Soil in Residence (reception Saturday April 24th!)

{Timea Tihanyi, Chauney Peck, Susanna Bluhm}

The Seattle Design Center is its own planet.  It is vast and strange, a land of furniture showrooms and interior designers. Do you wonder what SOIL is doing there?

Once upon a few months ago, the previous tenant of this 11,000 square foot space within the Center removed himself and all of his furniture in the middle of the night, so as to exit his rent contract. The SDC had several big Interior Design World events coming up (complete with Interior Design celebrities) which they did not want to host in a hugely empty, depressing space. So they asked SOIL to fill it with art. We had only a few weeks to mount this show, which will be up through the end of May. It is truly a vast museum-like space, with furniture store quirks and cubbies. Our residence there is an opportunity for SOIL to blossom in a way that is not normally possible in our tiny gallery in Pioneer Square.

{Ben Hirschkoff, Saya Moriyasu, Cable Griffith}

Most members have work included, some of which has not yet been shown. The grandness of the space, and the quantity and diversity of work, allows for gentle connections to be made.  Sometimes there’s an echo of something across the way, or the sense of an improvisational response, that’s allowed to just be in the open space without being forced.

{Randy Wood, Joey Veltkamp}

Also, we are engaged in an ongoing drawing project near the front of the exhibition space. We’re drawing together and assembling stuff on the walls. It is messy and fun. This Saturday (April 24th) Saya Moriyasu and I will be drawing together from 2-6pm. Please stop by and say hello! Then from 6-9pm is the opening reception, where we will have light-colored wine and foods that will not stain the carpet.

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Seattle Design Center (in Georgetown)
5701 Sixth Avenue South
Seattle, WA  98108
Enter the “Plaza Building” on Orcas between 5th and 6th under the skybridge. Take the elevator to the first floor main lobby. Then go to the second floor, Suite 288.

Show runs through May 28th 2010.

Reception April 24th 6-9pm (music by the Phantom Sons at 8pm)

open hours: Monday – Friday  9-5pm
SOIL members present on Thursdays 11-4pm and on April 24th 10-9pm

Participating artists: Iole Alessandrini, Nola Avienne, Susanna Bluhm, Christopher Buening, Chris Engman, Curtis Erlinger, Cable Griffith, Ben Hirschkoff, Claire Johnson, Derrick Jefferies, Kirk Lang, Margie Livingston, Kiki MacInnis, Philip Miner, Saya Moriyasu, Nicholas Nyland, Chauney Peck, Adam Satushek, Timea Tihanyi, Joey Veltkamp, Randy Wood, Ellen Ziegler, Jennifer Zwick.

I wrote about my paintings here.

Magic, Chance, Gifts (Bang, Universe, Everything)

Decoy, 2010

Chauney Peck’s solo show at SOIL is lovely with its titling. Bang, Universe, Everything pays homage to the special object, which may be given as a gift. It attempts to measure the incomprehension of a nuclear bomb. It grants shelter to a duck, cozy with chopped colored wood in its abdomen, perched on battered wood with toxic orange markings.

To create the sculptural works in the show, Chauney followed directions given to her by chance cards that she made. Drawn and collaged upon playing cards, they say things like “thin bricks” or “cardboard or “NOT CENTER.”

The works on paper are based on the USA’s atom bomb test sites in the 1940′s and 50′s. Inhabitants of islands in the South Pacific were told to leave because the U.S. government was going to blow up their home. {By the way, U.S. government (as I’m sure you read this blog), what is the point of “testing” a nuclear bomb? What’s the worst thing that could happen? That it might not work? That the destruction wouldn’t be complete enough?} Not comprehending this undeniable force threatening to wipe out their universe, the people appropriately concluded “A powerful new god is coming.”

A Powerful New God is Coming, 2010

Chauney has let magic into her show by offering some of her work as gifts. (If you would like a gift from her show, you can contact her. At the end of the show, she’ll randomly select a recipient for each of the sculpture “offerings.”) In Bang, Universe, Everything, fourteen of the thirty pieces are offerings and the remaining sixteen are for sale.

Here, she talks about gift-giving: “I’ve recently received gifts made of wood, like driftwood carved into the shape of a gun.  Those interactions have a power and energy that is vastly different than going out and buying a something made of wood.  I’m a reading a book called ‘the gift’ by lewis hyde where he talks about the hunters that go out and kill ten birds.  They take eight to their families and give two to the priest.  The priest eats one and prepares the other as a talisman or an offering.  He gives it back to the forest to make the birds come back next time they go hunting.  It’s a humble gesture and a reflection of their gratitude towards nature. Similarly, it makes me happy to give an offering, and if you receive one hopefully, you will give something to someone else.  You don’t expect anything in return except a vague karmic return from the universe.  It’s about giving thanks and moving energy around continually. Giving my chance sculptures as offerings is a formal gesture that reflects my belief that art is gift that can keep returning.”

It was interesting to notice that the way I looked at the work actually changed when I realized I might actually get to have one. The object, and its possible transference to me, already felt magical. I’ve long struggled with the retail identity of the art objects I make, and I love the solution Chauney created for this show. It’s not a senseless free-for-all; rather, she thoughtfully measures randomness and decisiveness to counteract some of the inherent power of commerce in art. People’s wishes are noted and the work is then randomly dispersed. In the end, Chauney will have actually had more control over who will own her work than the artist in the typical commercial transaction. Likewise, the offerings themselves, which were created within a prescribed vocabulary of chance, emanate a calm control. Their precise, tender arrangements make a quiet space where one might wait for a powerful new God that is coming.