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October 2, 2006
oregon biennial
by gl. at 12:20 pm
october is national arts & humanities month! alas, i missed the grand opening of portland center stage yesterday at the armoury.
but this is also the last week to view the oregon biennial at the portland art museum, so i guess i'd better write about it now before it becomes too irrelevant...
i've always been a user interface kind of person, and so the first thing i noticed was the the signage is pretty bad -- especially for the 3d objects, which never had a sign near them.
however, my favorites included....
bill will's "reconstitution": a tree on its side made from scrap lumber like windowsills & molding. really, it was quite evocative.
holly andres' "consumables: two lit "advertisements" for pink edibles and pink beautifiers. unfortunately, it was often quite difficult to locate the numbers referencing the items, and there were several typos.
mariana tres' "homespun universe: the wondrous works of anabella gaposchk": i found this to be absolutely delightful; i've written about it before. every piece was a mixture of love and obvious talent, including the audio tour & opera "upon the orange moon: the lunar music of viviana spoikoininich."
also noteworthy...
houston's "rendition/illuminati multivariat": office file cabinet pierced with arrows, false office ceiling hung at an angle with a thicket of dreamcatchers
brittany powell's "donut shop": a wall covered w/ contact paper, then carved out with primitive shapes & detail.
david rosenack's untitled series: tiny b&w oils, exquisite detail, shadow/light, back yards
ty ennis' "your friendship to me is like a kool-aid stain on my favorite keds. you are always there to remind me that i am a fuck up": certainly the best title for a piece, but his whole collection was understatedly interesting. when i checked the biennial catalog, he certainly had the best artist statement. unlike, say, brad adkins, about whom the catalog only says, "the artist declined to provide an artist statement." thanks a lot, brad. very helpful.
chandra bocci's "gummi big bang": i almost missed this; tucked into a large nook, i only found it accidentally as i left the gift shop. the gummi big bang is almost exactly what it sounds like, an explosion of hummi bears (and the occasional gummi shark) strung onto monofilament and fiber optic, radiating from an inner core of light.
videos...
unfortunately, the sound was better outside the room showing the three looped videos than inside it.
pedestal: 5-7 minutes of an empty pedestal on the screen with two stoned guys talking about it: "an empty pedestal is a promise." the point is that nobody notices the pedestal when something else is on it.
holly andres again: a film about her mother's death which includes paper dolls.
vanessa renwick's portrait #2: trojan: i was sad when i realized i missed the demolition of the trojan nuclear plant in washington. the film shows its stature in the nw skies with footage taken from i5 and the lewis & clark railway line. it builds though surreal sunsets, time lapse of the moon & stars rising from the opening, until its eventual implosion & collapse, the dust cloud seeping its way through through the trees, birds flashing in front of camera. obviously political, but still enjoyable.
posted by gl. | October 2, 2006 12:20 PM | categories: exhibits & events