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How Rich Are Seattle’s Billionaires In Astronomical Units?
No wonder Jeff Bezos wants to go to space. It’s the only way he can visualize all of his money at once.
One of the most popular and interactive pieces at the 4th Annual Seattle Art Fair —happening this weekend at Paul Allen’s CenturyLink Field Event Center — is Chris Burden’s Scale Model of the Solar System, which is exactly what it sounds like. Starting with a 13" scale model of the Sun, located in Gagosian’s space-themed booth at the fair, visitors are encouraged to take a map and find the other planets scattered around the neighborhood. Mercury is on the other side of the Gagosian booth, a tiny dot some 36 feet away from the Sun. Venus, Earth, and Mars are stationed in the venue’s VIP lounge, café, and bookstore respectively. The outer planets are located in nearby buildings, and finally little Pluto — still a planet when these sculptures were created in 1983 — is installed a mile away at the Seattle Art Museum.
The piece is a neat visualization of astronomical distances, and it got me thinking: What would it look like if we mapped the wealth inequality of Seattle using this same system of proportions? Could it help us wrap our heads around the immense scale of the wealth owned by a handful of local billionaires, including Seattle Art Fair founder Paul Allen and Jeff Bezos, the richest man on (actual) Planet Earth…
