Bay View Station

   The Artist    

George Trakas

George Trakas is a Canadian born sculptor who builds his work through reshaping and reconstructing urban environments. Trakas incorporates the body of the individuals consuming his work, often building sculptures designed to be interacted with and to walk through/spend time on or around. Trakas designed the majority of his work outdoors, where he combines nature and the reshaped environment to create a relationship between human body and the urban landscape. Trakas is currently living in New York City at the age of 73, he has most

recently reshaped the Beacon Point waterside area in Brooklyn New York in 2007. Trakas often will recycle material from the local area and incorporates them into his work, an example of this is the Bay View Station sculpture at Western Washington University. George was a teacher at Yale university for 13 years, as well as being a George Williams University Graduate and also an NYU Graduate.

Taking on the Bay View Sculpture

George Trakas originally designed the Bay View Station sculpture with the intent to create a safe and comforting space that people could retreat to. Moreover, it was created to take a step away from the noise of the world, allowing people to take a quick moment or breath from the wear and tear of the day. George found inspiration from the view onto the Bellingham bay. The Bay View Station was finalized in 1987, where the sculpture creates the sensation of sitting on the docks, looking over the bay. George took his interest in architecture and knowledge of materials to design a labor intensive, although very interactive piece, creating many ways to interact, pass by or spend time at the sculpture. Taking inspiration from Bellingham, an old lumber mill town on the bay, Trakas designed a piece that would change the flow and feel of the landscape of what once was just a grass and weed covered slope previously just consisting of a dirt path.

Troublesome 80’s and 90’s

It seems that Trakas created the Bay View Station during a time where people needed it most. Trakas’s intent of creating the Bay View Station was essentially to connect people from all walks of life. Globally, entering the 1980’s was a troublesome time. Life was chaotic, and leading into the 1980’s, people witnessed events like the Nixon’s Watergate Scandal in 1972, and saw the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The world was seemingly shaken up heading into the 80’s where things didn’t get much better. Under President Ronald Reagan, new political disputes arose. All eyes were on the high stakes Cold War between the Soviet Union and the US. Additionally, Washingtonians had their own issues to deal with. Often referred to as the most disastrous eruption in US history, the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 was heard and felt throughout the state. Not to mention, Washingtonians were scared to leave their houses, and with good reason. The renowned “Green River Killer” was on the loose. Gary Ridgeway was trialed and sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murdering 48 women in the South Sound area of Washington during the 80’s and 90’s. Locally, Whatcom found economic success with the rise of agriculture while its unpredictable waterfront business was waning.

Breath of Fresh Air

During the 80’s television and gaming devices were advancing. Our society was being hit one after another by cultural shockwaves such as the introduction of MTV and the Fox Broadcasting Company. The debut of political satire and many other revolutionary ways of thinking were being broadcasted more openly than ever before. Pop culture at the time was exploding and marked the beginning of when the world began to get loud. It was the first time that the human race truly had to deal with this highly televised culture and it was a bit overwhelming. People, at times, probably did wish they had somewhere to take refuge and given that this sculpture was made with the intention to create that space for someone, these two concepts can be seen as intertwined. This fast-paced way of living, that was so common within the lives of people living in the 80’s, influenced the creation of this sculpture. The Bay View Station was furthermore intended to be the exact place where people could take a break from what was likely an exhausting way of life.

Perceiving the Big Picture

The Bay View Station seems to resemble a boat dock that has been broken apart and glued back together in a disorderly fashion. The sculpture is composed of wooden planks and steal beams throughout, where a fresh coat of white paint has been added, presumably to catch the viewers attention. The artists at the time were people like Jeff Koons and Jean-Michel Basquiat, artist who distorted the world around them, enlarging, sectioning, exaggerating, basically becoming a visual overload, just like the pop culture around the time. The Bayview Station still represents the sectioning and exaggerating that was so prevalent in the art during the time, yet does so in a way that seems low stress and inviting.

 Credits

Photography- taken/ developed/scanned: Darren Stapley

Research and Writing: Matt Miles, Asher Campbell, Darren Stapley

BLOG Website: Admin Matt Miles, Asher Campbell

Bibliography

Bob Batchelor (30, December 2006). The 1980s (American Popular Culture Through History).Retrieved from WWU Library

Janet Oakley (2005, July 31). Whatcom County- Thumbnail History. Retrieved from http://www.historylink.org/File/7327

History.com Staff (2011). The 1980s. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/1980s

Roald Nasgaard (2008, March 4). George Trakas. Retrieved from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/george-trakas/