I just finished reading Calvino’s Invisible Cities, that postmodern novel I’ve seen cited and quoted and gestured at for decades in the books about human geography and urban politics I tend to reach for first, and it was only near the very end that I felt a strong resemblance between one of his imagined destinations and Seattle:
“Also in Raissa, city of sadness, there runs an invisible thread that binds one living being to another for a moment, then unravels, then is stretched again between moving points as it draws new and rapid patterns so that at every second the unhappy city contains a happy city unaware of its own existence.”
This is one of those happy cities within a city, gathered on the lawn outside of @atbearisland, the former site of Admiral UCC, getting things done for @nwfolklife. Solidarity is the invisible thread running through this town.
This is the main piece that will make up the @nwfolklife People’s Gallery exhibit we’re calling THE RAISED FIST.
Organized by @seattledsa’s art and culture team, and based on six years of research by SDSA member and labor historian Daniel Ammons, the piece not only tells the story of this ubiquitous symbol of global solidarity; it kinda embodies it. To make this, we brought together two childhood friends and three art collectives, two of which worked directly on the standalone objects you see here. The full project will also feature works by @christine.bingham.art’s students.
That’s what the raised fist was always about: strength through togetherness, seizing something solid out of all that’s melted into air.
More scenes from yesterday’s art build.
Thank you Parker, Daniel, Taylor, Michael, Christine, Jackie, Kat, Gary, Liza, Rainer, Dylan, Maia, and all the comrades we made along the way.