My collaborator Rina Liddle and I just returned from a fantastically successful trip to Portland. We were invited down by artist Tori Abernathy, the mastermind behind Portland artist run center Recess to perform DIY Lover (Portland) at the opening of IN(ter)DEPENDENCE. This show was an amazing culture mash-up. Recess, along with a number of other contemporary art organizations, was invited to take over a row of empty retail spaces inside of Pioneer Place (a mall in Portland's downtown core) for a six week show. There were installations, new media works, interactive art works, ongoing performance pieces, and more that really showcased the vast amount of creativity and energy in the city's art scene. I was really inspired by the number of grassroots independent art galleries, centers, and collectives, and the quality of the work that was being done. People are doing neat things, with minimal funding, for the community and for the love of art and culture.
DIY Lover (Portland) was similar to the Vancouver edition, but, the text was different, and the objects were solicited locally by Tori so I didn't know what I was going to be working with until I was standing on the stage organizing things. To work the love metaphor, it was as different as your second love is from your first. Rina and I had not gone over the final version of the new text together, so the first time I was really forced to listen to the text during the construction process. This was a strange experience as I kept anticipating certain moments or pieces of text based on the previous performance which were continually subverted. This was a little anxiety producing as I considered time, the text, my actions, the meaning of the objects in relation to the text and my actions, and all of that in relation to the building process. Video is coming soon. Below is a picture of the resultant idol, or lover, or whatever it is.
