Peer Review: Giant Kite at Open Satellite

An artist, reflecting on the work of other artists.  Like a review. Except not quite.

Last night I drove across 520 to see a really big kite. A really big kite. By "kite" I mean sculptural installation, and by "big" I mean 20 feet tall by 70-plus feet wide. Created by artists Heather and Ivan Morrison during their residency at Open Satellite in Bellevue, Frost King is described as a "prototype of an element of new kite sculptures."

The artists seem to want to make the most massive and sharply aggressive sculptures to float on the winds. It was their interest in the efforts of The Drachen Foundation, a local pro-kite organization with a kite archive, and Open Satellite director Yoko Ott, which brought them to Seattle and got Eric Fredericksen on board to curate the show. But does it fly?

Probably not. But walking into the gallery and viewing this mammoth but airy wall was an eerie experience. I was immediately reminded of Richard Serra — every towering wall-shaped sculpture may have that ghost — but there is little connection. Serra's work is solid and heavy, while the Morrison's piece has a lightness to it, despite its size and angular shape. I could almost picture it flying through the air, pulled on a rope by a giant.

Made of wood milled on-site, collected from felled trees (donated from a project by the development company that owns the building that houses Open Satellite) and painstakingly burned to charcoal, it looked like large wooden shutters that had been burnt in a fire.

The sculpture is dirty too, which clashes nicely with the uber-clean gallery space. Touch it and you will have charcoal all over you. I heard that is exactly what happened to the volunteers helping to install the work last week. Fortunately, all the people and the space cleaned up just fine, with the exception of a few hand print smudges high on the concrete pillars, as Joey Veltkamp (above) pointed out. 

Frost King will be on display through June 19 at Open Satellite, 989 112th Avenue Northeast, Bellevue, 425.454.7355

Heather and Ivan Morrison will give a lecture on their work this Friday, April 30 at the Henry Art Gallery auditorium at 7:00pm.

Photos by Ryan Molenkamp.