Room for Change: A Mural by Carolina Silva

 
PRESENTED BY SPACE.CITY & URBAN ARTWORKS
WITH DOWNTOWN SEATTLE ASSOCIATION &
FRIENDS OF WATERFRONT SEATTLE

For this year's Seattle Design Festival, Space.City and
Urban ArtWorks are collaborating with Carolina Silva to create a mural at the Pike Street Hill Climb along Western Avenue. The transformation will take place over the first week of the festival, with support from Downtown Seattle Association and Friends of Waterfront Seattle.  

A celebration honoring the transformation will be held at the mural, on September 21st, from 6 - 9 pm.  The community is invited to enjoy a live busker performance by John Strayer Music and refreshments, including libations from the Seattle Beer Company, our beer and venue sponsor. The event is free and open to the public. 

Carolina Silva's work often explores the dichotomy of inside and outside.  The wall-paper like quality of the mural suggests the idea of containment, as with a box or a room.  Multiple panels of repetitive pattern envelope the space, transforming a forgotten place- a mundane passageway- into a vibrant room.

Repetitive patterns and hand-traced flowers are recurrent elements in Silva's recent work; they represent chaos within harmony, or rather harmony within chaos. Vulnerability is a concept rarely explored in public art, but through its floral motifs and dusty pinks, the mural is both soft and iconic at the same time.  It is both quiet while focusing attention; feels intimate while being open.  The mural is a reminder that although seemingly permanent, the urban environment can be changed.