Conceived as “Gates to the City”, drivers encounter this very public work on both sides of the Road from Moses Lake to Ephrata Washington as the first glimpse of commerce breaches the horizon. The piece was commissioned by the Washington Arts Organization and funded by the state legislature in the 1990’s, as a means of spreading art into rural communities.
The piece was conceived by Ellen Sollard (grant recipient) and executed by Rhodes. Completed in the early 90’s, the work broke ground through its use of columnar basalt columns that were gathered from the nearby Columbia River Gorge; a striking geology. Twenty-five years later, the work has been widely imitated and clusters of basalt columns can now be seen announcing strip malls all over Washington State.
The sculpture is completed by “gates” that announce arrival from two other directions entering town. See Ephrata Wall under the Public Art Tab for Rhodes’ contribution to the second of these sculptures.