A handful and a half of Portland2010 Biennial artists talk about their installations at the Templeton Building tonight. Specifically, they’re talking about “approaches to site-specificity in installation,” one of my personal favorite topics. Curators and artists toss around the term “site-specific” so loosely that it is virtually meaningless. No, that’s not fair. It usually means an installation in a space. Period. Robert Irwin makes useful distinctions about the relationship of an installation to a site/space, distinguishing between site-adjusted, site-determined, site-specific, and site-dominant.
From Robert Irwin’s Being and Circumstance: Notes Toward a Confidential Art and included in my favorite Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art:
1) Site dominant. This work embodies the classic tenets of permanence, transcendent and historical content, meaning, purpose; the art-object either rises out of, or is the occasion for, it’s ‘ordinary’ circumstances — monuments, historical figures, murals, etc…..
2) Site adjusted. Such work compensates for the modern development of the levels of meaning-content having been reduced to terrestrial dimensions (even abstraction)….
3) Site specific. Here the ‘sculpture’ is conceived with the site in mind; the site sets the parameters and is, in part, the reason for the sculpture
4) Site conditioned/determined. Here the sculptural response draws all of its cues (reasons for being) from its surroundings. This requires the process to begin with an intimate, hands on reading of the site.
We could also talk about site-inspired, site-denying, site-nuzzling, site-bullied, and on and on.
Damien Gilley, Jenene Nagy, and Oregon Painting Society have all made extraordinary installations at the top of their games for Portland2010. Should be a good discussion.
Tonight, Friday, April 16 from 7-9 PM at the Templeton Building (5 SE 3rd, Underneath the Burnside Bridge).
Here’s a conversation with Irwin on ArtBabble.com.
POSTED: April 16th, 2010 | AUTHOR: lisa | FILED UNDER: art | TAGS: artist talk, damien gilley, jenene nagy, oregon painting society, portland2010 biennial, robert irwin, templeton building | No Comments »
It’s the second opening weekend for the Portland2010 with shows opening at Leftbank (240 N Broadway) and the Templeton Building (230 East Burnside but entrance is under the bridge at SE 3rd) tonight from 6-10 PM. That’s right, the Templeton Building, that sprawling vacant hulk that opens onto the Burnside Bridge and that once housed Disjecta, returns to its former glory as sensational art venue with work by photographers Holly Andres and Corey Arnold, sculpture from David Eckard, work by Pat Boas, John Brodie, and installations by those we’ve come to expect will hit it out of the park by Damien Gilley, Jenene Nagy, and Oregon Painting Society. A strong lineup of artists bringing photography, sculpture, painting, and killer installation: this is going to be very good.
At the same time, an exhibition by video artist Stephen Slappe (who recently had work in the Vantage show at Clark College and in PICA’s TBA:09) opens at Left Bank. Recall Slappe’s sculptural video installation at NAAU, and you’ll know why I’m heading there first tonight.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen new sculpture from David Eckard, as he’s been working on performance/video; eagerly anticipating. Pat Boas just had a very strong show at the Art Gym, (I reviewed Record Record) and has work in the group show currently at Elizabeth Leach. Damien Gilley’s (IGLOO Gallery) wall-based installations that comment on the space their in have rocked both Gallery HOMELAND and Homeland’s EAST/WEST Berlin in the past year. And Jenene Nagy (her recent Tidal at Disjecta was magnificent) is installing “Destroyer” in the Templeton basement. Oregon Painting Society’s performances and installations just keep getting more interesting.
POSTED: March 20th, 2010 | AUTHOR: lisa | FILED UNDER: art | TAGS: corey arnold, damien gilley, david eckard, holly andres, jenene nagy, john brodie, leftbank, oregon painting society, pat boas, portland2010, stephen slappe, templeton building | 2 Comments »
A little guide for your e-ve-ning. The much-missed Tilt Gallery and Project Space helmed by Jenene Nagy and Josh Smith never really went away, it just went dormant, plotting future exhibitions. Tonight, they launch Tilt Export, a curatorial effort in various spaces that opens with “approximate” at Gallery HOMELAND (2505 SE 11th Ave) with a reception from 6-9 PM. Damien Gilley and Ethan Rose take HOMELAND’s unique space as a launch point: Gilley responds visually with a tape installation while Rose responds, characteristically, with sound.
Meanwhile, in the same time frame and not far away, Fourteen30 (1430 SE 3rd Ave) opens a solo exhibition for Matt King (Richmond, VA), “Science Diet” whose sculptures have in past repurposed the readymade (plastic memorial wreath, plastic shopping bag, lawn chair) in intriguing ways…making work that approximates looking at the familiar out of the corner of your eye.
See you there.
POSTED: April 3rd, 2009 | AUTHOR: lisa | FILED UNDER: art | TAGS: art, damien gilley, ethan rose, fourteen30, gallery, gallery homeland, matt king, portland, visual art | No Comments »
