Portlandia (statue)

Portlandia is a sculpture by Raymond Kaskey located above the entrance of the Portland Building in downtown Portland, Oregon. It is the second-largest copper repoussé statue in the United States, after the Statue of Liberty.[1]

Portlandia
ArtistRaymond Kaskey
Year1985
TypeCopper repoussé
Dimensions10.62 m (34 ft 10 in)
LocationPortland, Oregon, United States
Coordinates45°30′56.7″N 122°40′44.5″W

History

Portlandia was commissioned by the City of Portland in 1985.[2] Sculptor Raymond Kaskey was paid $228,000 in public funds and reportedly an additional $100,000 in private donations.[3]

Kaskey and his assistant Michael Lasell built sections of the statue in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., and sent the parts to Portland by ship. It was assembled at a barge-building facility owned by Gunderson, Inc, and was installed on the Portland Building on October 6, 1985,[4] after being floated up the Willamette River on a barge.[5]

Description
The Seal of Portland, which was the inspiration for Portlandia

The statue is based on the design of the Portland city seal. The statue depicts a female figure dressed in classical clothes, holding a trident in her left hand and reaching down with her right. The statue is above street level and faces a relatively narrow, tree-lined street.

The statue is 34 feet 10 inches (10.62 m) high[4] and weighs 6.5 short tons (5,900 kg).[3] If standing, the figure would be approximately 50 feet (15 m) tall.

An accompanying plaque includes the official dedication poem, also titled "Portlandia", written by Portland lawyer and poet Ronald Talney.

"She kneels down, and from the quietness of copper reaches out. We take that stillness into ourselves, and somewhere deep in the earth our breath becomes her city. If she could speak this is what she would say: Follow that breath. Home is the journey we make. This is how the world knows where we are."[6]

Despite being funded largely by the City’s Public Art Program, Kaskey was permitted to retain the copyright to his work, and has threatened lawsuits against unlicensed depictions of Portlandia.[7]

The statue appears briefly in the title sequence of the TV series Portlandia, the result of "lengthy" negotiations with Kaskey that required that the statue not be used "in a disparaging way". In 2012, Portland brewery Laurelwood Brewing used an illustration of Portlandia on the label of their Portlandia Pils pilsner. Laurelwood later reached an unspecified cash settlement with Kaskey.[8]

See also

References
  1. Warren, Stuart & Ted Ishikawa. Oregon Handbook. Moon Publications, 1991.
  2. "Portlandia - Travel Oregon". Retrieved 2020-04-30.
  3. Locamthi, John (September 10, 2014). "So Sue Us: Why the Portlandia statue failed to become an icon". Willamette Week. pp. 15–17. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  4. Crick, Rolla J. (October 7, 1985). "Thousands bid ‘Portlandia’ warm welcome: Statue lifted successfully to final spot". The Oregonian, p. A1.
  5. Ota, Alan K. (October 7, 1985). "‘Portlandia’ wends way along river, city streets to delight of onlookers". The Oregonian, p. B3.
  6. The Unlikely Story of Portlandia's Poem. Oregonian, September 3, 2015
  7. "Your best shot at a perfectly sculpted figure". Portland Tribune. May 27, 2003. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
  8. "So Sue Us: Why the Portlandia statue failed to become an icon". Willamette Week. September 10, 2014. pp. 15–17. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
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