Portlandia
Encyclopedia
Portlandia is a sculpture by Raymond Kaskey
located above the entrance of Michael Graves
' Portland Building in downtown Portland, Oregon
, at 1120 SW 5th Avenue. It is the second-largest copper repoussé statue in the United States, after the Statue of Liberty
.
Raymond Kaskey
, Greg Pettengill and Michael LaSalle built sections of the statue in one of the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and shipped the parts to Portland by rail. It was assembled at a barge building facility, Gunderson, Inc. It was installed on October 6, 1985, after being floated up the Willamette River
on a barge.
The statue is based on the design of the city seal
. It depicts a woman dressed in classical clothes, holding a trident in the left hand and reaching down with the right hand to greet visitors to the building.
The statue itself is 34 feet, 10 inches (10.6 meters) high. If standing, the woman would be about 50 feet (15 m) tall. An accompanying plaque contains a poem by Portland resident Ronald Talney
.
The statue is above street level, and faces a narrow, tree-lined street with limited automobile access. Occasionally, there are suggestions to move the statue to a more visible location, but these have come to nothing and the sculptor states that he designed the statue for its location and would not approve of moving it.
It has also been claimed that Portlandias relatively low profile results from sculptor Kaskey's close guarding of his intellectual property
. Unlike the Statue of Liberty
, Portlandia may not be reproduced for any commercial purpose without permission from the artist. The rights to the image of Portlandia remain Kaskey's sole property. The Regional Arts & Culture Council
maintains the statue.
Portlandia is a product of Portland's Public Art Program, dedicated to working with the public and private sectors to support art reflecting a wide range of perspectives .
Raymond Kaskey
Raymond Kaskey is an American sculptor.He was born in Pittsburgh. He studied architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University...
located above the entrance of Michael Graves
Michael Graves
Michael Graves is an American architect. Identified as one of The New York Five, Graves has become a household name with his designs for domestic products sold at Target stores in the United States....
' Portland Building in downtown Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, at 1120 SW 5th Avenue. It is the second-largest copper repoussé statue in the United States, after the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
.
Raymond Kaskey
Raymond Kaskey
Raymond Kaskey is an American sculptor.He was born in Pittsburgh. He studied architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University...
, Greg Pettengill and Michael LaSalle built sections of the statue in one of the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and shipped the parts to Portland by rail. It was assembled at a barge building facility, Gunderson, Inc. It was installed on October 6, 1985, after being floated up the Willamette River
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...
on a barge.
The statue is based on the design of the city seal
Seal of Portland, Oregon
The city seal of Portland, Oregon, was originally adopted in 1878, standardized in 1964, and most recently revised August 3, 2005. According to the city's website, "The female figure in the center of the seal represents Commerce, while the sheaf of grain, cogwheel, and sledgehammer symbolize the...
. It depicts a woman dressed in classical clothes, holding a trident in the left hand and reaching down with the right hand to greet visitors to the building.
The statue itself is 34 feet, 10 inches (10.6 meters) high. If standing, the woman would be about 50 feet (15 m) tall. An accompanying plaque contains a poem by Portland resident Ronald Talney
Ronald Talney
Ronald Talney is a poet, who has lived most of his life in Oregon. He has published poems in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, and has published five books of poems including The Anxious Ground, from Press-22 in 1974, and The Quietness That Is Our Name, from Bohematash Press as part of...
.
The statue is above street level, and faces a narrow, tree-lined street with limited automobile access. Occasionally, there are suggestions to move the statue to a more visible location, but these have come to nothing and the sculptor states that he designed the statue for its location and would not approve of moving it.
It has also been claimed that Portlandias relatively low profile results from sculptor Kaskey's close guarding of his intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
. Unlike the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
, Portlandia may not be reproduced for any commercial purpose without permission from the artist. The rights to the image of Portlandia remain Kaskey's sole property. The Regional Arts & Culture Council
Regional Arts & Culture Council
The Regional Arts & Culture Council is an agency that oversees arts activity throughout the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon, United States. It was established as an independent 501 nonprofit organization in 1995, replacing a bureau that had been shared by the City of Portland and Multnomah...
maintains the statue.
Portlandia is a product of Portland's Public Art Program, dedicated to working with the public and private sectors to support art reflecting a wide range of perspectives .
External links
- History of Portlandia from the Regional Arts and Culture Council
- Poem by Ronald Talney on plaque.
- Writing Portlandia: My 15 Minutes of Fame by Ronald Talney
- Video of Portlandia arriving in Portland