“When we cross a threshold, we change a space and it changes us” (54)
Beckenstein, Joyce. “Allan Wexler : the Man who would be Architecture.” Sculpture. 31.1 January/February 2012. Pgs 52 -57.
Design
Allan Wexler Lecture TOMORROW!
Wednesday, March 14 @ 6:30pm
MFA in Applied Craft and Design Studios @ The Bison Building
421 NE 10th Avenue and Glisan Street
“Allan Wexler has worked in the fields of architecture, design and fine art for twenty-five years. He is represented by the Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York Cityand currently teaches at Parsons the New School for Design. Allan’s works explore human activity and the built environment. He works as an investigator using series, permutations and chance rather than searching for definitive solutions. He makes buildings, furniture, vessels and utensils as backdrops and props for everyday, ordinary human activity. The works isolate, elevate and monumentalize our daily rituals: dining, sleep and bathing. And they, in turn, become mechanisms that activate ritual, ceremony and movement, turning these ordinary activities into theater. www.allanwexlerstudio.com” (from here)
Image: Allan Wexler
The MFA in Applied Craft and Design is a joint degree program offered by Oregon College of Art and Craft and Pacific Northwest College of Art.
Jimmie Durham quote: “You think that I do, but I never think of chaos …”
“Manuel Cirauqui: So, tell me about your relationship to chaos. I suspect you must be dealing with this concept quite regularly, as it seems to occur often in your works. In many of them, you provoke things to get out of, say, the peaceful path of their becoming — in other words, you trigger an entropic process which entails a loss of form (I don’t want to call it destruction). It is as if you prompted or negotiated the passing of things toward a chaotic state: the showcase that breaks, the toy boat that sinks, and also the sudden, almost spontaneous association of tools, materials, props, clothes, etcetera, to make new objects. Do you deal with chaos as a working principle?
Jimmie Durham: You think that I do, but I never think of chaos, except that I read mathematical theory. I’m reading math all the time because I’ve got no concept of math. And I’m just trying to understand it a little bit, but it doesn’t work. I like interruptions, of any kind, especially from my own life, because we have such a tendency–something stronger than a tendency, actually–to do the same things all the time. (Pauses as chairs are moved noisily in the background). Kierkegaard wrote about repetition as the greatest human good, because it was close to holiness. Yet to me it is so strange that I do the same thing over and over, that I take the same route to the grocery store or when I walk home–it’s intolerable. I want interruptions, I want things to be different all the time” (79)
Cirauqui, Manuel. “Jimmie Durham [an interview]” Bomb. Number 118, Winter 2012. pg 76-83.47. “DIY in PDX” compiled by Iris Porter and illustrated by Lily Gilbert.
Renowned entrepreneur and designer, Sandy Chilewich, will be giving a talk today at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in the Vollum Drawing and Painting studios from 12:45 – 1:45pm. She is known world-wide for modern reinterpretations of underutilized materials and manufacturing processes. Learn how she designed and brought to market award-winning products made in theUSAand sold globally. Chilewich Sultan LLC, a New York based company, has transformed how people dress their tables at home and in restaurants around the globe, while their floor and wall coverings provide a clean contemporary alternative in the design community. Some of her designs are also on display in the OCAC retail craft gallery, so be sure to stop by and check them out on your way to the lecture!
To learn more about Sandy Chilewich, we encourage you to visit her website: http://chilewich.com/about/sandy
Thinking about entrepreneurship, we were reminded of the work of a former OCAC student in Book Arts, Iris Porter. She published a book on the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture inPortlandthat compiles the stories of 28 local artists, writers, musicians and other entrepreneurs. It is a fascinating culmination projects and essays, including Eleanor Whitney’s text on “The Creative Process and Radical Potential of DIY,” Chloe Eudaly’s “How to quit your job, get a life, and word harder than you ever imagined,” and “Promoting small press books with little or no money” by Kevin Sampsell, among other interviews and small business spotlights.
Here’s how one reviewer described the book: “DIY in PDX is mostly an ongoing discussion and how-to manual. You’ll hear from Molly Sprenglemeyer, volunteer coordinator for North Portland’s SCRAP (School & Community Reuse Action Project) and Portland DIY veteran (she remembers a time when clothes at the Goodwill bins were 49 cents a pound!). You’ll get book recommendations from the effervescent Chloe Eudaly, founder of Reading Frenzy (she remembers P-town’s ’80s book cafes Howling Frog and Umbra Penumbra). You’ll read encouragement and advice from countless organizers of craft bazaars, zine symposia and CD compilations (one is even included in the pages of the book). And by book’s end, you’ll be inspired to bust out the four-track recorder and warble your way to self-sufficient stardom.”—from Elizabeth Dye’s review in the Willamette Week (here).
