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Vereinigung

Connie Watts

Harborview Medical Center

Animal figures speak to the harmony of life in this suspended sculpture.

Connie Watts. Vereinigung, 1997. Birch plywood and hardwood dowels. Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: Spike Mafford

This monumental sculpture is suspended in the lobby of Harborview Medical Center’s Ninth and Jefferson Building. Mixed-media artist and designer Connie Watts created it while recovering from a serious head injury caused by a car accident—its making was part of her healing process.

Three animal figures featured in Vereinigung reflect and inform the artist’s spirit: the wolf as hunter, the bear as protector, and the raven as trickster. In the Northwest Coast cultural tradition, totems are associated with clan; Watts integrated these animal figures with human forms to speak to the harmony of all life. She has also adapted tradition to create the intricate and multi-dimensional imagery using contemporary materials and methods that bring together “past and present, human and animals, space and body, real and abstract," she says.
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Vereinigung means unification in German. The word reflects the unity and respect the First Nations have for the life around us. It also represents the absence of my Native tongue, due to the neglect of our languages in the schooling system, and my background in the languages of German and French. —Connie Watts
 Watts herself is of Nuu-chah-nulth, Gitxan, and Kwakwaka'wakw ancestry and lives on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. She donated Vereinigung to the King County Public Art Collection at Harborview Medical Center in 2009, and worked with 4Culture staff on siting and installation.
Connie Watts. Vereinigung, 1997. Birch plywood and hardwood dowels. Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: Spike Mafford
Connie Watts. Vereinigung, 1997. Birch plywood and hardwood dowels. Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: Spike Mafford
Connie Watts. Vereinigung, 1997. Birch plywood and hardwood dowels. Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: Spike Mafford

Media

 

Connie Watts. Vereinigung Interview. King County Public Art Collection. Audio: 4Culture

 

About the Location

Harborview Medical Center

For more than a century, Harborview Medical Center has functioned as a unique community and regional resource. It is a county hospital, a teaching and research institution, a regional trauma and burn center, and the primary health care provider for many low-income and disenfranchised people in the community. Harborview embraces its mission of treating everybody…

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