Witness Trees, What the trees have seen
5420 22nd Ave N.W.
Seattle Parks and Recreation 2000 Parks Levy 1% for Art
"Witness" or "Bearing Trees" were used as reference points for the first U.S. surveys in 1851. The five sculptures mounted on five cedar posts that previously held up an awning in the original park, symbolically turn the posts back into "witness trees" suggesting a vast primordial forest. There are five "trees" that comprise the artwork; Fossil Tree, First Tree, Clam Tree, Immigrant Tree, and New Growth Tree. Each become storytellers, revealing layers of the site's history.
Materials used to fabricate the artworks include powder-coated steel, cast concrete, foam covered with Milestone hybridized concrete, steel rebar, ceramics in the shape of clams, fiberglass, and wood from a Norwegian Maple tree.