Leaving their mark on art park

"Vito" apparently liked Seattle's new Olympic Sculpture Park so much he signed his name to it.

As did "Cameron." "Andy." "Cheb." And "Mom." Someone else looked upon the 8.5-acre waterfront expanse, with its 18 sculptures, and felt moved to let us know that "David is a gay."

These writings, alongside hearts, stars and smiley faces, have been doodled onto the rusted surface of just one artwork -- Richard Serra's "Wake" -- in the park's first week.

Art park, meet your public.

"It's like a museum without walls, and it's also a park," said Cara Egan, spokeswoman for the Seattle Art Museum. "It's been eye-opening these first few days to see how that's all going to work together."

The art has not been permanently damaged, curators say. People wrote on Serra's 14-foot-high steel slabs mostly by pushing their fingers into the corroded surface. It left marks that are faintly visible despite repeated power-washings, but curators say they can be buffed out.

Still, I saw someone had used a rock to lightly carve "DAD" into the steel of "Wake," which is a $5 million sculpture.

A series of waist-high steel forms called "Wandering Rocks" had footprints on top, indicating someone had taken the word "wandering" literally and climbed up to look around.

It's a grand experiment in public psychology. It's free and open to whoever happens by. This is the joy of the place, but it may also be its undoing.

Will people see it as a museum, where the rules are clear that you don't mess with the art? Or as a nature park with fancy jungle gyms?

Those who designed it want it to be some of both. Yet just the right amount of each.

"We don't want to cordon it off," said Chris Rogers, the park's project manager. "There is supposed to be direct interaction with the art. But people have to do it with respect."

The other day I walked alone through Serra's shifting "Wake." It's tantalizing being so close to a 300-ton sculpture. I wanted to run my hand along the curved surfaces.

I didn't. Signs everywhere say not to touch. Then, two families arrived and began playing tag or peekaboo, grabbing the trim ends of the slabs as they raced about.

Is that lack of respect? Based on the title "Wake," the artist probably hoped for a more subdued reaction. But he has insisted the subject is "you and your experience when you're walking through." Even if it's playing tag at a funeral.

On the other hand, they left behind a half-dozen handprints in the rust.

I think what's going on here is that the park part of our new jewel on the Sound is overpowering the art part. It doesn't feel like you're in a museum. So people aren't acting like it.

Officials say they are going to work on "educating visitors" about proper behavior, rather than stepping up security or fencing off the art.

That's good. Making art is partly about releasing control. At some point the masses take over, for good or ill.

The plaque on one sculpture reads: "The idea of endless public dialogue ... is very important to us."

And you're going to get it. Even if sometimes it's in writing from a guy named Vito.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday.

Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.