Portlandia (statue)
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox artwork
Portlandia is a sculpture by Raymond Kaskey located above the entrance of the Portland Building in downtown Portland, Oregon. It is the second largest copper repoussé statue in the United States, after the Statue of Liberty.[1]
History
Portlandia was commissioned by the City of Portland in 1985.[2] Sculptor Raymond Kaskey was paid $228,000 in public funds and reportedly an additional $100,000 in private donations.[3]
Kaskey and his assistant Michael Lasell built sections of the statue in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., and sent the parts to Portland by ship. It was assembled at a barge-building facility owned by Gunderson, Inc, and was installed on the Portland Building on October 6, 1985,[4] after being floated up the Willamette River on a barge.[5]
Description
.png){kind=link}
The statue is based on the design of the Portland city seal. The statue depicts a female figure, Lady Commerce, dressed in classical clothes, holding a trident in her left hand and reaching down with her right. The statue is above street level and faces a relatively narrow, tree-lined street.[6]
The statue is Template:Convert high[4] and weighs Template:Convert.[3]
An accompanying plaque includes the official dedication poem, also titled "Portlandia", written by Portland lawyer and poet Ronald Talney:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
"She kneels down, and from the quietness of copper reaches out. We take that stillness into ourselves, and somewhere deep in the earth our breath becomes her city. If she could speak this is what she would say: Follow that breath. Home is the journey we make. This is how the world knows where we are."[7]
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Copyright
Despite being funded largely by the City’s Public Art Program, Kaskey retained the copyright to the sculpture and has threatened lawsuits against unlicensed depictions of Portlandia.[8][3]
The statue appears in the title sequence of the TV series Portlandia, the result of "lengthy" negotiations with Kaskey that required the statue not be used "in a disparaging way".[3] In 2012, Laurelwood Brewing used an illustration of the statue on the label of Portlandia Pils, a beer it introduced; the brewery later found out about Kaskey's copyright and reached a cash settlement with Kaskey.[3]
See also
Script error: No such module "Portal".
- 1985 in art
- Berolina, personification of Berlin
- Hammonia, personification of Hamburg
- National personification
- Tethys (mythology)
- The Spirit of Detroit
References
- ↑ Warren, Stuart & Ted Ishikawa. Oregon Handbook. Moon Publications, 1991.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b c d e Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Crick, Rolla J. (October 7, 1985). "Thousands bid ‘Portlandia’ warm welcome: Statue lifted successfully to final spot". The Oregonian, p. A1.
- ↑ Ota, Alan K. (October 7, 1985). "‘Portlandia’ wends way along river, city streets to delight of onlookers". The Oregonian, p. B3.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
External links
- History of Portlandia from the Regional Arts & Culture Council
- Poem by Ronald Talney on plaque
- Writing Portlandia: My 15 Minutes of Fame by Ronald Talney
- Video of Portlandia arriving in Portland at YouTube
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- 1985 establishments in Oregon
- 1985 sculptures
- Copper sculptures in Oregon
- Culture of Portland, Oregon
- Outdoor sculptures in Southwest Portland, Oregon
- Statues in Portland, Oregon
- Sculptures of women in Oregon
- Civic personifications
- Architectural sculpture
- Colossal statues in the United States
- Statues of women in the United States