Last week a piece of artwork was installed at the Mountlake Terrace Freeway Station. The sculpture is made out of bronze and will act as a bench for those waiting for the bus.

The piece is called “at the stillpoint” and was created by Jacqueline Metz and Nancy Chew.

Check out the artwork on your own by attending the Grand Opening of the Freeway Station on Thursday, March 17 at noon.

Here’s a little bit about the Sound Tranist Public Art Program (STart) and the art installation:

Sound Transit allocates a portion of project construction costs to art. Art within the regional transit system includes free-standing art, functional art and temporary art. STart works with local communities, design professionals and transit partners to select artists and artworks appropriate for each project.

Set onto the southbound platform is a long, voluptuous form – a majestic tree trunk. Cast bronze, from an actual tree trunk, it is unexpected, powerful, graceful, tactile – a natural form set within an utilitarian architectural space. It is a reference to the forested landscape, the history of logging, the soaring trees of the local parks and neighborhoods. The surface of this sculptural form is mainly smooth, touchable, as though the bark has been peeled away, leaving only a few rough patches. Over time, the bronze will patina and achieve a luster where people sit or touch the surface. The linearity of the form echoes the architecture, while the organic quality provides a sensuous counterpoint. The log offers passengers a place to sit, a place to recall memories of sitting in a clearing in the forest.

As a counterpoint to this evocative, tactile component is a sleek graphic abstraction of tree rings, narrow bands of stainless steel – a suggestion of a magnificent, even mythic, tree. Together, the two components form a meditation on nature and culture, and on the passage of time.

Check out more photos of the artwork installation at STart’s Flickr page.