Wonderful pictures by Barbara Rowland.
Susan Trueblood Stuart with recent paintings.
Installation by Ann Kresge and Mike Nord.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Events at Project Space II
Jazz and New Music
Nord/Powers Duo
Friday, August 14 at 7:00 pm
Mike Nord (guitar & electronics) and Mark Powers (drumset & percussion) will be performing at PS II. Nord (professor and Director of Willamette University’s Music Technology Lab) and Powers (instructor at Weathers Music) will improvise a collection of jazz and New Music duets.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artistsinaction/sets/72157621837998881/
Please click on this link to see great photos taken by Phil Krug at PS II.
Nord/Powers Duo
Friday, August 14 at 7:00 pm
Mike Nord (guitar & electronics) and Mark Powers (drumset & percussion) will be performing at PS II. Nord (professor and Director of Willamette University’s Music Technology Lab) and Powers (instructor at Weathers Music) will improvise a collection of jazz and New Music duets.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artistsinaction/sets/72157621837998881/
Please click on this link to see great photos taken by Phil Krug at PS II.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Project Space II Exhibit 3
Bins Lab 3 : Value Added
Instructions for depositing an object...
Deposit window ...
Instructions for depositing an object...
Deposit window ...
See the artist statement for this show under our blog entry for the opening reception...many objects were deposited that evening.
An example of an object with 'value added' ... or not? or a lot? what do you think?
Michael Boonstra
excerpts from the project proposal ... I would like to use the existing architectural features of the building to create a series of site-specific installation works that use existing natural light as the primary medium. The pieces themselves are essentially drawings, but rather than physical marks such as graphite or ink, each mark is a pinhole camera that absorbs all the colors, shapes, and movement of the environment outside of the building and multiplies it hundreds of times. The panels themselves are constructed out of thin perforated (drawn on) plywood, solid wood framing, and a translucent material, (either duralar or digital projection screen). The design of the drawing will consist of gently contouring lines taken from the curves of the Willamette River as it winds through the Willamette Valley. In many ways the river is the most prominent natural feature of the area. It has always been an integral part of the region, and it is also constantly in motion just as the installation will be.
An example of an object with 'value added' ... or not? or a lot? what do you think?
Michael Boonstra
excerpts from the project proposal ... I would like to use the existing architectural features of the building to create a series of site-specific installation works that use existing natural light as the primary medium. The pieces themselves are essentially drawings, but rather than physical marks such as graphite or ink, each mark is a pinhole camera that absorbs all the colors, shapes, and movement of the environment outside of the building and multiplies it hundreds of times. The panels themselves are constructed out of thin perforated (drawn on) plywood, solid wood framing, and a translucent material, (either duralar or digital projection screen). The design of the drawing will consist of gently contouring lines taken from the curves of the Willamette River as it winds through the Willamette Valley. In many ways the river is the most prominent natural feature of the area. It has always been an integral part of the region, and it is also constantly in motion just as the installation will be.
Also, see the photo of Michael's installation under the blog entry for the opening reception, that will give you an overview of one of the rooms . Two of the images below are of additional works. 
Kay Worthington
Cynthia Herron
Kay Worthington
Cynthia Herron
excerpts from project proposal ... upstairs in the PS II space one sees four large arched windows facing east. They are reminiscent of the three large recessed arches upstairs in Dr. Barnes’ museum in greater Philadelphia, where he commissioned Matisse to paint a flowing mural, “Dance”. I aim to use these windows, these associations, recycled materials and bold simple colors to commemorate one of our local natural scenes: Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge south of Salem. Although I don’t usually create art solely from recycled materials, I will be challenging myself to complete this landscape using only layers of colored plastic bags and painter’s tape. Light will shine through the transparent plastic and echo the effect of stained glass in Gothic cathedrals. In all of my landscapes I seek to bring people, nature and art together. This will be an extension of that, with the additional awareness of the importance of reusing our resources and protecting our local wild areas.
Windows detail
Bonnie Hull
Windows detail
Bonnie Hull
Fragments, Work on Paper
Some deposited objects with 'value added' ...
Some deposited objects with 'value added' ...
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Photos of Project Space II LINK
Phil Krug and Joel Zak have taken some photos at PS II, and here are links to the postings. Lots of good photos! Thanks Phil and Joel!!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artistsinaction/sets/72157621837998881/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artistsinaction/sets/72157621962904798/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artistsinaction/sets/72157621837998881/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artistsinaction/sets/72157621962904798/
Exhibit 3 Opening Reception
Welcome to the opening reception for Project Space II's Exhibit 3, with BinLabs, Michael Boonstra, Kay Worthington, Bonnie Hull, and Cynthia Herron. Studio artists are still working in the space, and there is again much more to see!
The dance performance at the opening reception (also First Wednesday) by DanceAbility included cello, as seen by the first picture and the one below.
Our main show - 
Rachel looking over some of the deposits. There are already many interesting returns, I invite you to come down and look. I'll try to post some as well.
