
leading down the pathway to the exhibit. Stafford said that he searched
for the sense of wonder that he feels from the beauty of the environment
when writing his poetry.
“Back
Home in the Kelp Forest”, Stafford says, “has a breathless
quality, like the experience of a sea otter going down in one breath
through the kelp forest; like a dancer in a kinesthetic experience.
The eight-line poem displayed at the exhibit is a shorter version of
the original poem shown below.
His six
poem sequence is a collection of “haiku-like glimpses which are
extreme distillations of the complex life events in six different coastal
habitats.” Stafford said he studied field guides to learn about
species and their interactions. Each sequence is placed on a colorful
panel with elegant drawings illustrating the animals and plants of a
coastal stream, an estuary, a sandy beach, a rocky beach a kelp forest
and the open sea.
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KINETIC
SCULPTURES
Miles
Pepper has created four kinetic sculptures,
metal fabrications placed into motion via air movement. The sculptures
are much more complex and fun to watch than a typical weathervane. The
vertical axis of a weathervane points toward the wind and has a stable
point. Pepper's sculptures, which move on spindles and ball bearings,
have no stable point, are never perfectly still and have a wide range
of motion and axes.
The sculptures
depict a seal, which moves as a unit, a starfish with one moving part,
diamond rays and a pair of pelicans, both with five moving parts.
Part of
the criteria for the sculptures was to "celebrate the effects of
the environment by suggesting a response to stimulus such as wind, rain
and/or sun and shadow." Pepper's sculptures definitely respond
to the wind, but the movement also allows interesting shadows to develop.
Pepper
feels that there is wonderment about nature that people should feel
and hopes that same wonderment can be found in his work.
"I'm
happy when people find joy and fascination in some aspect of my work,"
says Pepper. "I love nature and machines, and my work is a perfect
marriage of the two."
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SONISPHERE
This
is not the first time that composers, Peter Whitmore and Mike VanLiew
have been involved with the Oregon Zoo; their sound tracks can also
be heard in Cascade Crest exhibit's snow cave. This time however, their
focus will be to set a coastal scene for visitors.
"Since
the main sound experience which defines the coastal environment is the
sound of ocean waves, this primary element is present at all times in
different gradations and intensities," says Whitmore.
Calls
of shore birds and sounds, which suggest various ways in which humans
interact with the marine environment for commerce and recreation, are
blended in to enrich and further define aspects of the environment.
"There
are certainly moments that allow for readily identified sounds,"
concedes Whitmore, "but mystery is ultimately more the goal than
depiction."
The
finished work lasts a bit over 20 minutes and comprises a series of
short episodes, plus a brief coda to return to the start of the loop.
The transitions between these sections is primarily defined by gradual
changes in the surf sounds, which slowly approach the listener and gather
in intensity from episodes 1-4, then fade away to prepare for the next
cycle of the CD.
The
sounds were gathered from field recordings made at the Oregon coast,
from specific samples of birds that are appropriate to the setting,
and from a library of sampled and manipulated sounds. The hope is that
this work will blend in smoothly with the sounds of the zoo environment,
while enhancing visitor's imagination of the coast and our ongoing relation
to it.
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SCULPTURE
"Driftwood
Narrative" by sculptor Lynne Hull serves as a gathering
point for entry to Steller Cove.
An
aesthetic and interpretive element, the sculpture conveys parts of the
story of the driftwood ecology cycle. The cycle begins with the wood
from a forest tree that dies. The dead trees become floating logs nurturing
fish and birds and other aquatic species. The job of decomposition by
gribbles and shipworms turns the tree back into nutrients reintroduced
to the food web. The logs wash ashore and the beach driftwood shelters
birds, plants and other species. A pictograph describing the cycle has
been placed on the "face" of the log gribble Hull has constructed.
A
gribble and worm eaten log stands as witness of a tiny animal decomposing
huge logs back to nutrient level. Images on the logs are some of the
species who use driftwood at various points in the cycle.
The
wood piles built on the beach by wave action and the way beach wood
offers shelter, are the inspiration for the form made from driftwood
gathered from Pacific Northwest Beaches.
"I
hope zoo visitors will absorb some of the ideas expressed in the story
or at least become curious about the information, while enjoying the
natural beauty of the logs, enhanced by the way they are placed in the
sculpture," says Hull.
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Illustrator
Linda Feltner has produced three illustrations that enhance several
areas of the Steller Cove exhibit. The first illustration visitors will
encounter is a full color, water color rendering of a sea otter, depicting
the otter swimming in search of food. The ancient midden is enhanced
by an illustration which describes the daily life of coastal natives.
An inset map shows the locations of historic villages and trade routes.
Her final illustration shows the sea life that exists in the tide pools
and in which tidal zone they live.
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PHOTOGRAPHY
Making
a difference is the message of John Bauguess's three photos showing
volunteers who desire to protect the natural beauty of the coastal habitat.
"Some
of the people live near the sea, others come from afar," reflects
Bauguess. "But they all have in common their desire to preserve
what is here. For this they share their time generously."
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 Back Home in the Kelp Forest
by Kim Stafford
Drawing by Linda M. Feltner
Read this
in one salty breath -- all you have
after your plunge into the good gold sunlight
of the kelp grove taller than you knew --
the stipe and blade of living rope in this dancing
city wave after wave -- wolf eel, dogfish, nudibranch,
urchin, anemone, brittle star, kelp fish, rock fish,
coon-stripe shrimp -- your cousins everywhere
in the life maze. Forget their names and seize
that shaft of sunlight, that bubble swirl the moon-heart
drummed from the deep. Be the two-world otter
at play where you flounder, where you yearn like
octopus, where abalone grip on stone is also yours,
your breath your own holdfast to that other life that
finally lets you go, let's you dream you have learned
to
breathe through skin and live wherever you will.
Six
Poem Sequence
Steller Cove
by Kim Stafford
Watercolor by Linda M. Feltner
Coastal
Stream
Take me down through forest light
where gold sun grows me tall
and
blue water carries me away.
Estuary
Let me ooze through eelgrass roots,
taste salt, surrender into water's ebb
dizzy
in the vast and hungry tide.
Sandy
Beach
Where the sun must crawl and seek,
scatter me among the beach jewels
where
I am but a splinter, crystal, nub.
Rocky
Beach
Where the last cliff kneels to salt,
shatter me in a moonlight wave
and
tug me toward the deep.
Kelp
Forest
Bring me home to sunlit spangle --
in kelp, I come back to my forest ways,
dancing
gold in the green city.
Open
Sea
Let me go where whales roll
and plunge. I spangle free,
singing
deep in the open sea.
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