“Mesa” : A Public Art Work Commissioned by the Seattle Arts Commission for the Woodland Park Zoo, Completed in 1991, Ken Little (Artist).
I would start my explanation of the work with quotations from my initial “Letter of Interest” used in application for the project.
“My past experience with public art has been exclusively from the public’s point of view. I am a member of this public that has seen, experienced, read, and thought about public art. It is easier, therefore, for me to start by saying what I would not want my own piece of public art to be.
I wouldn’t want my piece to encourage our tendency to see animals and the landscape as property, objects, or displays. I’m also not interested in portraying the animals as a wildlife artist or taxidermist might, trying to capture or freeze a lifelike instant -some sort of sentimental remembrance in bronze of a dolphin in mid leap. Given these considerations I wouldn’t want the piece to be self-contained on a pedestal, or separated in a fountain or reflecting pool. I also wouldn’t want it to be jewelry for a building or an exclamation point for the landscape. I’m not interested in doing a kind of animal playground piece that would encourage people to climb on these “objects”, or reinforce the notion like a lot of t-shirts or hats do that the animals are mascots.
What I would envision is a passive interactive work incorporating animal masks and other images. I would want to do something that would give the public a feeling of identification with the spirituality of these wild creatures; something that would help them overcome their tendency to see the animals merely as objects, exhibits or pets. My piece would address the beast within us all hoping to effect a transfiguration through the animals…a realization that we are one…predator…prey…grazer… environment…part of a whole ecosystem. This would be an opportunity for the public to contemplate themselves as small yet integral parts of a natural evolving ecosystem;a space to align themselves and identify with the other animals and the world around them.”
In closing I would like to quote Chief Seattle: “This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. We know the sap that courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth, and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, and the great eagle are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man, all belong to the same family.”