Michael Boonstra's exhibit below. There was a lot of interest in how this works.
All of the photos in this posting were taken by Phil Krug. Thank you Phil!!!!
The dance performance at the opening reception (also First Wednesday) by DanceAbility included cello, as seen by the first picture and the one below.
Our main show -Artists Sean Regan, Rachel Hibbard and Cara Tomlinson collaborate to create a video and sculptural installation inside SAA's Project Space II. Banking on Project Space II’s location, a former bank in the Capitol Center Building in Salem, the exhibit examines our relationship to objects, posing questions about labor and the idea of added value. Guests are invited to bring an object to “deposit” with the artists during the first week of the exhibit, and are able to “withdraw” this object at the end of the exhibit with value added.
Here we can see deposit slips. Lots of folks deposited an object at the opening, as well as for days after.
Rachel looking over some of the deposits. There are already many interesting returns, I invite you to come down and look. I'll try to post some as well.
Michael Boonstra's exhibit below. There was a lot of interest in how this works.
All of the photos in this posting were taken by Phil Krug. Thank you Phil!!!!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Exhibit 2
Andries Fourie has a wonderful show in the open area downstairs.
Andries gave an interesting talk as part of the opening reception on July 16 from 5:00-5:30 on
Themes in Contemporary South African Art. While the talk was about other South African artists, here is Andries's Artist Statement:
ANDRIES FOURIE: ARTIST STATEMENT
My work concerns itself chiefly with the issues of memory, identity, cultural hybridity, guilt and the legacy of colonialism in post-Apartheid South Africa. I examine these themes through the lens of my own experience, and the history of my own family.
As an Afrikaner (a white South African of Dutch descent) I view the present through the lens of a complicated past. Even after three hundred years in Africa Afrikaners are still torn between seeing themselves as European colonists or indigenous Africans. This sense of displacement and confusion is a direct result of apartheid’s mythology of ethnic and cultural purity. Apartheid left South Africans with little more than fiction for history and a fractured shell for a collective identity. South Africa’s various ethnic groups are currently involved in the process of weaving together their many different cultural strands to create a new national identity. I want to make work that contributes to this egalitarian and open-ended process that is so essential to national healing and reconciliation.
The fluid cultural mix that results from an encounter between different cultures and traditions is far more interesting to me than any romanticized notion of cultural purity which aims to fix a culture in an unchanging state of suspended animation. Culture is a vibrant, shifting and changing force that defies our impulse to freeze it in time like an artifact in a museum. I am fascinated by the hybrid, the subaltern, the improvised. I suppose that I am partly drawn to these examples of cultural blending because they expressly contravene the rigid, patriarchal prohibition against “mixing” cultures that was so important to the apartheid-era society I was raised in.
In this specific installation/body of work, I look at Afrikaner identity from two perspectives. On the one hand I examine the theme of complicity and guilt by responding to Joseph Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness”. I have relocated the themes of the novel (which addresses rapacious colonial exploitation in the Congo in the late 1800s) to a contemporary South African setting, and use it to critique my own people’s continuing treatment of black South Africans.
On the other hand I also include work that examines the positive aspects of traditional Afrikaner/Boer culture. I will specifically be looking at those themes, tenets and examples I encountered while visiting the diasporic Boer community in Patagonia, Argentina. This community, which was founded by Boer exiles in 1902 in the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer war, and has been effectively severed from Afrikaans culture in South Africa for over a hundred years. Their language, customs and traditions represent a rare and valuable time-capsule that preserves pre-apartheid Afrikaans traditions that have been spared the Germanicization and “purification” that played such a large part in the implementation of Afrikaner nationalism between 1948 and 1994. My maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother were both born in Patagonia, but returned to South Africa in 1938.
It is likely that the viewer might experience a sense of confusion when confronted with these two very different views of Afrikaner identity. Any reasonably self-reflective Afrikaner feels this confusion every day. Only when we’ve reconciled these two conflicting aspects of our culture, our history and our sense of self will we be ready to participate fully in reconciliation and the creation of a new, shared South African national identity.
Andries gave an interesting talk as part of the opening reception on July 16 from 5:00-5:30 onThemes in Contemporary South African Art. While the talk was about other South African artists, here is Andries's Artist Statement:
ANDRIES FOURIE: ARTIST STATEMENT
My work concerns itself chiefly with the issues of memory, identity, cultural hybridity, guilt and the legacy of colonialism in post-Apartheid South Africa. I examine these themes through the lens of my own experience, and the history of my own family.
As an Afrikaner (a white South African of Dutch descent) I view the present through the lens of a complicated past. Even after three hundred years in Africa Afrikaners are still torn between seeing themselves as European colonists or indigenous Africans. This sense of displacement and confusion is a direct result of apartheid’s mythology of ethnic and cultural purity. Apartheid left South Africans with little more than fiction for history and a fractured shell for a collective identity. South Africa’s various ethnic groups are currently involved in the process of weaving together their many different cultural strands to create a new national identity. I want to make work that contributes to this egalitarian and open-ended process that is so essential to national healing and reconciliation.
