Artist Heidi Keith Presents Saving Daylight at the Portland Building, November 14 – December 16, 2011

Issued October 25, 2011

As we march ahead into another Northwest winter, artist Heidi Keith has created an ambitious new installation to help us cope. Saving Daylight, which opens at the Portland Building Installation Space on November 14th, presents a meticulously painted grid of 182 paintings that chronicle the movement of light and color in the sky from winter solstice to summer solstice. Pictorially documenting the 182 days between Dec. 21 and June 21, each of the closely related but individually distinct 8” x 8” paintings captures the light in the eastern sky over Portland at exactly 7:00 am in the morning.

“In Oregon, where the winter days are gray and short, many of us are sensitive to the loss of sunlight and the shortening of the day. Several years ago, I discovered that taking note of the light gains each day through the beginning of the year was very comforting. I began documenting these gains in my sketchbook, finding it hopeful and reassuring. The few minutes of light we gain every week make an enormous difference in my outlook, and, I imagine, in the outlook of others as well…I wanted this series to be exhibited in the month prior to the winter solstice. In this dark, rainy month I hope this series of paintings will remind us all that, soon, every day we will gain a couple more minutes of precious light, and that the sun, though currently shrouded, will slowly make its return with the passage of days.”

Keith’s installation documents the rise and fall of darkness throughout the birth of the day and the year. The installation, which begins chronologically at the floor and rises up the wall of the installation space, takes on the form of an abstract color grid at a distance, and then, as if to complement the artist’s theme of “taking note,” resolves into distinct patches of sky as the viewer advances. Ultimately, at point blank range, all is reduced to individual brush strokes.

In a less direct way, the work also reminds us of the discipline it takes to devote substantial time every day, without fail, to a specific creative task. If we imagine the will power it takes to complete a work like Saving Daylight, it just might make mustering the will to greet the short, dark days of winter a little easier.

Viewing Hours & Location: 7 am to 6 pm, Monday – Friday. The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland.

For more information on the Portland Building Installation Space Series including images, proposals and statements of all the installations selected since 1994, go to www.racc.org/installationspace.