Giant robot lights up the waterfront as part of Portland Winter Light Festival

The Portland Winter Light Festival is a city-wide event that illuminates what is often the darkest month of the year with art installations that can truly be called “lit.” The Willamette Light Brigade, a non-profit arts organization, launched the free event nearly a decade ago at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It quickly spread across the Willamette River into downtown and now features light-based art pieces and performances in neighborhoods all over the city. This year’s theme is “The Light of Stars.”

We talk with artist Tyler FuQua about his work and his commission from the festival: a gigantic, lighted robot downtown called “Mechan 42 Space Explorer.”

Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Geoff Norcross: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Geoff Norcross. Beginning tonight, parts of Portland are going to be lit. The Portland Winter Light Festival gets underway tonight with 100 different art installations along the waterfront and some other areas around town. It’s like the whole city is trying to chase away the darkness for a week. Tyler FuQua is one of the artists. He has an installation out there called “Mechan 42 Space Explore” and he just put it up and he came down to talk to us about it a little bit. Tyler, good to have you.

Tyler FuQua: Thanks for having me.

Norcross: Tell me a little more about “Mechan 42.” Can you describe it?

FuQua: Oh, I would love to. It is a 17′2′' tall robot that’s standing on a platform. So it’s actually 12′ tall on a about 4′ tall platform. And it’s a space astronaut style robot reaching up, grabbing a star from the sky.

Norcross: You can’t miss it. Where is it going to be?

FuQua: It’s right at the Salmon Street Springs right there by the World Trade Center, which also has a lot of other amazing art installations for the Light Festival.

Norcross: Is it a good space?

FuQua: It’s a great space. Yeah, especially if it’s raining though. The World Trade Center in particular is great because it’s dry underneath there if it’s a little rainy.

Norcross: What about the wind? I mean, such a big thing could get knocked over?

FuQua: Oh, no, ours is all engineered. We’re good to go.

Norcross: What is the weather going to be like over the next few days?

FuQua: I think it will get a little wet tonight, but tomorrow’s supposed to be nice. Cold, obviously, as it always is in February, but that’s kind of part of it.

Norcross: Sure. Fans of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” can probably guess why it’s called “Mechan 42″ but you kind of crowdsourced the name, didn’t you?

FuQua: I did. I did a little informal poll on Facebook there just to see what number came to mind when you thought of the universe or outer space. And the main choice was infinity. That’s a difficult little number to put on there so the second choice was 42 based on that book.

Norcross: And we asked listeners on social media, what number came to mind when they thought of the universe and the results echoed yours,Tyler. One said, “yeah, infinity, but if not infinity, 42.” That came from Glen Peters. Kate Frick said, “42, obviously.” Cheryl Howard reflected many others who said, “42. It is the answer to everything.” Wayne Proctor said, “37 because my mind can’t comprehend 42.”

FuQua: Nice

Norcross: Nice. And Mike Schugart went a different way. He said, “billions and billions.”

FuQua: Oh yeah.

Norcross: Carl Sagan resonated with me because he really blew my mind when I was a kid. So how did all the responses that you got work their way into your work?

FuQua: Well, we knew it was going to be a space robot because the theme this year is the “Light of Stars” for the Light Festival. So this is actually the first commissioned art piece that the Light Festival has ever commissioned someone to build and they chose us because we’ve been a part of the festival since day one and every year we’ve been a part of it. So we’re super honored to be selected for this commission. We knew we were going to build a robot. And then once we heard the theme “The Light of Stars,” I just knew it’s going to be a space robot. It’s got to be. And so we just went from there and then the name just kind of naturally came about after that Facebook post.

Norcross: How long did you get to work on it?

FuQua: We built it in a record time in just under two months, actually.

Norcross: What’s it made of?

FuQua: Steel mostly, with a lot of aluminum and stainless steel accents. So the steel is already pre-rusted so it looks kind of old, what they’re supposed to be from the past, but the stainless steel and aluminum will shine for years to come.

Norcross: You mentioned this is the first work that was actually commissioned by the festival.

FuQua: Yeah.

Norcross: Can you talk about how that came about?

