PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — If you’re on the east side of Portland and travel downtown by the Morrison or Hawthorne Bridge, you’ll probably see the huge steel sculptures that look like abandoned skeletons of old buildings.
How they got there and what they represent says a lot about where we live.
The installations are called “Inversion: Plus Minus,” and they are among Portland’s most expansive and expensive public art.
Architects, artists and University of Oregon graduates Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo of Lead Pencil Studio in Seattle created the piece in 2012.
“The artists were inspired by a building that actually used to sit on this site, that was torn down in the ’50s,” Kristin Calhoun with the Regional Arts and Culture Council said. “And the idea was kind of reclaiming the corner, with an echo of the building that was there before.”
Minus is the negative space represented by the smallest sculpture at the Morrison Bridgehead. Altogether, it was a $700,000 project. Much of that was spent in the Eastside industrial District.
“They employed many welders, they bought all their steel through vendors here,” Calhoun said.
It was financed by Portland’s 2% for Art program — 2% of any public match for development projects goes toward art in the city.
Whether you love it or hate it, Inversion: Plus Minus is noticeable and provocative.
“That’s the kind of relationship that we hope people have with their art in the city,” Calhoun said.
