Sudden Sculpture

The Burien Interim Art Space proves any empty lot can become an artistic spectacle.

Photography by Virginia Wright

Rising out of the rubble of Burien’s Town Square construction zone, the one-acre Burien Interim Art Space (B/ IAS) is an innovative concept. On a slab of land that would otherwise have remained fallow for a year, a crop of metal sculptures has sprouted. The pieces exhibit a range of styles and scale, from a conservative piece easily imagined in front of an office building to a delicate metal tree encircled by comfortable seating. The two-story-tall centerpiece of the site is The Passage, by Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito, which depicts a pair of figures constructed entirely of scrap and recycled metal. The larger figure passes liquid fire to the smaller one through enormous steel fingers.

The creative fire behind this massive logistical operation is the husband-and-wife team of Kathy Justin and Dane Johnson. With a BFA in theatrical lighting from Cornish, Kathy runs her own business, KMJ Lighting Design, and chairs the Burien Arts Commission. Dane, a fellow commissioner, sits on the board of Ignition Northwest and spurs audio-technical advancements as operations manager at KUOW. Artists themselves, they work in resin, paint, words and light. Dane and Kathy have produced arts events for two decades, and last month the City of Burien recognized the invigorating impact of their work by jointly presenting them with the Community Leader Award.

The idea for the B/ IAS project was ignited by the far-reaching sparks of the Burning Man Arts Festival, held in the Nevada desert every year. Dane and Kathy have been faithful “Burners” since 2001 and were able to pull artists and artworks originally built for Burning Man for installation on the B/ IAS project site. To make a reality of what might strike some as a fanciful concept, the duo skillfully assembled a coalition consisting of Burien Town Square, Urban Partners LLC, 4Culture, the City of Burien, Ignition Northwest and GGLO — the architecture firm developing Town Square.

There was an initial request that protective fences be placed around the fiery sculptures, but this was antithetical to the central ideas of B/ IAS: interactivity and community involvement. So there are no barriers around the art. The public can walk around and interact freely with the pieces.

“You can touch the art,” says Dane. “This is not a museum. This is an active, living, engaging space.” At Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, the art is strictly hands off. But B/ IAS is more like a regular urban park, except for the fact that it’s ephemeral and undergoing continuous transformation. B/ IAS will be gone a year after its creation. Its legacy, Dane and Kathy hope, is the inspiration for other performances and installations of art in temporary spaces — around Puget Sound and beyond.

“Really, our goal is to put together a do-it-yourself manual, so that other communities can do the same thing,” says Kathy. “If we can give them the skeleton of how it happened for us, then there’s that possibility.” In Los Angeles and Detroit, people are taking over abandoned lots and making guerrilla community gardens. “We want to do that same thing, but do it with art — and legally. There are going to be so many dormant construction sites all over the nation for the next couple of years.”

The B/ IAS opening in late winter was an exhilarating burst of artistic fervor in the center of the town, attended by hundreds of people, including some who just happened to be passing and felt compelled to stay and watch. The primary sculptures spewed and dripped fire, accompanied by DJs, fire dancers and other performers. Burien had probably never seen such a spectacle, and the response from the community has been nearly unanimous in its enthusiasm.

But it wasn’t a one-shot event with a static sculpture garden left in its wake. The project continues to draw new ideas and artists. The idea is to build the community by connecting people who might not otherwise have any involvement with each other. For instance, the local Pacific Islander community might bring traditional fire dancers to perform in the space alongside Burner-inspired fire dancers from Seattle.

The opening event was preserved in videos and photographs you can view at interim-art-space.com. If this sparks an idea of your own, B/ IAS is just twenty minutes away from downtown Seattle. Go visit. The place is all yours. •