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.
Ode to Portlandia by Ronald G. Talney, 1985
October 6, 2005, marks the 20th anniversary of Portland’s renowned sculpture, Portlandia, located on the Portland Building at 1120 SW 5th Avenue. The history of this iconic symbol of Portland can be traced back to the Portland City Seal.
In the early 1980s, architect Michael Graves suggested a statue based on the Portland City Seal as part of his design for the new Portland Building, which was slated to house City government offices. The seal depicts a wilderness scene including mountains, forest and the sea. In the foreground, Lady Commerce, stands on the shore with a trident in her right hand as a ship enters the port behind her. A sheaf of grain, a cogwheel and a sledgehammer lie to her left in the foreground. Together, these figures symbolize the origins of the city, its culture, agrarian base, and industry.
With the City Council’s passage of the Percent for Art ordinance in 1980, 1% of the construction cost for the Portland Building was set aside for art. In 1982, a proposal by the Maryland based sculptor Raymond Kaskey was selected through a competitive process, administered by the Metropolitan Arts Commission (now the Regional Arts & Culture Council).
The sculpture is made of hammered copper sheeting about the thickness of a dime formed around a steel armature. After three years Portlandia was completed and shipped across country by rail in eight pieces and assembled in a local shipyard.
On October 6, 1985, Portlandia entered the City on a river barge and truck, to an enthusiastic welcome by thousands of Portland residents - sailing in the wake of the barge and lining the riverbank, bridges and streets as she proceeded to her new home. Upon raising Portlandia to her ledge on the Portland Building, crane oiler Carsten Petersen recalls, “People were climbing all over the crane. I finally gave up trying to keep them away.” No one had expected such a large crowd.
Her dedication to the citizens of Portland on October 8, 1985, confirmed her acceptance as a new symbol of the City declared in an official ode (see above) by poet Ronald G. Talney, winner of a poetry contest sponsored by The Oregonian to celebrate the new copper goddess.
This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Percent for Art Program of the City of Portland and Multnomah County, which is administered by the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Portlandia stands as one of the early and most enduring pieces produced by this program, which seeks to weave public art throughout communities that reflects a diversity of populations, artistic disciplines, and points of view.
To learn more about Portlandia and the Public Art Program visit the Public Art Gallery on the Portland Building’s mezzanine, almost directly behind Portlandia’s perch, open to the public Monday through Friday from 7a.m. to 6p.m. This exhibition extensively documents Portlandia’s creation and arrival in Portland and also presents a wide range of local public art in Portland, with samples of recent commissions.. For the media, a file of photographs of Portlandia can be downloaded at www.racc.org/media.
Portlandia Arrives in Portland #2, October 6, 1985
Photograph by Steward Harvey. Purchased for the Visual Chronicle of Portland in 2005
by the Regional Arts & Culture Council
Through vision, leadership and service the Regional Arts & Culture Council works to integrate arts and culture in all aspects of
community life.
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