Two temporary murals paying tribute to Bruce Lee’s philosophy and connections to Seattle will be installed on the outside of the New Central building and on the Rex Apartments on Maynard Avenue. The International Special Review District (ISRD) Board recommended approving the project, which is a collaboration between the Wing Luke Museum and the Bruce Lee Foundation, during its September 24 meeting.
Louie Gong, a Coast Salish artist whose work focuses on Indigenous and multiracial identity, was hired to create the murals, with funding from a Hope Corps grant from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS).
The murals will each be ten feet by ten feet in dimension, constructed from aluminum panels and treated with a coating to protect them from tagging. Gong will paint the original artwork on wood, and they will then be photographed and reproduced on the metal. They will be attached to the walls in the mortar joints between the bricks. They will be installed by November 27, 2024, coinciding with Lee’s birthday, and the Wing plans to hold a celebration with the community and the artist.
They will be up for two years, from November 2024 to December 2026, before being taken down. This time frame was part of the agreement for the Hope Corps grant, according to Michelle Kumata, representative from the Wing, during the meeting.
The murals are intended to highlight Lee’s connections to the CID, and “uplift[s] the specialness of the CID and contribute[s] to its health and wellbeing.”
Gong was selected from a call for artists for the project. He is the founder of Eighth Generation, a Native American art and lifestyle brand known for its wool blankets, now owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe. Gong participated in a 2011 Wing Luke Museum exhibit titled Cultural Confluence, about “the historic legacies and contemporary lives of people who are both Asian and Native American.”
Gong took partial inspiration from a community activity during the Wing’s JamFest on July 26 this year, during which attendees wrote their responses to prompts related to Bruce Lee’s philosophy, and conversations with attendees about Lee.
During the ISRD meeting, Gong said he wanted to avoid reproducing imagery of Lee kicking or punching, which is commonly seen in the CID and elsewhere, and instead evoke Lee’s philosophical ideas. Both murals incorporate Lee’s handwritten notes as a background element of the design.
“The Journey Begins Here,” planned to be installed on the New Central Building, uses imagery of Lee’s hair to evoke a gateway akin to a paifang entryway seen in Chinatowns, and a Chinese lattice pattern in the hair morphs into a map of the CID. The mural also features a Coast Salish-style dragon emerging from the water (water itself a symbol associated with Lee). A yellow color palette evokes Lee’s iconic jumpsuit seen in Game of Death.
“One With Water,” to be installed on the Rex Apartments, depicts a dragon head rendered in a blend of Asian and Coast Salish artistic styles, as well as references to local business and the “Humbows Not Hotels” signs, and local flora. The dragon is leaning to sip water, “symbolizing a completed journey and rest,” according to Gong’s artist statement. The piece represents the outcome of a life lived according to Lee’s philosophies, Gong explained in the ISRD meeting.
Board members praised the sophistication of the mural designs in presenting Lee’s philosophy and legacy.
The Wing has previously collaborated with the Bruce Lee Foundation on exhibits, public programs and neighborhood tours about his life in Seattle. Lee frequented Tai Tung restaurant (a mural featuring him with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is displayed out front), and according to the Bruce Lee Foundation, two locations of his martial arts school, the Jun Fan Gung-Fu Institute, were located next to what’s now Szechuan Noodle Bowl and what is now Ho Ho Restaurant, respectively.
