About Me

For Immediate Release;

Lot's Tribe: Salt Witnesses

A public sculpture installation by Michael Magrath

SEATTLE – With heightened airport security due to potential terrorist threats, continued and increasing war in the Middle East, and five years passage since Sept 11th, Seattle artist Michael Magrath has created a series of site-specific sculptures intended to ask stark questions about the roots of terror.

Lot's Tribe is conceived as a temporary memorial to the other victims of 9 /11: Three life-sized statues of Iraqi civilian men and boys, each cast in salt, were placed in Occidental Park, in Pioneer Square, Downtown Seattle for the morning of September 11, 2006. There the white, crystalline figures will stand, sudden incursions of unwelcome reality into our daily lives, until the rains come and they dissolve.

"These figures were culled from news images coming out of the Middle East over the past few years," says Magrath. "The scenes were shocking, and I wondered why they were not more widely seen. They made me think about what it feels like to witness something so unexpected and vast; lika an explosion that will permanently alter your life, and how that sort of traumatic event evolves over time. My intent was to render some sense of these scenes in as real and arresting manner as possible, a kind of 3D photojournalism -- silent monuments to seemingly distant events with which we, whether we recognize it or not, are intimately connected."

If you would like to see photos of the work and its creation, follow the progess of the erosion over the next few months, and for latest news, please visit the site blog… http://lotstribe.typepad.com/lots_tribe/

In addition to the many hundreds of hours of volunteer labor put in by a crew of nearly two dozen students, sculptors, and friends who came regularly for the 6 weeks it took to mold and cast these figures, material support for this project was generously provided by 4Culture, by the Gage Academy of Art, and the University of Washington Sculpture and Public Art Department. Content however, is the sole responsibility of the artist. He may be contacted at michael@magrathsculpture.com

You may see news coverage of this event at
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/visualart/284602_mourning11.html

and video at
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_091006WABsalt_sculpturesSW.887b2316.html

Debate on the Television coverage at
http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2006/09/art_thats_not_all_ab.php

Web article at
http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/uweek/uweekarticle.asp?articleID=26976

Please come down to Occidental Square and see them while they last. They will be up for at least a month, or maybe three. Depends on the weather.
http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/occident.htm

Thanks for your support.

Michael Magrath
Magrath Sculpture.
http://magrathsculpture.com/