Transforest

Artists' Statement: This sculpture references a forest in transition in the form of a tree merging with an electrical transmission tower. The adjacent substation building is the final terminus for high voltage electric energy generated by city-owned dams throughout Washington. The electricity from these dams travels many hundred miles of dedicated treeless pathways lined with silver transmission towers. Electrically linked to the far reaches of the state, this substation represents innovation that electricity provides.

In our research into the construction of the Seattle City Light hydroelectric system, we found documentation showing a transmission tower topping-off ceremony in which a small fir tree is mounted on the top of the structure in the Scandinavian tradition originally intended to appease tree-swelling spirits. In tis commonplace construction ritual we were struck by the strangeness of the real forest being supplanted by the industrial version. This celebratory gesture provided the beginning sculptural notion of a world transformed by the human

ingenuity that is intermixed with the form of an ancient tree spirit.

The tree portion of this sculpture represents the true scale of the great Douglas firs that once stood in Cascade lowlands that reached as high as 465’ and would today almost touch the underside of the Space Needle. The broken top of this sculpture references a snag tree - which Trees are still alive and may take several hundred more years to completely return to the earth where they will continue to provide forest habitat and nutrition for forest undergrowth. In the meantime, these majestic and beautifully contoured forms provide housing for as much as 60% of all forest animals and complete the circle of life. Today’s forestry practices generally do away with these forest elders and this sculpture is a reminder of their scale and importance for a healthy ecosystem.

Location: Southwest corner of Denny Way and Minor Avenue North