Images(6)

Blanche

Artist Peter Richards

Artist Sue Richards

MediumSteel, wood, PVC pipe, aluminum, Thruflow Decking, stainless steel, dock floats

Dimensions12’ H x 21.5’ W by 30’ L

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineSeattle Parks and Recreation 2000 Pro Parks Levy 1% for Art funds

Description: Blanche brings visitors close to the water and evokes the feeling of being in a boat. Blanche creates soft music by projecting the sound of the lake’s waves lapping against underwater sound tubes. The upturned Blanchard Junior Knockabout boat acts as a sound chamber for the water sounds sent up from below. The Blanchard Boat Company, which operated on Lake Union from 1900 to 1963, made the boat. Boat and restoration work provided by The Center for Wooden Boats.

The artwork consists of a custom float attached to the Park’s north bulkhead by a ramp. On top of the float, an upturned boat hull is raised above the float and a bench. Under the float, sound tubes descend into the water. The sound tubes capture the water sounds and transmit them up into the hull, which acts as a sound chamber.

Artist Statement: As an artwork developed specifically to be floating on Lake Union, Blanche was conceived as a strategy for not only remembering Lake Union’s long boat building traditions but to also give people the experience closely approximating being underway in a boat. The work also celebrates the shape of a well-designed boat hull and the clues it takes from nature.

Location: Lake Union Park, 860 Terry Avenue North, Seattle WA 98109