by Kirby Lindsay Laney, posted 1 September 2015
The artist team Haddad|Drugan, are delighted to be able to create another of their site-specific public art installations in their hometown. “We do projects all over the country,” explained Laura Haddad, “the opportunity to do a project in a neighborhood where we both once lived, in Fremont, with no travel and we get to hang out in Fremont,” is a chance both feel fortunate to have drawn when they were chosen, from 40+ artist’s applications, for creating art for the Cubix Fremont building.
On September 9th (from 4p – 7p,) the 10th (from 4p – 7p) & the 12th (from 10a – 1p) Haddad|Drugan, along with representatives from King County 4Culture, will be standing at the Fremont PCC Natural Market, soliciting input from genuine Fremonsters – residents, employees, land lords, shoppers, business owners, and/or standard bearers. Anyone who considers Fremont the center of their universe is asked to come share their story, and show off their mementos, souvenirs, photographs or keepsakes, to help Haddad and her husband (and artistic partner,) Tom Drugan, to understand what Fremont means to us.
“I’m positive we aren’t going to incorporate everyone’s ideas,” Haddad acknowledged. “We do a lot of research, it’s a big part of our process,” she explained, “We’ll filter it through our own artistic vision.” The finished art work, to be incorporated in the façade of the mixed commercial/apartment building proposed for 3519 Fremont Place North, will be a fixed visual of our community for decades to come. The more people share with Drugan and Haddad, the more likely the artists will have their hopes realized. “It will become a symbol,” Haddad said, “We hope it will become an icon.”
The Artists Without A Plan
Since 2001, Haddad and Drugan have been working together to create public art pieces. Collaboration is key to the art work they do – working with landscape architects or, in the case of Cubix Fremont, the architects Jackson|Main and developers Parkstone Properties, in addition to 4Culture.
“All of our projects are different,” Haddad observed, and a glance at the pieces displayed on their website shows the diversity that Drugan identified by emphasizing the site-specificity of their work. “It’s based on the particular place,” he said. Also, “we don’t have material choices,” he explained. They work with fabricators which allows them to use a vast variety of mediums including bronze, glass or stainless steel.
Laura Haddad has done a previous, large art installation for Fremont – the award-winning art of Fremont Peak Park. Working with Friends of Peak Park, as well as the architects of GGLO, Haddad created art incorporated within the property that showed creativity (a silver skein of ribbon leading the way in or out of the Minotaur’s maze,) and practicality (a solstice sundial and a map of the phases of the moon.)
For Cubix Fremont, Haddad|Drugan don’t have a plan in place, yet. “We’ve kept it pretty open,” Drugan said of the proposal that won them the contract. “We haven’t defined it yet,” Haddad agreed. They could use textures, lighting, local glass, or even paints. “We look for durable materials,” Haddad said, as they put together a piece that can endure, like so many of Fremont’s favorite icons.
Communities With Stories To Tell
“There are so many icons of Fremont,” Haddad explained, “that don’t necessarily have a connection to Fremont.” The Fremont Rocket, Saturn and the Lenin statue, which will surround Cubix Fremont, have become intrinsic within the fabric of Fremont, but all were adopted into our culture. “The [Fremont] Troll might be what people identify with,” Haddad observed, about the potential result of their research, and outreach, “but we aren’t going to put the Troll on the building.”
Haddad and Drugan intend an original art piece, but they want to collect stories from locals and filter their vision through that information. The artists currently work in SODO, but both have lived in Fremont and have their own memories here. Haddad shared her own favorite anecdote – of a Native American poet who went door-to-door one day selling his poems, and came to her home. “We spent an afternoon talking,” she recalled the still poignant memory, “I wonder what happened to him…”
The long-lost Garden Of Everyday Miracles, an art installation of modern appliances, equipment and kitsch ‘planted’ on a hillside behind GlamOrama boutique, also stirs Drugan and Haddad’s imaginations – along with the metal bride & groom that local legend Charlotte Buchanan put outside each day in front of her iconic store.
“We just want to talk,” Haddad explained. They’ve collected for two time capsules, in Kent (Millennium Plaza,) messages and memories from local folks to share with the future. In the San Francisco Bayview neighborhood they gathered up words from people that lived and worked there, Drugan explained, “to get a sense of what was important to them.” The artists distilled the words they collected and chose the one they thought most often used being ‘rise,’ and they created an illuminated mural that incorporates rising imagery.
‘Whatever We Get’
“We’re just getting started,” Haddad said, “if no one shows up, that will be unfortunate.” It is a chance they are willing to take, on the possibility of gathering priceless, heart-felt truths about the community here. “We might just meet people who didn’t know we were going to be there…” she acknowledged, “We’ll take whatever we get.”
If everyone in Fremont spreads the word, however, and brings that piece on their refrigerator, in their curio cabinet or stored carefully in the box of treasures under the bed, Haddad and Drugan could spend their time at PCC snapping photos and noting inspirations to create an art piece representative of the spirit of our community.
Please make an effort to journey to the PCC on Wednesday, September 9th, Thursday, September 10th, or Saturday, September 12th, with even a word or two for these local artists, to inspire iconic art for our future.
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- by Kirby Lindsay, November 2, 2007 in the North Seattle Herald-Outlook
©2015 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.