Ripple Affect takes its inspiration from people and nature.The images of a water vessel and a water carrier are common to every population throughout the world. In fact, a woman carrying a water vessel on her head is found on every continent. It is this universal imagery that is abstracted and at the core of this artwork.

Tukwila Village is a community of immigrants, rich in diversity and culture. This diverse population is celebrated through this global imagery and text in the form of proverbs.

The architecture of the community center is built to collect and feed the rainwater from the roof to the sculpture. This water works it’s way through a rain chain to the sculpture, funneling into the small receptacle atop the resin cast water carrier. It fills and showers the water down the sides of the elongated 8’ tall figure, which stands inside a larger than life lace-like bronze water vessel.

 

The rain chain and the water vessel are constructed from words. The words are proverbs from around the world, written in cursive, and cast in bronze. They tell a story of culture and water and form the vessel itself.

During the rains, the water flows down the surface of the water carrier figure, out of reach from the public, within the bronze vessel. The water collects in a cistern below, flowing through a steel grate cut with imagery of water ripples. When the weather is dry, the sculpture functions as a water feature with circulating water which is pumped up from the bottom of the figure to the vessel on top.

 

The sculptures are lit within, from below the hollow resin figure. The blue resin of the water carrier figure glows, while the bronze letters of the larger vessel casts shadows on the concrete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Casting Fabrication: Two Ravens Studio

Sullivan Community Center

14350 Tukwila International Blvd