 Rainier Beach Station - Buster Simpson  Beacon Hill Station - Dan Corson | The LINK light rail line from downtown to Tukwila that opened last month includes artwork throughout the system. Artists were involved in the project from the outset, even to the point of helping choose the station architects. KUOW art critic, Gary Faigin, has just returned from riding the rails to check out the results, and he joins us now with his observations. It’s possible for a distracted traveler to ride the spiffy new LINK light rail line from Seattle’s downtown to the airport without noticing much in the way of art. The vast majority of the works are best seen by people off, rather than on the trains, and perhaps that’s inevitable, given how quickly the rail cars move and the multiple directions passengers might look. BLINK, and you certainly might miss the giant phantom playing cards, created by vivid electronic bursts of light intermittently visible in the tunnel just south of Beacon Hill. If you do notice them, and you happen to be like the kids sitting across from me, you let out the sort of whoop that certifies something as truly cool, not to mention unexpected and mysterious. |
