Seattle's Public Art

The theme for the Witness Trees at Bergen Place Park is inspired by the site's rich history. History is fluid like water -- always changing, moving and shifting upon each telling. The telling carves, reveals, and brings forward a strata of individual and collected stories. "Witness" or "bearing" trees were used as reference points for the first U.S. land surveys in 1851. The five cedar posts that previously held up an awning in the original park plan, suggest a vast primordial forest. The artwork symbolically turns the posts back into trees through the installation of five tree sculptures -- Fossil Tree, First Tree, Clam Tree, Immigrant Tree, and New Growth Tree. Produced for the Seattle Channel by John Forsen with support from the Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.