Theater is Portland 's
artistic future.
Amanda Hunt and Disjecta's "Portland2014,"
partially exhibited at Southern Oregon University's Schneider Museum of Art
through December 6, respectfully nods to studio art's 2D past while drawing
focus to its interactive and performative future.
The body of Portland2014 is 2D: Modou Dieng and Devon
VanHouton's Tranquilo references
public mural. Travis Fitzgerald represents tapestry with Objects of Permanence I & II. Blair Saxon-Hill's double-sided
quilt Shifting Ground and Occupation hangs in the center of the
gallery, and D. E. May's geometric musings hang towards the far end. Abra
Ancliffe's interactive Personal Libraries
Library nestles in a corner near the entry. The its membership card reads,
"The Personal Libraries Library is
a lending & subscription library located in Portland , Oregon
"The PLL Press produces and
disperses printed matter that investigates the material, conceptual, textual
and social presence of the Library."
Enhanced white noise emanates from Kelly Rauer's Locate, a triptych of video loops
meditating on human movement with its locus in the spine, in the back
antechamber. Studio art, dance and video converge in this geographically
isolated yet aurally pervasive piece.
PLL and Locate stand out by their difference. In
a space dominated by satisfying but ultimately predictable work, these two pose
questions: what is a lending library doing in a museum? what is that noise
coming from the back? Without ignoring the pedigreed place that 2D art holds in
such a venue, Portland2014 guides museum art towards the interactive and
performative. Hunt and Disjecta are telling their artists and venues to think
theatrically.
We're used to the two dimensional in art museums. There's
not a lot of ground left to cover. If artists want to grow, they need to
encourage their audience to engage with their work, like Ancliffe. They need to
pull divergent media together like Rauer. They need to think like theater
makers.
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