One of the world’s foremost sculptors, Plensa modeled Echo on the 9-year-old daughter of a restaurant owner near the artist’s studio in Barcelona. The sculpture’s title references Echo, the mountain nymph from Greek mythology, who offended the goddess Hera. To punish Echo, Hera deprived the nymph of speech, except for the ability to repeat the last words of another. In this monumental sculpture, over 46 feet tall, Echo listens with her eyes closed or in a state of meditation. She faces Puget Sound in the direction of Mount Olympus, visible from land and water.
