Environmental art exhibit at Disjecta Gallery, Aug. 16 to Sept. 8
What does the waste we generate say about us? Though most of us forget about it once it is hauled away from the curb, trash is a surprisingly intact and rich record of our daily lives, our civilization and its values.
For many, sorting through a tangled mess of discards from residents and businesses would be a circle of suffering like Dante's epic journey through Hell. Others vie for the chance to pick through a heap and find unexpected inspiration for accidental art. Works depicting those transformative journeys and discoveries will be on display and for sale at GLEAN, an environmental art exhibit at Disjecta Contemporary Art Center of Portland, 8371 N. Interstate Ave., Portland. The goal of the show, slated to run from Aug. 16 through Sept. 8, is to prompt people to think about their consumption habits, inspire new ways of conserving resources and support the arts and environment.
Residents and businesses in the Portland metropolitan area generate more than 2.1 million tons of waste and recyclables each year – enough to fill the Rose Garden arena 15 times over. Tapping into the creative genius of local artists, GLEAN shows people how to repurpose their "trash."
The project is a public, private, nonprofit partnership between Metro, the regional government that guides the region’s garbage and recycling system; Recology, an employee-owned company that manages resource recovery facilities; and Cracked Pots, a nonprofit environmental arts group that manages the program. In its third year, GLEAN takes its inspiration from Recology San Francisco’s renowned artist in residence program. Select pieces from that program are currently being exhibited at San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 3 through October 2013.
Earlier this year, a jury of arts and environmental professionals selected five local artists to participate in the 2013 show. They are given a stipend and six months of scavenging privileges and access to the region’s discards dropped off at Metro Central Transfer Station in Northwest Portland. This year's GLEAN artists include Kim Lakin, Owen Premore, Eric Rosewall, Christopher Wagner and Vicki Wilson.
The group includes an instructor at area schools, the apprentice of a Japanese master carver, and a former designer with Michael Curry's company that created live-performance oriented characters and productions seen by worldwide audiences. GLEAN artists have been in solo and group shows – locally, nationally and internationally.
Their media and styles range from fiber and textile art to graphic design and architecture, wood carvings and metal sculpture to cast figures in brick, cement, broken auto glass and more. They use two- and three-dimensional forms for works and environments that are interactive, kinetic and auditory.
In the artists' shared blog, Owen Premore explores questions about found objects "and the burden of nostalgia," while Chris Wagner expresses surprise about the number of nails he removes from a pile of old growth Douglas fir boards. Nearly giving up on bright orange construction fencing that sat idle in her studio for weeks, creativity kicks in for Kim Lakin who learns "not to be too quick to discard anything. It takes time for materials to become familiar enough for me to start working with them." Eric Rosewall's views about the gleaning process seem to strike a chord with the others. "Gleaning feeds my scrappy sweet tooth. I look forward to it very much."