The fluid cultural mix that results from an encounter between different cultures and traditions is far more interesting to me than any romanticized notion of cultural purity which aims to fix a culture in an unchanging state of suspended animation. Culture is a vibrant, shifting and changing force that defies our impulse to freeze it in time like an artifact in a museum. I am fascinated by the hybrid, the subaltern, the improvised. I suppose that I am partly drawn to these examples of cultural blending because they expressly contravene the rigid, patriarchal prohibition against “mixing” cultures that was so important to the apartheid-era society I was raised in.
In this specific installation/body of work, I look at Afrikaner identity from two perspectives. On the one hand I examine the theme of complicity and guilt by responding to Joseph Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness”. I have relocated the themes of the novel (which addresses rapacious colonial exploitation in the Congo in the late 1800s) to a contemporary South African setting, and use it to critique my own people’s continuing treatment of black South Africans.
On the other hand I also include work that examines the positive aspects of traditional Afrikaner/Boer culture. I will specifically be looking at those themes, tenets and examples I encountered while visiting the diasporic Boer community in Patagonia, Argentina. This community, which was founded by Boer exiles in 1902 in the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer war, and has been effectively severed from Afrikaans culture in South Africa for over a hundred years. Their language, customs and traditions represent a rare and valuable time-capsule that preserves pre-apartheid Afrikaans traditions that have been spared the Germanicization and “purification” that played such a large part in the implementation of Afrikaner nationalism between 1948 and 1994. My maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother were both born in Patagonia, but returned to South Africa in 1938.
It is likely that the viewer might experience a sense of confusion when confronted with these two very different views of Afrikaner identity. Any reasonably self-reflective Afrikaner feels this confusion every day. Only when we’ve reconciled these two conflicting aspects of our culture, our history and our sense of self will we be ready to participate fully in reconciliation and the creation of a new, shared South African national identity.
More on Exhibit 2
Mary Lou Zeek has an exhibit of made post cards. There are also other artists who sent in theirs which you can handle (gently please)! There are a lot of them, here is just one.
There is even a mailbox in this exhibit!
Yes, another picture of Bonnie, but she just so happened to be in the chair when I was photographing Mary Lou Zeek's art work table ... come in and make a post card! It will be sent for you! All the materials are here, after you gain new ideas viewing the exhibit.
Corrine Loomis Dietz. Lots of texture, interesting composition and medium to explore!
Marilyn Krug has a studio area, as well as a wall for exhibit space.
Detail of Marilyn's show ...
This is the upstairs, largely filled with studio work and spaces. On the left is Heidi Preuss Grew working on layout of various works for an upcoming show. To the far left is Marilyn Krug's space. Corrine Loomis Dietz has two paintings on the wall, to the right of the photo. Come in and talk with working professional artists ...
PS II has become a great gathering place for discussion, ideas, and laughter ...
There is even a mailbox in this exhibit!
Yes, another picture of Bonnie, but she just so happened to be in the chair when I was photographing Mary Lou Zeek's art work table ... come in and make a post card! It will be sent for you! All the materials are here, after you gain new ideas viewing the exhibit.
Jason Munana's installation in the center side room is lovely to look at from various angles. I wish I could include more pics as these two images are kind of the same, but that means you'll need to stop by to really engage with the work!
Corrine Loomis Dietz. Lots of texture, interesting composition and medium to explore!
Georgia Watson has a large number of works in one room, ink and graphite.
Marilyn Krug has a studio area, as well as a wall for exhibit space.
Detail of Marilyn's show ...
This is the upstairs, largely filled with studio work and spaces. On the left is Heidi Preuss Grew working on layout of various works for an upcoming show. To the far left is Marilyn Krug's space. Corrine Loomis Dietz has two paintings on the wall, to the right of the photo. Come in and talk with working professional artists ...
As you can see, we are so very busy (big grin) ... come on in and chat with us!!!
PS II has become a great gathering place for discussion, ideas, and laughter ...
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Artist Talk with Royal Nebeker
Thank you, Barbara Rowland, for this great photo!
Lots of great ideas and discussion was had with Royal...
“A Tale of Two Cities” 21st Century Art: The View from Salem and Berlin
held July 10 at 7 pm
SAA welcomed Royal for a discussion and lecture highlighting the current trends in the art world, artist visions and the role art plays in society. The lecture included a discussion of current trends in the art world which make notions of provincialism and the confines of regional categorization obsolete.
SAA welcomed Royal for a discussion and lecture highlighting the current trends in the art world, artist visions and the role art plays in society. The lecture included a discussion of current trends in the art world which make notions of provincialism and the confines of regional categorization obsolete.
Royal also talked about his own work and the criteria used in the jurying of artists for
Project Space II.
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