Seattle artist Carol dePelecyn’s new artworks Memento and Short in the Tooth will open at Seattle Public Utilities’ ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new South Transfer Station, 9:30  a.m. to noon, Wednesday, May 30.

In Memento and Short in the Tooth, dePelecyn salvaged parts of the old South Park Bridge to create a two-part sculpture that pays homage to a vital part of the neighborhood’s history. She repurposed three large sections of the bridge’s original roadway grating into a large-scale sculpture that mimics a stop-action view of a bridge leaf raising (or lowering). She integrated recycled road reflectors into the bridge decking to play on light. She also designed an image of the Duwamish River that will be painted onto the transfer station. The artwork is located in the meadow area to the east of the facility.

Seattle Public Utilities is replacing the South and North Transfer Stations, which are more than 40 years old and can no longer meet all of Seattle’s solid waste needs. A new, fully enclosed South Transfer Station has been built across the street from the existing site. The old South Transfer Station will be demolished after a new North Transfer Station is rebuilt near its current location.

DePelecyn has been artist-in-residence at the South Transfer Station since 2008, working with the new facility’s design team to integrate artwork into the site and the new facility’s building design. In response to the community’s love for the old bridge and her practice of reusing and repurposing salvaged industrial materials, dePelecyn decided to memorialize the original South Park Bridge.