Map - ("Schema" Installation in Gallery Homeland) Key - (This blog) Performances - (Dinners and walks) All events begin at 6 PM sharp on Aug 31st, September 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 Check blog for meeting locations; to be posted on day of event. Menu based on the diet of indigenous Native Americans of the Columbia River Basin. The indigenous populations of this area ate A LOT of meat so meals are not vegetarian friendly.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The End Of SIXSIXSIX
The SIXSIXSIX: A Co-Relational Weaving (In Six Acts) project has ended. I would like to thank everyone who participated in the project. There were 33 of you at the 4 events. Please watch this blog for more information and documentation from SIXSIXSIX.
If you wish to be included in future mailings regarding new projects, have questions etc. Please email: eugeniousw@gmail.com
Friday, September 12, 2008
Meeting Details For Fourth Dinner
(Riding the bus to the meeting location is suggested).
Wear - Blue (and shoes you can walk in).
Bring - Drinks you like to drink (and share), a knife, a fork, a spoon AND three things to leave behind.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Kalapuya: Original People Of the Upper Willamette Valley
by Margaret Robertson 2002
For the complete article from which the above is an excerpt go to: http://neighbors.designcommunity.com/notes/1347.html
Kurt Schwitters: Merzbau
Monotone Symphony - One of the first recorded instances of sound in visual art.
http://www.yvesklein.de/symphony.html
GASCO: Willamette River Cleanup
From The Oregonian
'Summary: For more than 10 years, records show, regulators have told the utility to dig out a tarry mass polluting the Willamette River
The federal government says a toxic tar reef that juts into the Willamette River near downtown Portland poses such "an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment" that it should be dug out this summer.
In 1913, the Portland Gas & Coke Co., known as Gasco, began manufacturing gas from oil on the
The work created huge volumes of waste that Gasco dumped directly into the
But the tar remained.
Alex Pulaski: 503-221-8516; alexpulaski@news.oregonian.com
Julie Sullivan: 503-221-8068; juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com
please see this link for the complete article regarding the GASCO Superfund site on the Willamette River:
http://www.oregon-health.org/assets/PH/News%20Articles/PH%20-%20Oregonian%20-%20NW%20NATURAL%20AGAIN%20ASKS%20TO%20DELAY%20CLEANUP.htm?/base/front_page/111675586579500.xml&coll=7&thispage=1
SYSTEMS: The Ecology Of Place and Line: Towards An Architecture of Healing
Probation, Liberation, Discovery
I spent my metaphorical probationary period in art school. My probation lasted one and a half years after which time I returned to Portland. I loved art school. For the first time in my life I felt like I had come home. It was the first place I was rewarded for being myself. I was in constant motion exhilarated by all of the new ideas and resources available to me. I was a living event horizon.
Art is great because nobody knows what art is. If you are a person who makes art you can draw your own maps. In art school I discovered a number of people who drew maps that made sense to me. One of them was Yves Klein. He drew maps of what it was like to be completely immersed and present in the universe. He called this place "the void". To him the void was blue, like the sky. Looking into his work is like staring at manifest nothing. It is a paradox - a void that is full, that can be inhabited.
I was introduced to Marcel Duchamp at this time. His maps showed me that art is whatever you want it to be. He showed me that it is possible to transform universal vision - even quietly from the sidelines - by simply being yourself; following whatever interests you. From Duchamp I learned that art can be hilarious and mischievous while maintaining complex themes and serious critique. He informed me that idea and intention is the most important part of art.
There are that I learned from. Here is a short-list and the maps they drew.
1. Yves Klien – as above
2. Marcel Duchamp – as above
3. Situationists – Art can be dematerialized and insite radical sociopolitical shifts.
4. Fluxus – There is great value in collaboration and art practice can be relational.
5. Felix Gonzales-Torres – People and ideas are more precious than objects, it is possible to have a relational practice without rejecting aesthetics. Art can be intensely personal without being embarrassing.
6. Rikrit Tiravanija and Vanessa Beecroft – Food is a medium. It is OK to write scripts. Intentional, destabilization, manipulation and control is interesting and can lead to transformation.
7. Doh Ho Suh – Craft, beauty and installation art still has relevance.
8. Louise Bourgeois – She reminded me that I love to draw and that I never want to be stuck in past suffering or intensely personal art can be embarrassing.
9. Gordon Matta-Clarke – Art can be anywhere. Even under a bridge.
10. Christo and Jean-Claude – Documentation is important. Art can achieve epic proportions.
SIXSIXSIX: Act Two (Axis Two)
This is an image of the 24-Hour-A-Day tarpaulin performance that has been occurring under the Esplanade, on the East bank of the Willamette River, between the Steel Bridge and the Burnside Bridge, for the last two weeks straight.
If you have seen this object, dancing with the wind, you may have wondered what it was or why it was there. If this is the case allow me to explain that you have witnessed the second act in the ongoing SIXSIXSIX: A Co-Relational Weaving (In Six Parts) performance cycle (Aug 30 - Sep 30).
You may be interested to note that the Act Two (Axis Two) performance was held directly across the river from the, Conclusion (And To Begin...) (Act Six) site (performance to be staged on the 30th of September). The, Conclusion (And To Begin...) site represents the central point of the entire SIXSIXSIX cycle.
Blue Tarpaulin = the future, possibility, protection, (the mystery of) transformation, ephemeral structure, the interconnectedness of all things, loving caress
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Tonights Event (September 6, 2008) Is Fully Booked
- g
Friday, September 5, 2008
SIXSIXSIX: Dinner Three Details
Please meet at the corner of SE Morrison St. and 16th Ave at 6 PM on Saturday September 6th, 2008.
The event will begin and end with a walk.
