The Web of Wyrd pattern within the tall basket. Photography: Nick Felkey.

Tribute Baskets

We fabricated four steel basket sculptures from Christine Clark’s artistic designs, honoring the cultures that shaped Bainbridge Island.

Waypoint Park · Bainbridge Island, Washington

Artistic concept: Christine Clark Fabrication: Western Iron Works

The project

Artistic concept: Christine Clark

Fabrication: Western Iron Works

Year: 2016

Material: Steel

The artwork

Four baskets for Bainbridge Island

Christine Clark’s Tribute Baskets honors the Suquamish, Scandinavian, Japanese and Filipino communities and their place in the island’s history.

Each sculpture holds one basket form inside another. The open steelwork lets you see through the outer vessel to the patterns within. Together, the four forms sit among the planting at Waypoint Park, near the ferry terminal.

Three of the four rust-colored steel basket sculptures among the trees and planting beds at Waypoint Park. — Tribute Baskets in the garden at Waypoint Park. Photography: Nick Felkey.

The basket patterns

As described by Christine Clark

Suquamish

A traditional basket pattern honors Suquamish basket makers and their skill in creating watertight cedar-root baskets.

Scandinavian

The Web of Wyrd rune pattern represents the possibilities of the past, present and future.

Japanese

A motif associated with measure and trade carries a wish for growth and prosperity.

Filipino

An omen-bird motif represents good fortune and blessings from the ancestors.

Read Christine Clark’s artist statement

To honor the people of different cultures who helped found Bainbridge Island, ancient symbology was used on each of the four basket forms:

Suquamish Native People - A traditional Suquamish common basket pattern, they were master basket makers, created watertight-coiled cedar roots basketry used for harvesting fish, and other foods.

Scandinavian - A Norse rune pattern, Web of Wyrd, is the matrix of fate and contains all of the shapes of the runes and therefore all of the past, present, and future possibilities they represent.

Japanese - A symbolic motif for measure, this became a popular shop sign among merchants for its appropriateness to their trade and its meaning to increase or prosper.

Filipino - This symbol is an omen bird and common Filipino tattoo pattern. He delivers a message of good fortune or blessings of the ancestors for a particular task.

Thank you to City of Bainbridge Island Public Art Program, Art & Humanities Bainbridge, and Jefferson Fine Home Builders

— Christine Clark

Western Iron Works

In the shop

Curved ribs establish each basket’s outline. These progress photographs show the nested forms, their supporting frames and the steelwork before the sculptures took their place in the park.

An open basket frame in the fabrication shop, showing widely spaced curved ribs and a circular base. — The open framework before the finer horizontal steelwork.

Tall basket framework on a wheeled support in the shop, with a smaller patterned vessel visible inside. — The inner vessel and the taller outer frame together in the shop.

Rounded basket frame in the shop with geometric diamond motifs visible in the inner steelwork. — The patterned inner basket within its curved outer ribs.

A flared basket form on a wheeled platform in the shop, with curved vertical ribs and closely spaced horizontal steelwork. — The flared form during fabrication.

Ready for transport

All four completed steel basket forms secured on a trailer and flatbed truck, showing their different outlines and scale. — All four basket forms loaded for transport.

Waypoint Park · 2016

At Waypoint Park

The four vessels have distinct profiles, from the tall, narrow basket to the low, broad form beside the path. The rust-colored steel sits against the surrounding greenery.