Dragon? What Dragon?

Surely you remember the brouhaha that ensued when a "culturally offensive" public artwork was unveiled in Old Town/Chinatown in the winter of ought-seven. If not, you can take this trip down memory lane and also here.

But right now, as I type this, artist Brian Goldbloom and a crew from RACC are installing some of the additional “Illumination” sculptures that were commissioned for the PDC festival street improvements on NW 3rd and 4th Avenue years ago, but have gone unfinished while a remedy was sought. Today's installation includes a more generic topstone replacement for the original carved granite dragon, which had offended many with its improper downfacing position and collared appearance. The original carving was returned to the artist.


One of these two "lanterns" used to have a dragon head in it. Now they're plain "topstones."

Two final components will be installed in the fall, along with interpretive plaques that help describe the 8 different granite base blocks representing the many ethnic communities that have concentrated in this neighborhood over the years. Check out Blogtown PDX for some good additional information, and photos.