John Grade Installs Major Sculpture at Seattle Museum of History & Industry

CYNTHIA-REEVES has announced the permanent installation of John Grade's monumental sculpture, Wawona, at the Museum of History & Industry, located in Lake Union Park in Seattle, Washington. The museum's new facility, which features Grade's work in their Grand Atrium, opened to the public on December 29, 2012.

John Grade's sculpture perforates the museum's ceiling at over sixty-five feet, and extends through the floor of the museum into the lake waters below. It is a powerful visual, linking sky to water, element to element, and history to the present. Fabricated from huge beams of Douglas fir, Wawona is literally repurposed from an old wooden ship's hull dating from the 1800s. Grade fashioned each articulated segment of his vast, suspended work to create a sculpture "that opens to the lake below, rises to the very rooftop to let in the sky, and gently sways with the movement of those who quietly slip inside the folds" of its hull like form, MOHAI executive director, Leonard Garfield, says. The entire piece undulates and creaks, as does an old ship when out to sea. The beautiful range of coloration in the sculpture comes from the original iron spikes rusting into the wood fibers, and from the fish oils that leached into the hold when the original boat was plying its trade.