Perhaps in today’s economic climate, the DIY movement and the stories of successful entrepreneurs might be all the more significant. Decide for yourself. Come to today’s talk with Sandy Chilewich and check out DIY in PDX!
Alex Randall quote: “The first time I made an angel …”
“The first time I made an angel it was very dense, and I covered the
statue totally in skin. I really tried to control what the material
was doing and it didn’t quite work. Now I let the material do its own
thing, so it flops over and the holes come through. I could wrap it
around the same thing 100 times and every one would be slightly
different” (50).
“High Fidelity.” Crafts: the magazine for contemporary craft. No. 234,
January/February 2012.
44. Martin Puryear edited by John Elderfield.
Today, OCAC is honored to have another incredible artist, Heechan Kim (our Artist-in-Residence in Wood) give a lunch-time talk in the Centrum Studio. According to his artist statement, “[Kim] explore[s] issues of intense emotional tension, obsession, violence and sexuality through the material process of bending thin wood strips and stitching them with metal wires. These construction methods express the understanding that every human being is connected, bounded and destined to exist together. […] When we surrender our view of distinction and containment, we allow ourselves the possibility to become something much greater.” (here) Kim’s work and particularly its attention to detail are testaments to the ongoing relevance and resiliency of woodwork as an art form and enduring craft. Its ability to capture the viewer, not only in a visceral sense or by the maker’s evident skill, but also as a means of starting a dialog with viewers on larger sociological issues as “human coexistence in modern global society.” If you’re interested, you’re welcome to come listen to his talk today at 12:45pm in the Centrum Studio. See you there!
After looking at Kim’s work online (here), we couldn’t help see a resemblance to another great sculptor, Martin Puryear. For this week’s library pick, we’ve selected, Martin Puryear edited by John Elderfield, a book published in conjunction with the exhibition, Martin Puryear, at the Museum of Modern Art, November 4, 2007 – January 14, 2008.
John Elderfield’s essay, Martin Puryear: ideas of otherness, is a close critical review of the artist’s work, spanning the 1970s to the present. It highlights themes in his work throughout his career but also pays special attention to the concept of metamorphosis. Elderfield addresses how Puryear negotiates the limits of sculptural form and the limits of material, and that “his negotiation is, of course, a broadly cultural one that he makes it ours as well” …and this has, like Kim’s work, sociological implications: “to imagine changes in immobile things has always been, ultimately, to grapple with transformations of the self” (51).
The book also includes another fantastic essay about Puryear’s work by Michael Auping called “Artisan,” that covers the artist’s philosophy of art-making as well as talks about his process. In addition to the many high quality images of Puryear’s work, there is also an intimate interview with Richard J. Powell about the artist’s early work and how he arrived at the kind of artist he is today, a conversation that is definitely worth checking out!
If you’re already familiar with Martin Puryear’s work, this book will only strengthen your appreciation. If you’re unfamiliar with the artist, this book and his work will blow you away.
More information about Puryear (including a video clip from the Art21 series) can be found here.
Things to do in Portland this weekend: (02/12/12 – 02/13/12) “The One Motorcycle Show & a Reel Nordic Film Night”
The One Motorcycle Show
“The third annual exhibition of creations and innovations from some of the best bike builders from all over the west coast, as well as motorcycle-inspired artworks by local artists.” –Portland Mercury (from here)
Where: Sandbox Studio, 420 NE 9th Ave
When: Fri., Feb. 10, 5 p.m. and Sat., Feb. 11, 12 p.m.
