On Monday, June 10th at 7:00PM, BCCTV will host a free screening of short works created by individuals who have experienced homelessness. The films were made at a RACC-sponsored, artist led production lab at Bud Clark Commons (BCC, at NW Irving & Broadway in Old Town/Chinatown) and will be screened at Hollywood Theatre (4122 NE Sandy Blvd.) Admission is free.

“BCCTV on the Big Screen” will showcase a culmination of a year’s worth of works ranging from personal documentary to live action horror, from comedic sketches to fictional dramas as well as a variety of animated shorts. Videos were conceived and produced by David Boston, Sumaiyya Evans, Eugene Olson, John Pinney, Russell Waggener. The project was organized and lead by local artists, designers, and filmmakers, Carl Diehl, Ariana Jacob, Joan Lundell, Mack McFarland and Jeffrey Richardson who will also screen a selection of their works at the event.

In a series of workshops and weekly meetings over the last twelve months, a community of video makers was formed at the Commons, calling themselves BCCTV. Free weekly classes and workshops were offered to anyone who had experienced homelessness, focusing on how to make, edit and share videos. Participants explored their own interests in video with the support and expertise of the artist team as well as visiting artists from the community. They learned improvisation, animation techniques, visual storytelling, sound design and editing which in turn made them eager to delve further into longer-term, more personal projects, all of which will be seen at this screening event.

About Bud Clark Commons
Bud Clark Commons is an innovative partnership between the Portland Housing Bureau, Home Forward, Transition Projects Inc, and Multnomah County, that is owned and managed by Home Forward. The building was designed by Holst Architecture and opened in June 2011. The Commons brings together services and providers in one location, providing vital resources, shelter, and housing placement services to people experiencing homelessness in Portland.

Before the award-winning building was even constructed, the two primary programs that provide services in the building – Transition Projects Inc. (TPI) and Home Forward – were interested in having artists work in the facility and engage the clients and residents in creative, experiential and participatory ways. In early 2012, the BCCTV artist team was selected through an open call to artists living in Multnomah County. Partially funded by a portion of the City of Portland Percent for Art set aside from the construction of the building, the project is part of RACC’s intersections program, established in 2000, which encourages artists in all disciplines to explore new working methods and to develop socially engaging, interactive art experiences in community settings.

For interviews, contact BCCTV at thebcctv@gmail.com.
 
 

Project Background: Artists Patricia Vazquez Gomez and Betty Marin will present their social practice based Welcomeinstallation in the lobby of the Portland Building June 3 – 28. The project was conceived when the artists began to contemplate the connection between the building that institutionally represents the City of Portland and the lives and experiences of some of the city’s newest residents. Grounded in this artist team’s work with Latin American immigrant communities, and in their own cultural roots, the project directly explores the ways in which Spanish speaking immigrants feel both welcome and not welcome here in Portland. The installation consists of projected images of new Portland residents interviewed by the artists presented against a “wallpaper” backdrop crafted from the text of those conversations. As a parting symbol of civic exchange, a small artesanal souvenir—a set of open hands crafted from tin that multiple cultures recognize as a symbol of hospitality—will be offered to visitors to take away.

“Our hope for this project is to initiate a reflection on the way Portland is already a welcoming city and the ways it still needs to grow as an inclusive place.”

As general understanding of the social practice genre develops and expands MFA programs like the one at Portland State University, that Vazquez Gomez and Marin are enrolled in, are on the forefront of defining where this form of art practice is headed. RACC is pleased to include Welcome as part of its ongoing initiative to provide exhibition opportunities for advanced students in fine art, this is the second of three student produced installations scheduled for the Portland Building this year. The format and presentation requirements for student installations are identical to those for established professional artists, the separate eligibility category was created to help introduce emerging talents to the world of public art.

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 for all the installations since 1994, go to www.racc.org/installationspace.

On Friday June 14th, 5-6pm: Meet the artists who created Welcome at the Portland Building Installation Space. Social Practice artists Patricia Vazquez Gomez and Betty Marin will hold an artist Q & A session to discuss their Welcome installation in the lobby of the Portland Building. Welcome was created to inform and expand the connection between the building that represents the City of Portland and the experiences of some of the city’s newer residents. Grounded in this artist team’s social-practice work in the immigrant community, and in their own cultural roots, the project explores the ways in which Spanish speaking immigrants feel both welcome and not welcome here in Portland. The Q & A will take place at the Portland Building, located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue, Portland. 
 

