Art in Public Places - University of WashingtonBrian Tolle’s monumental sculpture Stronghold was recently installed on the University of Washington campus in Seattle.
The sculpture recalls the enormous trees that once stood on the campus. Built from milled cedar, the staggered planks interweave the pixilated language of digital imagery with basic construction materials and methods. The sculpture is roughly the same diameter as the Quinault Lake Big Cedar in Olympic National Park, the largest Western red cedar in the world. Tolle’s sculpture is also a viewing platform, providing an expansive view of Portage Bay and the city beyond. The work will be surrounded by drought-tolerant native plants – snowberry, sword fern, and huckleberry, for instance – which require a moderate amount of maintenance.
Brian Tolle’s sculptures and installations emphasize a dialog with history and context, often incorporating the themes of architecture, site, and technology. Using a variety of media, his work draws from the scale and experience of its surroundings, provoking a re-reading by cross-wiring reality and fiction. Drawing ideas from a broad-based conceptual analysis, Tolle blurs the border between the contemporary and the historical. His approach involves in-depth research which is then distilled and directed, creating an intuitive personal response. | ||||