Phone: 503-501-5870
Website: www.sandboxstudio.com/
Reel Nordic Film Night
“Admission is free of charge and there is homemade $2 viking soup. Well the soup isn’t really made by vikings but we’d like to imagine that there could very well be a viking that serves you a hot bowl of nordic goulash when you enter the hall. So romantic. This month’s film: Kvinnen i mitt liv (The Woman in My Life).” –Portland Mercury (from here)
Where: Norse Hall, 111 NE 11th Ave
When: Sat., Feb. 11, 6:30-9 p.m. FREE
Phone: 503-236-3401
Website: http://www.norsehall.org
Pauline J. Yao quote on the art of Liu Wei “whether slicing through refrigerators …”
“Whether slicing through refrigerators and washing machines, digging trenches in gallery floors, or erecting bristling, kaleidoscopic structures made from demolition debris, Beijing-based artist LIU WEI engages the realities of our contemporary infrastructure with a singular intensity. For him, the corporeal surplus of burgeoning consumerism and near-frantic urbanization in China and in the world at large—the junked appliances, the scraps of wood and metal—is a vehicle of rupture and disturbance, a means by which to both figure and counter the destabilizing forces of sociopolitical transformation. Here [Pauline J. Yao] looks at a practice that unlocks the renewed critical capacities of matter itself” (174)
Yao, Pauline J., “Dark Matter: Pauline J. Yao on the Art of Liu Wei.” Artforum. January 2012, Vol. 50, No. 5, pgs 174 – 181.
42. Taking The Matter Into Common Hands : On Contemporary Art And Collaborative Practices
In preparation for the next CONNECTION Lecture Series Speakers, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese and their lecture “50 Different Minds: Art and Design in the Age of Crowdsourcing,” the library has been thinking about collaborations between artists and the political implications of such undertakings–especially since the collaborative interdisciplinary art team of Ligorano/Reese are well known for producing collaborative works that examine how such endeavors specifically impact social and political systems.
We’re extremely excited to hear more about what this artist team has to say about this topic. If you’re interested, we encourage you to attend the talk. It will be held Tuesday, January 31 from 7:00-8:30pm at the Marion L. Miller Gallery in the Portland Art Museum’s Mark Building (1219 SW Park Avenue). It’s not to be missed!
What we find particularly interesting is the recent resurgence in collaboration in the art world, and, this week’s library pick, Taking The Matter Into Common Hands : On Contemporary Art And Collaborative Practices, addresses this issue from the inside out. It raises questions about authorship and authority, and, draws together essays from leaders in the field of collaborative art practice. As the editors note, “focusing on working conditions for artists and on collaborative initiatives with activism at their heart, the writing takes a personal, interpretive view of the subject” (jacket). Readers can learn about the motives, the history, and working methods of artists in this field from around the world. The stories are personal, inspiring, prophetic, and, often times, not without strong social and political implications.
Artists, curators, and writers in this book include: Maria Lind, Katharina Schlieben, Brian Holmes, Alex Foti, Andreas Gustavsson, Marysia Lewandowska, the SHAHRZAD Collective, Tirdad Zolghadr, Marc Neelen and Ana Dzokis, Marion von Osten, the Copenhagen Free University, Anton Vidokle (founder of e-flux), Farida Heuck, Ralf Homann and Manuela Unverdorben, Jakob Jakobsen and Simon Sheikh, IKK, Emma Reichert, Camilla Backman, Camilla Palm, B+B, Åbäke, Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri, and Nav Haq.
Elizabeth Turk Quote “I’m not entirely sure where it came from …”
“RDC: You have mentioned that you are interested in systems and
matrices, particularly in how one thing flows into the other. How does
this translate into your work?
ET: I’m not entire sure where it came from. It’s been evolving my
entire life. The evolution of this line of questioning is seen in my
drawings and collages. Perhaps the core question is why, as organic,
curved, soft creatures, we think and find a resonance in linear
structures. Why do we live in square rooms rather than round (well, in
many places anyway)? Why is the structure of a monarchy so effective?
What do linear systems of order offer our minds and our souls that
complex curves and paradoxes do not? Our comfort with systems (of
order, of communication) informs our palette of responses: emotional
and rational. This is why a study of systems, structures, and thus
matrices is infinitely intriguing to me.
It was so long ago when I began asking myself these questions. I
suppose the answers have simply moved through their own variations.
They generate a very layered perspective. For some reason, these
thoughts are easier for me to understand if I think of them in
physical shapes – for instance, language in terms of diagrammed forms.
And I find the line of questioning beautiful, because it pushes me to
look for the relationship between all things, the matrix of how it all
fits together. In the end, even the solidity of the rock is not what
it seems” (24)
Cochran, Rebecca Dimling. “The Line Defining Three-Dimensional Space:
a conversation with Elizabeth Turk.” Sculpture. January/February 2012,
Vol. 31 No.1. Pgs 18 – 25.
Oregon College of Art and Craft Library 