Local photographer Jonathan Marrs recently installed a series of photographs printed on aluminum at Fire Station 18, 8720 SW 30th Avenue in Portland.   A celebration of the project’s completion, with the artist and station crew, will take place on Tuesday, May 21st, from 6:30-8:00pm. The celebration is open to the public.

Jonathan spent time with the FS 18 crew observing their day-to-day activities. His photographs describe the actions and textures that are part of those activities as well as the Station. Four diptychs and two single photographs grace the station’s entryway, the community room, the day room and hallway—all accessible to the public when visiting the station. The diptychs establish a relationship between the disparate events and the overlooked details that describe what Jonathan experienced and saw while spending time with the crews.

Jonathan Marrs is a visual artist based in Portland. He received his BA from Azusa Pacific University and his MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. His research has focused on documentary practices, identity, and subjectivity. His work has been displayed in the US from Portland to Los Angeles, Lancaster, and Montpelier. He is the lead photographer and cinematographer for Atelier Pictures in Portland.

Fire Station 18 serves Marshall Park, Markham, Far Southwest, West Portland Park, Multnomah, Ash Creek, Crestwood and Maplewood Neighborhood Associations. The original Fire Station 18 was built in 1961, and seismically upgraded/remodeled in 2011-2012. On-duty personnel include a company officer, one firefighter paramedic and two firefighters.

This is the final percent for art project funded by the bond measure passed by voters in 2000 that resulted in new and remodeled fire stations that improved services and safety to the community. The Regional Arts & Culture Council managed the project.
 
 

RACC and artist Jorge Pardo have begun installing a new Streetcar Art Shelter at NE Broadway and Weidler. This eccentrically shaped sculpture will provide a shelter with “rainy on the outside, sunny on the inside” experience for waiting streetcar passengers.

Fabricated of steel, wood and fiberglass, the new shelter measures 35’ long by 18’ wide by 16’ tall. The multi-faceted structure will include over 300 individual panels in shades of gray and brown on the exterior, with warm hues of orange and yellow on the inside, sheltering passengers north of the Rose Quarter in a highly visible and fantastically colorful way.

Los Angeles based Pardo was the recipient of a 2010 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship who exhibits his work globally. This is his first municipal project in the United States. It is funded by the percent-for-art set-aside for the Portland Streetcar expansion project, and will take about a month to fully install.

The shelter is a complement to the other large scale project commissioned for the Portland Streetcar expansion, Lead Pencil Studio’s Inversion: Plus Minus which will be located at Grand & Hawthorne and Grand & Belmont. The installation of Inversion: Plus Minus is now over half complete, with completion expected this summer.
 
 

Project Background: “Is Bigfoot real? I hope so, but I’m pessimistic.” This quote from Jacob Sorenson might serve as a tagline for his installation which opens April 29th at the Portland Building Installation Space. Sorenson, known for his elaborately designed and elegantly constructed kinetic sculptures, will present a nature-circus landscape in the space that embodies the human tendency to ideologically and physically manipulate the environment. To the right a silhouette-like sculpture of a majestic tree-line, but augmented with Las Vegas style chase lights to better define the trees. To the left a device designed to reproduce the beautiful sunset we all hope for at the end of a day…only with a few extra colors and a repeat cycle. And finally, in the back, obscured by the tree-line, look for the occasional appearance of a certain large creature rumored to frequent in the area.

“The void between nature and culture is hazy…what is nature? And more perplexing, what is wilderness? Ideas conjured by our society in the 19th century, or concepts that came about as we found comfort, central heating and cars? Life is created in laboratories, engineers control landscapes, and “wild” space is parceled into quadrants. Cueing into our nature cliché I’ve found that certain tendencies persist, foremost a culture that is trying desperately to make nature look awesome, and I’d like to do the same. How much better would the tree-line be if it glowed? What if we could add new colors to an amazing sunset/sunrise? And what if Bigfoot made regular appearances? It would be…terrible, but let’s investigate.”

The artist fully expects the installation to ask more questions than it answers as it explores both the objection to artificial nature and the reality of our constant wilderness intervention. Sorenson’s bizarre landscape draws on an impulse buried somewhere in the depths of humanity and begins a complex, thoughtful conversation about an outdated ideology.

About the Artist: Jacob Sorenson lives in Tigard, Oregon. He received his BFA from Oregon College of Art and Craft, and his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition to numerous exhibitions in Oregon and Virginia, he teaches classes on woodworking and electro-mechanical devices at OCAC.

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 for all the installations since 1994, go to www.racc.org/installationspace.