Oregon Zoo Steller Cove Exhibit

Steller Cove Exhibit

Ocean Habitat

Exhibit Art & Poetry
STELLER COVE'S 1% FOR ART PROJECTS
In 1980, the City of Portland and Multnomah County passed a local ordinance setting aside a percentage of major city and county construction costs for the purchase and display of art. Metro, the Oregon Zoo's governing body, adopted their ordinance in 1987, which devotes one percent of construction costs towards art in an effort to encourage public dialogue and understanding of works of art. The goal is to select and display art which not only represents the best in artistic skills, but that which reflects the essence of the zoo's exhibits.

The Zoo has chosen the following art projects for Steller Cove

Poetry | Kinetic Sculptures | Sonisphere | Sculpture | Illustrations | Photography

POETRY

The words of poet Kim Stafford illustrate the essence of the coastal environment in two poems one placed near the kelp pool and one on panels leading down the pathway to the exhibit. Stafford said that he searched for the sense of wonder that he feels from the beauty of the environment when writing his poetry.

Back Home in the Kelp Forest, Stafford says, has a breathless quality, like the experience of a sea otter going down in one breath through the kelp forest; like a dancer in a kinesthetic experience. The eight-line poem displayed at the exhibit is a shorter version of the original poem shown below.

His six poem sequence is a collection of haiku-like glimpses which are extreme distillations of the complex life events in six different coastal habitats. Stafford said he studied field guides to learn about species and their interactions. Each sequence is placed on a colorful panel with elegant drawings illustrating the animals and plants of a coastal stream, an estuary, a sandy beach, a rocky beach a kelp forest and the open sea.

KINETIC SCULPTURES

Miles Pepper has created four kinetic sculptures, metal fabrications placed into motion via air movement. The sculptures are much more complex and fun to watch than a typical weathervane. The vertical axis of a weathervane points toward the wind and has a stable point. Pepper's sculptures, which move on spindles and ball bearings, have no stable point, are never perfectly still and have a wide range of motion and axes.

The sculptures depict a seal, which moves as a unit, a starfish with one moving part, diamond rays and a pair of pelicans, both with five moving parts.

Part of the criteria for the sculptures was to "celebrate the effects of the environment by suggesting a response to stimulus such as wind, rain and/or sun and shadow." Pepper's sculptures definitely respond to the wind, but the movement also allows interesting shadows to develop.

Pepper feels that there is wonderment about nature that people should feel and hopes that same wonderment can be found in his work.

"I'm happy when people find joy and fascination in some aspect of my work," says Pepper. "I love nature and machines, and my work is a perfect marriage of the two."

SONISPHERE

This is not the first time that composers, Peter Whitmore and Mike VanLiew have been involved with the Oregon Zoo; their sound tracks can also be heard in Cascade Crest exhibit's snow cave. This time however, their focus will be to set a coastal scene for visitors.

"Since the main sound experience which defines the coastal environment is the sound of ocean waves, this primary element is present at all times in different gradations and intensities," says Whitmore.

Calls of shore birds and sounds, which suggest various ways in which humans interact with the marine environment for commerce and recreation, are blended in to enrich and further define aspects of the environment.

"There are certainly moments that allow for readily identified sounds," concedes Whitmore, "but mystery is ultimately more the goal than depiction."

The finished work lasts a bit over 20 minutes and comprises a series of short episodes, plus a brief coda to return to the start of the loop. The transitions between these sections is primarily defined by gradual changes in the surf sounds, which slowly approach the listener and gather in intensity from episodes 1-4, then fade away to prepare for the next cycle of the CD.

The sounds were gathered from field recordings made at the Oregon coast, from specific samples of birds that are appropriate to the setting, and from a library of sampled and manipulated sounds. The hope is that this work will blend in smoothly with the sounds of the zoo environment, while enhancing visitor's imagination of the coast and our ongoing relation to it.

SCULPTURE

"Driftwood Narrative" by sculptor Lynne Hull serves as a gathering point for entry to Steller Cove.

An aesthetic and interpretive element, the sculpture conveys parts of the story of the driftwood ecology cycle. The cycle begins with the wood from a forest tree that dies. The dead trees become floating logs nurturing fish and birds and other aquatic species. The job of decomposition by gribbles and shipworms turns the tree back into nutrients reintroduced to the food web. The logs wash ashore and the beach driftwood shelters birds, plants and other species. A pictograph describing the cycle has been placed on the "face" of the log gribble Hull has constructed.

A gribble and worm eaten log stands as witness of a tiny animal decomposing huge logs back to nutrient level. Images on the logs are some of the species who use driftwood at various points in the cycle.

The wood piles built on the beach by wave action and the way beach wood offers shelter, are the inspiration for the form made from driftwood gathered from Pacific Northwest Beaches.

"I hope zoo visitors will absorb some of the ideas expressed in the story or at least become curious about the information, while enjoying the natural beauty of the logs, enhanced by the way they are placed in the sculpture," says Hull.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustrator Linda Feltner has produced three illustrations that enhance several areas of the Steller Cove exhibit. The first illustration visitors will encounter is a full color, water color rendering of a sea otter, depicting the otter swimming in search of food. The ancient midden is enhanced by an illustration which describes the daily life of coastal natives. An inset map shows the locations of historic villages and trade routes. Her final illustration shows the sea life that exists in the tide pools and in which tidal zone they live.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Making a difference is the message of John Bauguess's three photos showing volunteers who desire to protect the natural beauty of the coastal habitat.

"Some of the people live near the sea, others come from afar," reflects Bauguess. "But they all have in common their desire to preserve what is here. For this they share their time generously."

Back Home in the Kelp Forest
by Kim Stafford
Drawing by Linda M. Feltner

Read this in one salty breath -- all you have
after your plunge into the good gold sunlight
of the kelp grove taller than you knew --
the stipe and blade of living rope in this dancing
city wave after wave -- wolf eel, dogfish, nudibranch,
urchin, anemone, brittle star, kelp fish, rock fish,
coon-stripe shrimp -- your cousins everywhere
in the life maze. Forget their names and seize
that shaft of sunlight, that bubble swirl the moon-heart
drummed from the deep. Be the two-world otter
at play where you flounder, where you yearn like
octopus, where abalone grip on stone is also yours,
your breath your own holdfast to that other life that
finally lets you go, let's you dream you have learned
to breathe through skin and live wherever you will.

Six Poem Sequence
Steller Cove
by Kim Stafford
Watercolor by Linda M. Feltner

Coastal Stream
Take me down through forest light
where gold sun grows me tall
and blue water carries me away.

Estuary
Let me ooze through eelgrass roots,
taste salt, surrender into water's ebb
dizzy in the vast and hungry tide.

Sandy Beach
Where the sun must crawl and seek,
scatter me among the beach jewels
where I am but a splinter, crystal, nub.

Rocky Beach
Where the last cliff kneels to salt,
shatter me in a moonlight wave
and tug me toward the deep.

Kelp Forest
Bring me home to sunlit spangle --
in kelp, I come back to my forest ways,
dancing gold in the green city.

Open Sea
Let me go where whales roll
and plunge. I spangle free,
singing deep in the open sea.