A monumental art installation using recycled parts from nuclear attack submarines built in the '60s has been installed at Magnuson Park in north Seattle. "The Fin Project: From Swords Into Plowshares" is the work of John Young, a professor of public art and sculpture at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The design magazine Metropolis describes the outdoor sculpture as "22 submarine fins placed at various angles and heights to resemble the dorsal fins of a large pod of orca whales." Each fin, painted black, weighs 10,000 pounds; the whole installation, on the site of a former Navy base, is 500 feet long.This commemoration of the end of the Cold War was built with $150,000 in private money raised by Max Gurvich, a Seattle philanthropist. "We spent millions of dollars on a war machine," he told Metropolis. "Now it has become an object of art."
- Leah Garchik