KPLU Local News
(2009-09-25)
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Artist Kristen T. Ramirez spent the summer on Seattle's Fremont Bridge and created a sound artwork.
Florangela Davila (KPLU)
"I heard from a lot of people that this bridge is an irritant," she says. "It's a bridge they have to wait for a lot. You're trying to get to work or wherever it is you're going and this bridge goes up because this bridge goes up all the time and you're made to stop."
The Fremont Bridge, painted cobalt and tangerine, halts traffic an average of 35 times a day and yes, it can be a royal hassle to wait.
But Ramirez also learned there's an upside.
"A lot of people commented on that being irritating. And yet it provides this rare reflective moment in their lives where they actually kind of slow down and their brains are quiet for a few seconds."
It's quiet as the bridge's huge arms stretch open to the sky. Once the boats pass through; the bridge lowers shut, triggering its signature sounds. Ramirez heard opportunity in that noise and for her new art project she created a funky, rhythmic march.
The techno beat, composed with the help of audio engineer Travis Morehead, is comprised entirely of bridge sounds.
"I wanted all of that rhythm to come from the honks of the horns and the beeps and the alarm bells, and the buses going across the grates and foots on metal stairs and the spokes of bicycles, the wheels as they turn and go over the bridge."
She spent all summer here, observing the fabric of daily life.
"Lots of party boats and rowers. You'll see these big container boats that go through that have giant boulders or like mountains of sand and gravel. I don't know where they're going. I mean they're so big like the container itself will have three or four cars on it. And a crane!"
She's primarily a visual artist. And at first, the scenery she absorbed while working out of one of the bridge towers inspired her to sketch, even embroider.
"There's actually no wall space. It's really all glass. So you've got this 360-degree view of Queen Anne and Fremont; Lake Union to your east and the Ship Canal to your west and of course, the more menacing Aurora Bridge over this way."
But the sounds of this place were impossible to ignore.
"You have this constant drone of cars going over the metal grate. You have the seaplanes going overhead. You have the tourist ducks that go by all day long quacking. And it's almost a little distracting. And why not maybe tap into that and explore that more?"
Which is what the city of Seattle wanted, selecting her as an artist-in-residence to hang out with this mechanical muse.
Lori Patrick is with Seattle's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs:
"We thought how cool would that be? To bring an artist to the bridge, to be there in the community and create a temporary installation or a project in response to the bridge and its place in the neighborhood."
As an artist, Ramirez, who's originally from the Bay Area, is drawn to urban cores: billboards, corner lots, arterials. Her work celebrates the ordinary and as an artist she mines for connections to everyday places.
"I'm interested in how our places are always evolving and changing. So even Fremont, this neighborhood looked radically different seven years ago when I moved here. It was a totally different place. I'm interested in how our memory gets wrapped up in a place but then those places are always changing."
Ramirez spent four months here on the bridge, listening, collecting, getting to know the bridge and its tenders and the people who travel over and under. It changed her feelings about the bridge.
"I have a deeper affection for this bridge and this place. And all the history I've learned through other people. I think it was a nice bridge before and now it's an extraordinarily special bridge to me."
[Honking horn] "That's a great sound. What is that?" "The sailboats give one and one short beep of their horn to the operator and the operator honks back to them. They're talking to each other through their horns." And now the bridge will be talking to us.
Florangela Davila KPLU News.
"Bridge Talks Back" opens Saturday (Sept. 26) with a live, musical performance at the Fremont Bridge from 1 to 4 p.m.
The audio installation will then be broadcast from the bridge's speakers during each bridge opening, from now through April.
A longer sound artwork, including excerpts from voicemails left by the public earlier this summer, can be heard by calling 1-800-761-9941.
Kristen T. Ramirez's blog about the project
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