Exhibit challenges ideas about waste, consumption
Imagine sorting through bits and pieces of your daily life, things you’ve tossed away, from that wild fashion accessory that never quite worked, to a well-loved baking pan used to make your family memorable meals and festive feasts.
Contemplating that tangled mess of unpredictable odds and ends and guiding them to become objects suitable to be contemplated as fine art may seem unimaginable or downright ludicrous. For Jen Fuller, one of five local artists given seven months of scavenging privileges and access to the region’s discards dropped off at Metro Central Transfer Station in Northwest Portland, "what began as an exploration of materials has morphed into an overwhelming and emotional experience."
The Pacific Northwest Art Program is a collaboration between Recology, an employee-owned company that manages resource recovery facilities; Cracked Pots, an environmental arts organization, and Metro, the regional government serving the Portland metropolitan area. A jury of arts and environmental professionals selected the artists who will each be paid a stipend for the creation of works that will be on display beginning Thursday, Sept. 15 at Metro Regional Center, 600 NE Grand Ave., Portland. They hope the exhibit will inspire the public to think about recycling and resource conservation. Nominations for the People’s Choice Awards will be taken during the show; results will be posted on Metro’s website after the show.
"In the beginning I was so excited about getting all this material, my mind whirled with ideas," said Mike Suri, who collected random metal objects and crushed them into large-scale sculptures. "I also didn’t anticipate how overwhelmed I’d become with all this 'garbage' I was bringing into my studio," he said. "It has changed the way I think."
Far from the classic museum model, the majority of the two-day exhibit will take place in an outdoor plaza on the north end of the Metro Regional Center. William Rihel’s work, which he describes as “a combination of ideas about space and adapting to it,” will be displayed in a parking lot stairwell. There will be a table-top demonstration inside the building that shows the progressive steps taken by artists to breathe new life into seemingly obsolete trash.
Ben Dye, a sculptor whose work reveals his love for large-scale mechanics and design, has always incorporated reused materials into his work. He wants people to look closer at the many textures and embedded history in each piece.
"I’m shocked at what people throw away," said Leslie Vigeant, an artist who works with post-consumer products like plastic bags and bubble wrap to make sculptural works that often have a textile-like quality. "I have found couches, bamboo mats, and beautiful antiques in flawless condition. The only problem with them is that someone threw them away."