At Lawrimore Project, Wynne Greenwood has two chalky pink TVs in the gallery courting each other wearing painted-on strap-ons. They’re flashing abstract imagery at each other as they sit on the floor sort of clumsy and cyber-sexy at the same time.
photo borrowed from Jen Graves
My highlight of First Thursday last night was meeting Wynne (who is lovely), seeing her Strap-on TVs, and witnessing an exchange between Scott Lawrimore and a hapless art viewer (“what are these? you can’t even pick them up!”) in which Scott demonstrated through miming what a strap-on is.
The guy was not as satisfied with the demonstration as everyone else was, and asked to see the “flyer that goes with the art.”
Incidentally, Scott Lawrimore is doing really nice work with his new space and the “flyers that go with the art.” Each show in the white small space is being paired with thoughtful writing about the work as well as a page from Stéphane Mallarmé’s Un Coup de Dés.
My impression of the new Lawrimore Project is that while the physical space has shrunk exponentially, the work of/by Lawrimore Project is much bigger. Part of this is due to the fact that Scott Lawrimore has big plans that include opening a satellite space in Berlin and an artist residency program in Seattle; his overarching goal is to bring Seattle artists out of Seattle and outside artists in. He is also thinking about how to facilitate the conversations that can/will happen when these displacements happen. This is so much what Seattle needs, and very exciting.
Additionally, I think the pairing of the work with writing contributes to this feeling of the gallery being somehow bigger. There is this small space, and some art, and some writing that can serve as a view into the art if you want it to. With no other distractions, it’s a simple pairing that is surprisingly fulfilling if you let it be. The gallery director is present, unshielded by staff, desk, computer. He will happily talk about art with you and will even demonstrate what a strap-on is, if necessary.