FuQua: Well, the festival took a while to get started and people really didn’t get behind it, especially the city. But now they’ve seen how successful it’s been and how much money it brings into the communities and whatnot. So they’re starting to put a little more money into it. And so that’s where they decided that “maybe we need to start commissioning some art pieces.”

Norcross: This is a Light Festival. How does your piece involve light?

FuQua: Almost all of our projects we ever built have some sort of illumination to them, including our robots. So it has over 240 color changing LEDs on it.

It’s got a lit up jetpack and it’s got crazy space tubes on its jet pack that come around to its face that all light up and do all sorts of crazy patterns. And of course, it has a heart. All of our robots have a heart  that lights up as well.

Norcross: And why a robot? You and your partner Jason Hutchinson, put this together and why were you drawn to that form?

FuQua: We are big nerds quite honestly. (Laughter)

We love science fiction, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Muppets, all that sort of stuff. So we pull from that as any artist does. They pull from what they like and they create something more out of it. And so for everybody, any age group, any ethnicity, everyone knows robots. So we have created a style of robots called the “Mechan Series” from a fictional company called Mechan Incorporated. And so this is “Mechan 42.” They all have similar features but are also different and have their own personalities at the same time.

Norcross: Tell me about another Mechan you’ve got in your arsenal.

FuQua: Sure. We’ve got six total. They are around the globe. Ones in Saudi Arabia. One’s about to go underwater in Florida as part of an underwater art gallery. We’ve got another one in AREA 15 in Las Vegas. There’s another one in Orlando and there’s one in a guy’s backyard who wanted a giant robot.

Norcross: Where else do you want to put one?

FuQua: Ideally, in every city in America and across the globe? And then eventually on Mars, if Elon Musk will let us. Maybe this one should go on Mars. “Mechan 42″ kind of makes sense.

Norcross: Only make big plans.

FuQua: [Laughter] Right? You gotta dream big to make things happen

Norcross: Take us back a little bit. I understand that giant puppets preceded the robots. Where would a person see these oversized puppets that you made?

FuQua: I used to just build giant puppets just for fun and bring them to various festivals like the String Cheese Incident out at Horning’s Hideout or the Northwest String Summit. And I just started off building out of what I had laying around before I even knew how to weld or do anything, I would just use duct tape and zip ties and whatever was laying around. I started off building a chomping alligator puppet built off like a backpack frame I found at Goodwill and I just started going around the pathways at festivals, entertaining people. And that’s when I realized, “oh man, people are really finding value in this.” And so then I started trading for tickets to festivals to get in and eventually started getting paid and then just started building bigger and bigger stuff. And then I went to Burning Man and that’s when I realized, “oh, you can even do bigger than what I’m doing.” And that’s kind of really rocketed our career.

Norcross: How big is “too big?”

FuQua: There is no “too big.” [Laughter] Some people on my crew think I’m crazy, but I know we usually build even bigger than we design it sometimes.

Norcross: So tonight’s the first night of the Portland Winter Light Festival. Where are you going to be tonight at 5:26 PM, when the lights go on?

FuQua: Oh, right. I should be down at the robot. That’s my plan. Hopefully, it’s not raining too hard.

Norcross: And what are you expecting to see around you? What do you know about the pieces that are going to be surrounding the “Mechan 42?”

FuQua: Well, I got a little sneak peek at least the setup at the World Trade Center looks like all sorts of cool stuff going on down there. I don’t even know what it is, but it looks really cool. And then I know at Pioneer Place there’s supposed to be a bunch of fire art which is going to really blow people’s minds.

Norcross: This is the eighth year of the Winter Lights Festival and you’ve been with it from the start, as you mentioned. How has it changed from your perspective?

FuQua: In a couple of ways, one has gotten a lot more popular. It was, um, see for the first couple of years and it got so crowded so quick that it was hard to even see the art. So Chris Herring, the director of the Light Festival really wanted to spread it out across the whole city and that’s coming to fruition more every year. This year you can see it’s everywhere from Tigard and up to Alberta Street to all over the place.

Norcross: And how has it changed you as an artist?

