Migration Stage presents a sculptural construct created for the present and in preparation for the future. The installation consists of fourteen Anthropomorphic Dolosse and fifteen SeaBearer precast concrete units located on Seattle's downtown waterfront at the foot of Yesler Way. Migration Stage provides improvisational social amenities that are intended to be appropriated for ecological utility as necessitated by climate change in the future. By enabling flexibility of placement, future generations have the option to re-set the stage or allow them to become marine life armatures.
Art is a tool. The forms of the concrete Anthropomorphic Dolosse and SeaBearer units draw from structural, ecological, and cultural sources. Their functionality reflects the tradition of regional Indigenous tools that are both utilitarian and aesthetic objects.
Historically, a “dolos” referred to a children's toy created from repurposed ox or lamb knucklebones. The bones had a self-nesting characteristic that inspired the original 1960's concept of the dolosse (plural) that are now used worldwide as shoreline armor. The Migration Stage dolosse join a global presence of these iconic sentinels of the Anthropocene. For Anthropomorphic Dolosse, the dolos' form has been anatomically modified to become an art tool with the addition of "arm" holes and "facial" indentation. The arm holes add to the utility of the 2900-pound figurative forms, becoming rope holds for anchoring woody debris to create marine habitat. As the Salish Sea rises with climate change, Anthropomorphic Dolosse could either remain in place for habitat anchoring, or be relocated by future generations as needed, repurposed as part of an ecological civic tool kit.
The ninety linear feet of segmented SeaBearer units serves dual purpose, as seating and as portable sea barriers. The form suggests movable barriers or product stacked along the working waterfront, and foreshadows sandbag deployment against rising waters. SeaBearer units resemble buoyant booms and bladder containment. Metaphorically, the name “SeaBearer" alludes to that the installation is a bearer of information, news, a prophecy.
Today, Anthropomorphic Dolosse and SeaBearers provide a place to gather. They are catalytic social tools of improvisational engagement. Together they make up Migration Stage, an artifact to the future. Children who play on the installations today may one day come to think differently about their childhood playground, to see it as a tool, a storytelling opera, a Salish Sea dance of resilience, agility, and equity.
Stage One: Dolosse and SeaBearer provide a sculptural installation along the Waterfront Promenade serving as an amenity of spectacle to perch and engage upon. Yet, as utility, foretelling a future purpose, art as tool to mitigate the impact of climate induced sea rise.
Stage Two: As King Tides begin to engage with each two ton Dolos, the sculptural installation slowly transitions as the sea rise dictates, providing both amenity and shoreline armor. At some point a redeployment of the Dolosse will need to provide a combination of active shore armor and anchor, holding logs in place to decompose and provide the beginnings of a marine habitat armature. Another option is for the installation to retreat as the sea rises in elevation, continuing to serve as shoreline armor and social amenity. Perhaps the SeaBearers (faux sand bags) which are designed as a form of Jersey Barrier could move up hill while the Dolosse embrace the rising water.
Stage Three - The final Act: The anthropomorphic dolosse transition from partial tidal to total submerged armatures for marine life. The irony is that these modified Dolosse suggest anamorphic figures that collectively could read as a gathering of the proverbal mermaid.
Hopefully civilizations will abandon conspicuous consumption and devise ways to sequester and counter carbon emissions and avoid future acts of the Migration Stage
The Stone Age Pile Driver Shark Head and the contemporary Anthropomorphic Dolosse share a combined, interchangeable aesthetic that serve as both art and tool.
Pile Driver Shark Head is an elegant implement that assists in harvesting fish and is also a cultural object. The Anthropomorphic Dolosse is a sculptural form and interspecies amenity. As tool, the dolosse provides shoreline armoring and marine habitat enhancement.
Variations of dolosse have become global signifiers of sea-level rise. Historically, adaptability to changing environmental conditions has been essential to the survival of all species.
