Where else but in Fremont, Seattle's winged-out "left bank," would you find a bearded Bolshevik, embalmed in bronze, striding menacingly into an uncertain future, brandishing a . . . burrito wrapped in foil? What is this, some kind of a joke??
You bet. Lenin--a 7-ton bronze statue designed by
Emil Vontov and erected in Slovakia in the very twilight of the Communist era--faced
a bleak future. He was torn down by angry counter-revolutionaries in 1989.
Issaquah native Lewis Carpenter found Lenin lying face down in a puddle.
Carpenter bought the statue (real cheap, rumor has it) and
brought it back to Seattle. Then, in 1994, Carpenter passed away, leaving
the statue to an uncertain fate. After briefly presiding over the grass-roots
capitalism of Fremont's Sunday Flea Market, Lenin was taken out on
his back when flooding caused serious erosion under the pavement supporting
his immense weight (the weight of history, no doubt). Now Lenin has found
a new home at the Little Village, a post-industrial development located in a former garage on N.
35th Street, with a new concrete pedestal firmly underfoot. Lenin now sweeps
forward in an aura of revolutionary flames, with a file of bayoneted rifles
marching behind him. As happens with many ARF (Artistic Republic of Fremont) pranks, Lenin appeared without the full sanction of the community as to necessary permits, etc. However, Mayor Norm Rice came to the unveiling and signed his name by finger in the wet concrete! Aside from our larger-than-life friend, Little Village
features a sunny plaza with a whimsical hand-made fountain and broad tiled
patio, and a colorful sign painted by Bill Matthews. Funky montages of found objects are embedded in wide bands of grout surrounding
the tiles. The building houses the
Fremont Hemp Co., Bill Matthews' Fremont Drum School, and a Taco
Del Mar restaurant (what an endorsement, Vladimir Ilyich!!).