Type Sculpture Artist Don Merkt Year 1994 | Medium Galvanized steel Created 1994 | |
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Location Portland, Oregon, United States Similar Packy mural, The Green Man of Portland, Chinatown Gateway, Friendship Circle, Sculpture Stage | ||
Driver's Seat is an outdoor 1994 galvanized steel sculpture by Don Merkt, located at Northwest 5th Avenue and Northwest Irving Street in Portland, Oregon's Transit Mall and Old Town Chinatown neighborhood.
Description
The sculpture, which was funded by the City of Portland's Percent for Art program, the Portland Development Commission, and TriMet, has been described as a "large abstracted eye" that focuses on the Union Station's clock tower, "or more metaphorically time". It measures 10 feet (3.0 m) x 27 feet (8.2 m) and is categorized by the Smithsonian Institution as both abstract and architectural. Behind the eye's iris is a steering wheel and seat, accessible to visitors. The seat's reverse is an inverted replica of the clock face. Merkt has described the work as being about "social responsibility and that shared sensation of steering something greater than yourself through time, whether it be a bus, a family, a community or a culture. The sculpture can be seen as a collective 'I' or 'eye', a living populist sculpture that cameos whoever takes the wheel."