PORTLAND, ORE. – In response to Michael Graves, the architect who designed the Portland Building, the installation Parts of No Sum by Noah Greene seeks to invert the architect’s emphasis on the union of symbol and structure by examining the symbolic function of dislocated architectural material. The foundation of Greene’s conceptual exploration focuses on three central elements—a stack of broken masonry; a set of salvaged wooden steps; a painting fragment composed of ash and wallpaper—posed in cryptic conversation with each other, and the building that surrounds them. Greene maintains that each component exists at a distance of abstraction from its former function, yet holds potential as a receptacle of some fractured significance.
“My work explores detritus, physical and otherwise. My interest lies in the persistence of discarded material and its parallel with abandoned belief structures and perceptions; its potential as repository for displaced narrative.
“Working as a carpenter in this city, I spend a great deal of time deconstructing and demolishing lived-in spaces and architecture. I shepherd rejected materials from their use-context to debris state. In their passage from familiar structures to landfill, I am fascinated by the possibility of decontextualized objects possessing some trace remains of memory, of witnessed experience, of some significance outside the boundaries of their current dislocation.”
-Noah Greene
About the Artist: Noah Greene is based in Portland. He received his BA in Studio Art from Whitman College in 2011 and exhibits his work regionally.
Viewing Hours & Location: The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday.
For more information on the Portland Building Installation Space, including images, proposals, and statements for all projects dating back to 1994, go to www.racc.org/installationspace.