Flows and Eddies

At Smith and Bybee lakes art and the landscape are intertwined in an approach that juxtaposes broad sweeping gestures on the land with more intimate experiences that detail the special qualities of the lakes and the natural preservation area. The sinuous but subtle curves of willow and other native plantings undulate through the site, alternately opening up to create vistas and narrowing down to create passages through green. The result adds a rhythmic, inhale and exhale to the journey through the site. Native American stone fish traps inspired the curving shapes of “habitat drifts”. The flowing lines of willows and other native plants embrace focal points of sculpture or more concentrated areas of planting and stone. These “eddies” of landscape and art include large carved “ecology” stones. Simply carved in a way that evokes fossils or stone implements, the rocks are inspired by native species found at the lakes. 

Art was installed throughout the park and remains on view at three primary sites in the parking area’s bio swale landscape. Large, simply carved Ecology Stones punctuate the landscape, cupped in the curves of the willow walls and as landmarks at the entries. The twin detention ponds offer a multi-dimensional orientation point for experiencing the lakes. There are vistas of Smith Lake and the hills beyond, and the opportunity to see up close plants at the water’s edge. The pond area was an opportunity to create a teaching landscape, Seasonal Encampment, establishing plants like wapato, camas and nettles important to Indigenous people for food, cordage or basket making. A sculptural grouping inspired by the forms of Chinook canoes carved from columnar basalt evokes the use of the lake as a seasonal encampment for fishing and harvesting. The casual grouping of canoe forms evokes an interrupted moment in daily life, and creates an emotional connection between past and present. At the canoe launch—a large carved stone Mussel Shell Timelines—is sandblasted with texts related to evolution of the shoreline ecology, providing another gathering place for naturalist’s talks and orientation before boating on the lake.

Artist Fernanda D'Agostino

Location/s: Smith and Bybee Lakes Master plan and public art, Portland, OR, 2004