Public Art on Commuter Rail

(From left) Artist Brad Rude, Public Art Manager
Mary Priester and Artist Frank Boyden
test an interactive sculpture at a foundry
in Walla Walla, Washington.

Working in collaboration with project partners, TriMet is continuing its commitment to public art with the Washington County commuter rail project.

The project has allocated $500,000 to fund the commuter rail Public Art Program based on 1.5 percent of eligible project costs.

The program is guided by an Art Advisory Committee, which is composed of representatives from every station area. The committee selected artists Frank Boyden and Brad Rude to develop artwork for the stations.

Artists

Frank Boyden is one of the region's most accomplished and versatile artists, equally at home with ceramics, printmaking and sculpture. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and Governor's Arts Award and most recently was the subject of a retrospective at the Hallie Ford Museum in Salem.

Boyden and Washington sculptor Brad Rude, who collaborated on artwork for Doernbecher Children's Hospital, have teamed up again for commuter rail.

Artwork

Boyden and Rude have created a series of five sculptures, called Interactivators, for the five commuter rail stations. Each sculpture features moveable, cast-bronze heads and a vehicle mounted to a stainless-steel table. The heads, which appear in different guises at each of the stations, symbolize a wide range of emotions, traits and conditions. Like the cross section of humanity that may be found on any train car, these sculpted archetypes serve as a metaphor for the human experience. The bronze vehicles each carry a sculpted scene of an animal representative of the station area where they are located.

At each station, a
table will feature
sculptures of 16 heads
expressing the full
range of human
experience, from
comedy to pathos.

The figures and vehicles are attached to the tables in a way that allows them to move within "tracks" cut into the surface of the table. The sculptures, in addition to being unique works of art, offer a potential game that can be played by one person or an entire station full of people. There are no winners or losers, but rather opportunities for infinite encounters that can create social connection, offer insight or produce a simple moment of pleasure.

Other artwork includes a mural painted on a wall at the Tigard Transit Station and a willow pattern etched in the windscreen glass at stations in Tualatin and Wilsonville.

Commuter Rail Art Advisory Committee

• Anne Avery, Tualatin, coordinator Westside Cultural Alliance
• Joan Chapin, Beaverton, board member Contemporary Art Council, Portland Art Museum
• Soo Kim Gordon, Beaverton, artist, board member Beaverton Arts Commission
• Chris Lewis, Tigard, chair, Art Resources of Tigard
• Paul Missal, Wilsonville, artist, retired PNCA instructor
• Loren Nelson, Beaverton, photographer, member TriMet Public Art Advisory Committee

For more information

For more information, contact Public Art Manager Mary Priester at 503-962-2291 or priestem@trimet.org, or Public Art Coordinator Michelle Traver at 503-962-2159 or traverm@trimet.org.