In contrast to Westside galleries' shift to safe Summer group shows, the Eastside is going inventive.
Shades of berny is a show by NY artist Bunny Rogers. Rogers is a fearless artist and Parsons grad based in Brooklyn. She taps memories of the transition between childhood and adulthood, usually shelved as, shall we say politely, unedited. We are so brilliant then. But those crazy, by their boundlessness, thoughts hold taboo engrams connecting childhood and adulthood we still carry. Her work is varied, including performance, video, installation, illustration, poetry and machinima. You can get a sense at her websites. plus.google.com/100485286965708864927/about.
Appendix is a double garage in a humble residential neighborhood, with white walls glowing against night. Showings go late, late onto a gravel alleyway with no signs, no directions and no address. Earlier it was an even rougher alley of mud puddles overgrown with invasive weedy blackberries and bounded by hay bales. Even now, one direction of the alley cannot be passed at night for its plants taking back the land wildness. Sometimes there is a bonfire. Nonetheless it is well known for showings of international artists.
The show includes 5 works from her residency at Appendix. The space is occupied by a fat comfortable velvet upholstered chair with a draped bright red riding hood cape and an archaic strap on pocket of pure white fabric. The chair faces a deep black shiny resin-covered and very old looking book on the floor, with pits and holes, being devoured by skinny scrappy black mice in the same resin texture. The back wall holds a simple modern quilt, logoed with a geometric font RU in mirror, top level domain name of the Russian Republic. The artist maintains her interwebs home there, and is fascinated with the different from USA values there too. To the left is a color photograph of a young girl carrying a basket of apples dressed in red with a black, very wolf-like dog, the frame surrounded by purple roses. To the right is a framed line drawing of a dog and a cat verging making a baby.
Maybe a dated association, but she reminds me of early Miranda July in her ability to confidently engage "dangerous" raw material. That "danger" carries more weight for the viewer than the creator, though some get that backwards.
At Appendix Project Space www.appendixspace.com On the alley between 26th and 27th, South of Alberta. Map 8-late
Homeland opens Weird Shift Con: The Conference June 14-16. An art component in the gallery is The Long Share, works by Peter Claugh, Julia Oldham, Tom Sherman, Stephen Slappe, Soda Jerk and Weird-Fiction, opening tonight.
The Con wins the copywriter monthly content award for a description of the weekend event:
The Long Share includes "para-fictional photo essay by Rosalynn Rothstein; a speculative history of WikiLeaks by Australian art collective Soda Jerk; and Portlander Stephen Slappe's video of a surprisingly erotic bomb-diffusing robot and the weekend event is an "array of presentations, lectures and performances including LE Long’s “Critical Fight Studies,” Adam Flynn’s “Solarpunk” and “Secret Twitter Fan Club,” along with Suzanne Fischer’s histories of psychokinesis artifacts at the intersection of museology and parapsychology. Michael Reinsch attempts to understand who we think we are in an anthropologically inclined sculptural performance while D.Todd Dickerson demonstrates the cut-up sorcery methodologies of his Soup Purse performances, and an array of appetizers are provided by the Center for Genomic Gastronomy’s pop-up culinary hacklab.
The weekend also promises outward excursions, including those of the “We’ll See Tour Co.,” running alongside and in opposition to reality as it is commonly construed.
Agoraphobes may prefer the indoor offerings of the event...including the Research Commons, the PDF Library, the dossiers, and the Map Room, paired with fine coffee and edibles, will provide other itineraries betwixt and between the scheduled events."
Very Museum of Jurassic Technology. Organized by Poszu www.poszu.com/poszu/index.php/projects/weird-shit-con/weird-shift-con-20.
At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org in the Ford Building www.fordbuildingpdx.com 2505 SE 11th x Division. Enter through the cafe on the corner if the main doors on 11th are locked. 6PM-9 Free
Catherine Haley Epstein shows Sorting the Seeds www.mindmarrow.com/mindmarrow/projects/Entries/2013/6/7_For_This_I_Breathe.html. It's mixed media, photography and illustration. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104 6PM-9
The Ford Building, www.fordbuildingpdx.com the ark holding Homeland, holds its annual open house this evening. It tends to run early, 5PM-8
Marie Koetje extends her Space Invader work. It's bright simple and abstract painting reminding primitive electronic paint tools. At Nationale www.nationale.us 811 E Burnside Map
Moons of a Dewdrop is a collaborative installation by Paul Swenbeck and Joy Feasley from Philadelphia. The work ties together prehistory ritual, romantic landscape painting and science fiction. At Adams and Ollman Gallery www.adamsandollman.com 811 E Burnside #213
Field Notes: Landscape and Architecture is a group show at Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8:30
Papercut is a show of paper cut art. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside 6PM-10
There is a large show of art themed on Home at Union/Pine www.unionpine.com 525 SE Pine 7Pm-late
Home:bass presents its first Friday Art Bash with LA artists Tommy Face and Jennifer Korsen. They join Portland artists Doctor Rasterbator and Justone Racoon. Music by Skeme and DJ ADHDJ. At Home:Bass www.homebasspdx.com 123 NE 6th 6PM-10
Portland Storage Building opens its studios this evening too at 215 SE Morrison St. 5PM-9
Brandon Thibodeaux has When Morning Comes, a personal journey through the Mississippi Delta and there is also a show of photos by its own board of directors members. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Map 6PM-9
Lightbox Kulturhaus has Finding Our Place and installation inspired by Northwest geography by Tyler Corbett and Erinn Kathryn. At Lightbox Kulturhaus lightboxkulturhaus.com 2027 NE MLK Blvd, behind Tiny’s Coffee Haus 6PM-9
APAK show their prints at Buy Olympia's Land Gallery www.landpdx.com 3925 N Mississippi 6PM-8
Spring goes back a way in history. The rites of Spring too. The Rite of Spring, 100 years. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Le Sacre du Printemps, was first performed May 29, 1913 with choreography set on Ballet Russes by Nijinsky at age 23, and when Stravinsky was 31. Tonight the Agnieszka Laska Dancers perform their own version with the Portland State University Orchestra. At PSU Lincoln Hall 1620 SW Park x Market portlandstate.universitytickets.com/user_pages/event.asp?id=348&cid=51 8PM $20, seniors $15, students $10
And for fun, in addition to the next few weeks of Pedalpalooza fun, a pinewood derby is tonight at Nemo. http://www.facebook.com/MeatCheeseBreadPinewoodDerbyRace. Prize for design and speed, plus an "outlaw class" race. 6PM-10 race 8.
