Angles on Bay View Station

Photography by Michael Henry and Sarah Kindl, Collage by Sarah Kindl

George Trakas is an artist that turns outdoor urban space into an inviting arena for human interaction. The spaces are often unpleasant and the original architecture does not incorporate the landscape to be viewed and enjoyed by people. The transformation of the hillside on the WWU campus for the art installation Bay View Station has an inviting aspect to it and encourages people to take in the breath-taking views that were marginalized by the original construction of the educational buildings. We feel that his original intent was to reverse the obstruction of the buildings and bring a human element to the landscape. His vision of landscape is what makes him a unique artist among landscape driven artists.

The Water Front Nature Walk (above) is a work done by George Trakas and has a similar objective to the Bay View Station. He has taken a waste site next to a harbor that had negative connotations associated with it and turned it into a pleasant walk where people could enjoy the nature and water front. The medium is steel, stone, concrete, wood and plants (2). Engineers and city planners had no intention of using the harbor for anything but industrial purposes. George Trakas saw something totally different when he chose the site. He saw a place of beauty and human presence. The true inspiration of his work is the process of taking “ugly” and turning it into beautiful.

Source Route (above) is a piece done by Trakas in the Atlanta area at Emory University. Students recall that the piece was something that hadn’t been done in the Atlanta area before (3). The piece revealed a ravine that had not been previously noticed by many people before the piece was installed. Once again, the vision of landscape is very prevalent in the intended focus of the sculpture. Land art is where George Trakas thrives, and with the installation of Source Route it is no surprise that the reaction from people who frequent the path talk about how the art piece really brings out the intended beauty of the nature that surrounds it. George Trakas adds to the existing landscape to amplify the art that Mother Nature has already sculpted. This is the true talent Trakas brings to the table.

Digging further into Nature Walk, a beautiful piece by George Trakas, shows a bit of what sculpting and artwork mean to him. His caring goes far beyond the artwork, to different time periods, and different positions in society. Trakas includes the communities he works for in his artwork, inviting them to participate, however passively they choose. Bay View Station expresses the same inclusive attitude. It appears that almost all of his artworks turn the focus out from them, rather than into them. They act as inviting spaces to help the audience look around at the things which already exist without the artwork: history, community, nature – especially water. The sound of water, physical closeness to water, all the lives inside and around the water. The most obvious signs of his respect come out when we see how Trakas treats water in his art, and that respect flows out towards humanity and other human constructions.

Trakas works for his community. He started living in New York City in 1963. Greenpoint, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, seems special to him. That’s the neighborhood where he created Nature Walk, right on the bank of Newtown Creek. It’s obvious from the way he talks about the neighborhood and the wider city that he feels at home, and at peace there. Thinking about his deep connection to the city, I’m sure that experiencing Bay View Station here in Bellingham could speak to a person about the energy of NYC. In Nature Walk, Trakas incorporates several different points in history, including the Lenape people inhabiting the land before European colonization, then the industries built based around barrels, ships, and lumber (all represented in the walkway’s artworks), and later the pollution of Newtown River (4). Historical awareness is a highly important part of Trakas’ art.

So what can Nature Walk tell us about Trakas’ intent during the rendering of Bay View Station? For Nature Walk he said he wanted adventure for his audience (5). He filled Bay View with adventure as well: atop a sloping hill, looking out at a wide-open space, and almost built like a ship’s deck. A little kid could swing around the posts and jump the gaps. The sculpture lets a person have fun. Improving quality of life also seems exceptionally important to Trakas. The space has function and beauty. Set in the middle of the grass, and looking out at the water, the piece connects us with nature just like Nature Walk.

George Trakas began his work on Bay View Station in 1987. In the news, United States President, Ronald Reagan was meeting with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in efforts to end the Cold War, Israeli and Palestinian aggression was breaking out on the Gaza Strip, and both Stephen Hawking’s, “A Brief History of Time” and Donald Trump’s book, “Trump” were on the U.S.’s top selling non-fiction list” (6). The world was in a state of flux, and while pop-icons like Madonna and Andy Worhol were on the covers of magazines and in the news, in places like Bellingham Washington, people were making their best effort to maintain and aid those both locally and internationally.

Bellingham families were opening their doors to victims of the turmoil in Central America, and Salvadorian Civil War, as well as creating “The Central American Refugee Assistance organization (CARA)” (7). And on Western Washington University’s campus, former art professor Larry Hanson was organizing an outdoor “sculpture-construction event” (8) that was to later result in the making of George Trakas’ “Bayview Station”.

With an intent on creating an installation where, “You walk on it, sit on it, eat on it and smoke cigarettes on it.” (Trakas), Bay View Station was a culmination of Trakas’ interpretation of the local environment, along with his artistic drive to blend the organic and inorganic. He uses both natural materials such as lumber and stone to contrast with steel in order to convey the human relationship between nature and society. Heavily influenced by “the mechanics of illusion” (Trakas), Bay View Station was a piece that was created to take people through landscapes, as well as provide them with an opportunity to sit peacefully for a moment, and forget about the troubles of the world.

Michael Henry and Sarah Kindl and Sarah Kindl

Bibliography

1) “George Trakas.” George Trakas :: Foundation for Contemporary Arts. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

2) George Trakas – NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

3) “George Trakas conserves Emory’s “Source Route,” talks of his work as a land artist.” ArtsATL. N.p., 01 July 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

4) “George Trakas.” NYCulture, The City of New York, www.nyc.gov/html/dcla/html/panyc/trakas.shtml. Accessed 24 Apr. 2017.

5) Omnibus, Urban. “George Trakas at the Water’s Edge: Newtown Creek.” Urban Omnibus, Urban Omnibus, 18 Mar. 2009, urbanomnibus.net/2009/03/george-trakas-at-the-waters-edge-newtown-creek/. Accessed 24 Apr. 2017.

6) Schulman, Marc. “Major Events of 1987.” 1986. History Central, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

7) Hoben, Mark. “Western Front – 1987 July 9.” Western Front Historical Collection. The Western Front, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

8) Mackie, Anne. “Western Front – 1987 July 9.” Western Front Historical Collection. Th, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

9) Grout, Catherine. “Paysage et Art Contemporain (Erwin Straus et George Trakas).” text. déméter. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2017.

10) “Inspiration: Source Route by George Trakas.” Proximity To Nature. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2017.

Vimeo. N.p., 19 Mar. 2017. Web. 24 Apr. 2017. <https://vimeo.com/37781859>.