Cris Bruch, Shortest Distance, 2006 (detail), stainless steel, 9' x 12' x 17'

Commissioning Agency: United States General Services Administration/ Wayne Lyman Morse U.S. Courthouse, Eugene, Oregon

Fabricator: Fabrication Specialties, Ltd., Seattle

An interest in turbulence and flow prompted the initial concept for this sculpture. Friction and stress cause eddies, vortexes, counter-movements, and reversals of direction‹an apt metaphor for how human institutions, such as the courts, develop in a democracy. Though progress may appear to have occurred in a straight line, this sculpture reminds us that the path is not always so direct.