New Seattle Public Art: Mad Homes
Artist Ryan Molenkamp examines his artwork inside one of the Mad Homes. "There is some aggression to it," he said. "It was definitely intentional."
All photos by Carey Rose.
For Molenkamp’s piece Strain, he creates a porcupine effect with painted splinters of wood that he glued to the wall. He enjoyed translating the two-dimensional lines on the wall into three dimensions, which he refers to as an "evolution of form."
For Ties That Bind, artist collective SuttonBeresCuller strung custom polypropylene ratchet straps around—and through—the walls of this Mad Home.
Philtering by Jason Puccinelli and Elizabeth Potter consists of lighted orbs, a small camera (hole in the wall at right), and a video monitor. Check the screen and you’ll note that, when viewed from the correct angle, the orbs form a classical nude figure reclining, our own Venus of Urbino.
Allan Packer’s The Fulcrum of Prescience features both acrylic on canvas and working machines that animate the room in Mad Homes. This photo shows a large bird, illuminated by blacklight, that will swing through a slit cut in the wall. Not pictured: a wolf head that rises out of the floor in a silent howl at a moon that hangs from the ceiling.
Luke Haynes’ installation work, [installation #1] wall clothes, involves the wallpapering of one of the Mad Homes with clothing—including underwear.
Troy Gua’s Chrysallis (Contents May Shift in Transit) (rather appropriately) presents an entire home shrink wrapped, long after all the original contents of the house have been boxed up and taken away.
The prognosis wasn’t good for the five decaying houses squatting on a block of Bellevue Avenue East on North Capitol Hill. They were old, lopsided, and at odds with the historic art deco of the neighboring...