FuQua: Well, it’s allowed us to bring our art that we can’t normally just show in public anywhere to bring it to anybody. You don’t need a ticket to go to this show, which is fantastic. Anybody could come. So, normally our stuff is a festival if you got to buy a ticket. That’s one great part about it.

Norcross: Do you ever wish it was like, not in February, when it’s cold?

FuQua: Yeah, there’s been a couple of years where it was either freezing rain or there was snow a couple of years ago. It was during COVID year. But people couldn’t even get out to see the heart because it was just completely snowed out.

Norcross: I’m glad you mentioned that because there is this push to try to get people back out, especially downtown, and do you see your work as part of that effort?

FuQua: Oh, absolutely. I think this year a lot of people are just itching to get back out especially since outdoors people feel safer and whatnot, even though it’s cold, I think they’ll brave it this year and go see the amazing art.

Norcross: What do you hope people will take away from what they see out there?

FuQua: Just be inspired, especially kids. If they see this crazy art and sometimes you don’t realize how it’s built and then maybe the artist will be right there and you can talk to them. It happens all the time when we’re at our art projects. And it’s fun just being like, “hey, yeah, we just had this idea, we started building with whatever we had and now we’re doing this.” And we just met someone the other day when we were setting up and they were just blown away by what we’re building. And I used to be in those shoes and to be here now, I hope to pass that on to younger generations.

Norcross: Do you remember, when you were a kid, when you saw something that just kind of blew your mind and put you on a path towards artists?

FuQua: It was actually a show, the String Cheese Incident back in 2000. I went to a show here in Portland and during the New Year’s show, they brought out all these puppets and props for this evolution parade during the music. And I consider that the show that changed my life. I realized from that point on, I don’t need to do construction or whatever. I need to find a way to build giant puppets and props and let my mind and imagination go crazy and find a way to make it happen. And well, here we are, whatever. How long ago was that? 27 years later?

Norcross: [Laughter] Whenever I’ve gone to the Light Festival, even when it was a pretty modest affair on the Central Eastside, like you mentioned, I had been feeling the winter, I had been feeling the gloom. I’ve been feeling the cold and the wet and it just made me feel better. Do you get that too?

FuQua: Oh, absolutely. So we have another art project downtown at the park blocks right now, a big giant tree called a “Treed.” And they have done so much down there, like all these trees are lit up with Christmas lights and all these stars hanging all over the place and you just walk down there right now, it just feels magical. So to have that happen now when it’s just nasty out, I think that’s just great for everybody.

Norcross: And what do you get out of your participation in the festival? Not just as an artist, but as a Portlander and as a festival goer?

FuQua: Portland has a lot of amazing artists and this is a great showcase for them to come out. I know we have people from outside the area bring art in, too, but there’s a lot of local artists here that so I just love seeing the creativity out there and meeting other artists and talking to them and meeting people that are checking out art, our art or other people’s art and just having cool conversations with them. And everyone comes all dressed, lit up and stuff and costumes and it’s just a great event all around.

Norcross: What are you working on now?

FuQua: We’re not sure exactly what’s next. We’ve got a lot of little projects working. We’re going to clean up our shop. That’s one thing we’re going to do because it was a mad rush the past couple of months.

Norcross: [Laughter] But you don’t have something that’s active that you think you might like to put up next?

FuQua: We’ve got a few proposals out right now for various festivals, whatnot, including Burning Man. So we’ll see if some of those stick. Something always comes around.

Norcross: The festival has grown. There’s a lot to see. What do you recommend for taking it all in and how quickly and how much you should do at a time?

FuQua: Well, that’s the thing since it’s so spread out now. You really do have to plan it out. You can stay downtown and walk around and check a lot out there. I know the East side, you really need to kind of look at the map and figure out good places to drive to and then walk around once you get there.

Norcross: Tyler, this was great. Good luck out there and thanks so much.

FuQua: Thanks.

Norcross: Tyler FuQua is an artist participating in the Portland Winter Light Festival. Beginning tonight, it runs through February 11, 2023. You can see his giant robot, known as “Mechan 42″ at the Salmon Street fountain off Naito Parkway.

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