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Bridge troll

Today’s Zippy, another of Bill Griffith’s adventures in public art (tilted towards the whimsical and bizarre, but in fact more general than that):


(#1) Featuring the Fremont Troll in Seattle WA

Both whimsical and impossible to ignore.

From Wikipedia:


(#2) Fremont Public Art: a public art sculpture in Seattle WA, nearing sundown (photograh by Chris Anderson on the FineArtAmerica site)

The Fremont Troll (also known as The Troll, or the Troll Under the Bridge) is a public sculpture in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington in the United States.

The Troll was sculpted [in 1990] by four local artists: Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter, and Ross Whitehead. The idea of a troll living under a bridge is derived from the Scandinavian (Norwegian) folklore.

… The Troll is a mixed media colossal statue, located on N. 36th Street at Troll Avenue N., under the north end of the George Washington Memorial Bridge (also known as the Aurora Bridge). It is clutching an actual Volkswagen Beetle, as if it had just swiped it from the roadway above. The vehicle has a California license plate.

Oh, those Californians, invading the good places of the state of Washington.

This entry was posted on May 16, 2020 at 6:17 am and is filed under Art, Linguistics in the comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Bridge troll”

  1. arnold zwicky Says:
    May 16, 2020 at 8:24 am | Reply

    From Mike Pope on Facebook, 5/16:

    Not necessarily obvious, but the troll’s eye is a hubcap.
    Fremont is very proud of its whimsicality. This is a couple of blocks away:

    https://fremont.com/explore/sights/waiting-for-the-interurban

    Waiting for the Interurban: In 1979 sculptor Richard Beyer created Seattle’s most popular interactive artwork. It commemorates the light rail Interurban line that used to connect downtown Seattle with all of its neighborhoods. The piece depicts six people under a shelter and a curious dog, with a human face. It is located on the southeast corner of North 34th Street and Fremont Avenue North, just east of the northern end of the Fremont Bridge.
    Made from cast aluminum, the statue has attracted the imagination, mischief and creativity of hundreds of neighbors each year.

  2. kenru Says:
    May 16, 2020 at 10:10 am | Reply

    I try to make a pilgrimage to the Troll every time I’m in Seattle. I’ve basked in its aura, ready to sacrifice myself to its fearsome trollness, maybe 20 times over the years.

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