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 Echo - SAM Olympic Sculpture Park - Seattle, WA
N 47° 36.916 W 122° 21.336
10T E 548425 N 5273741
This sculpture based on Greek mythology is located in the Seattle Museum of Art's Olympic Sculpture Park.
Waymark Code: WMWC42
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 08/11/2017
Views: 7
A nearby plaque to this abstract sculpture reads:
Echo, 2011
Polyester resin, marble dust,
steel framework
Jaume Plensa
Spanish, born 1955
Barney A. Ebsworth Collection, 2013.22
Jaume Plensa's sculpture Echo is named for the mountain nymph of Greek mythology who offended the goddess Hera--she kept her engaged in conversation and prevented her from spying on one of Zeus' amours. To punish Echo, Hera deprived the nymph of speech, except for the ability to repeat the last words spoken by another. The sculptor created this monumental head of Echo with her eyes closed, seemingly listening or in a state of meditation.
The museum website also highlights this sculpture and it reads:
Jaume Plensa is a Catalan artist who lives and works in Barcelona. He has come to great prominence in the last decade with his monumental figurative outdoor sculptures. Reminiscent of memorial sculpture, Plensa has created seated figures and heads in introspective, meditative states. The winner of many national and international awards, he has realized public installations in London, Paris, Madrid, New York, Chicago, Calgary and Dubai.
Echo was originally commissioned by the Madison Square Park Conservancy in New York and installed at the park to great acclaim. It was modeled on the nine-year-old daughter of the owner of a Chinese restaurant near the artist’s studio. With computer modeling, Plensa elongates and abstracts the girl’s features. The sculpture references Echo, the mountain nymph of Greek mythology. As told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Echo offended the goddess Hera by keeping her engaged in conversation, and preventing her from spying on one of Zeus’s amours. To punish Echo, Hera deprived the nymph of speech, except for the ability to repeat the last words of another. Plensa offers us a monumental head of Echo with eyes closed, seemingly listening or in a state of meditation. Envisioning Echo looking out over Puget Sound in the direction of Mount Olympus (a further reference to Greek mythology that is already embedded in the landscape), Plensa also intends for the sculpture to serve as a gathering point for introspection and contemplation. In our increasingly networked culture where information is endlessly copied and repeated, it is a work that invites viewers to pause.
Polyester resin, marble dust, steel framework, height 45 ft. 11 in., footprint at base 10 ft. 8 in. x 7 ft. 1 in., gross weight 13,118 lb, Barney A. Ebsworth Collection, 2013.22, © Jaume Plensa
Time Period: Ancient
Epic Type: Mythical
Exhibit Type: Figure, Statue, 3D Art
Approximate Date of Epic Period: Not listed
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