The menu will include:
Roast-Duck Stuffed With Wild Rice, Hazelnut and Acorn
Peppermint Dandy Lion Tea
Special Feature:
Jess's Honey Acorn Pine Nut Cookies (You will not believe how amazing these are)
WEAR BLUE
Bring an object for the memorial we will make. Stop - find a flower (pick it) OR - pick up a rock that catches your eye - bring that too. Make sure it is something you want to leave behind.
Bring a drink you would like to consume and share if you are so inclined.
Systems: The Ecology of Place and Line:Towards and Architecture Of Healing
I never met my father. I met his brother, my uncle, once. This was about 16 years ago. My uncle told me that after my Father found my grandmother in the kitchen, he started running and never stopped. He ran into substance abuse and gang membership. He ran into selling drugs and illegal firearms. He ran straight into prison. I hope he had a rest in there. Running away all the time is exhausting. I have no idea if my Father is living or dead. When I was twenty I followed in my father’s footsteps (in a sense). I did not run away and land into a Penitentiary. I ran away to Australia and got married. I ran to Perth, Western Australia; the most isolated capital city in the world. Perth is similar to a prison. It is located between a vast uninhabitable desert and an ocean. Perth’s geography coupled with an oppressive eight-year marriage and extended periods of depression isolated me just as effectively as any prison. May be even more so; in theory I could have walked out of that prison any time I wanted to.
SIXSIXSIX: Dinner Two (SE Morrison St. and 16th Ave.)
Connie Cohen, Anne Feeney, Ann Frances, Kirsty Teresa Hall, Gabriel Darling, Suzanne Tufan, Sokhak, Gregory, Sheran, Colin Beattie, Jessica Tannenbaum, Tuey Burns, Gary Wiseman
May be you are wondering what happened at the SIXSIXSIX dinner on the 3rd of September 2008. To tell you the truth I don't know if I can explain it to you. There were aproximately ten people present from myriad demographics, races and ages. Each one of them played a part in the narrative we wrote together. I could not explain it to you becasue it is about being there. It is about the experience itself.
There are the ten perspectives of those participating directly. There are the experiences of all those who were present indirectly; Richard Brandt who worked with Jessica Tannenbaum (our chef) in developing the meal we enjoyed; Stephanie Snyder who comissioned the work; Ashley Keampf who loaned me her vehichle; Simon Sampson, who provided the salmon; the farmers who grew the dandy lion; the ducks who laid the eggs; Paul Middendorf who provided the table supports and disposable camera; James Nesmith, who invented Basketball; not to mention whoever made the gas for the car I drove, those who made the car, whoever owned the vacant lot we ate in, Nike for building the Basketball Court, everybody who happened to walk or drive by and wonder what we were doing...and that is just the beginning. If you were to talk to each of these people listed above you may begin to get a picture of what was happening, but the truth is, it was a series of moments shared by those who were present. We were supported in those moments by the whole of the interconnected community of the world. We acted in cooperation with the universe and dove into the void of the future without reservations.
The event was documented with both photographs and video. These only give you a rectalinear view, a de-contextualized two-dimensional representation of what occurred. But if you would like to see them anyway they will be posted soon.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
SIXSIXSIX: Dinner Two Details
Images: SIXSIXSIX: Dinner One
Featuring: Gabriel Darling, Amy Dubin, Richard Brandt, Jessica Tannenbaum, Jon Hammett Chesley, Nicolaus D. Wright, Blake Shell, Caitlin Moore, Gregory Sheran, Ethan Jackson, Gary Wiseman
For more images of the first event look here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyeugenewiseman/sets/72157607093290062/
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
SIXISIXSIX: Dinner One
Five monitors placed at five of the six points of a Hexagon played images of blue tarpaulins whipped by the wind. The Hexagon was drawn on the floor with a single yellow extension cord that was plugged into the wall. All audio visual equipment sourced power from this point. At the sixth point of the hexagon was a pile of asphalt. Behind this point standing in the corner was the basketball hoop. Behind the basketball hoop there was a single white pedestal with a basketball balanced on it. An enormous video of more blowing tarps was projected from across the room onto the pole, backboard, hoop, ball and wall beyond.
An orchestra started playing a single note, two young men started to play a game of basketball. The orchestra joined the cacophony of sounds already echoing in the room: of wind and crackling tarps, of fans, the cars, of the six trains that passed, of eating, of cooking, shoes squeaking, ball bouncing...
The players became a living breathing projection screen. Unidentifiable, they were shadow puppets shifting fluidly from giants to gnomes. They created an image of a basketball game within an image of the wind within the image of a few people eating dinner in an empty retail space within an historic building, within SE Portland within greater Portland within Multnomah County within Oregon within the United States, within the northern hemisphere within the Earth - the universe was our backdrop...
They played basketball for twenty minutes at which time the music stopped. Someone pulled a plug. The lights went out. The monitors shut off. Strips of blue paper were passed around. They read, "Please observe silence for the next twenty minutes".
Every one became still. We didn't know what was expected of us. We didn't know what to do. We were well into our meal by this time and had begun to get to know our neighbors (Most of us didn't know each other before hand). We continued eating in silence. We began to notice things about each other that we hadn't before. Little things. We began to communicate by waving our hands, pointing with our fingers, with our eyes. There are so many forms of communication available to us that we take for granted. It was good to be reminded of this.
The meal, we were told, was made exclusively from ingredients indigenous to the Willamette valley and Columbia Basin. The bread was made from acorn flour, the air was thick with the smell of a whole, 15 lb. salmon grilling over an open fire when we arrived; a salad of dandelions and watercress with a berry dressing...It was all served family style. Everyone sharing from the same platters.
Twenty minutes elapsed and the silence was broken. i was sad to see it go. It seemed to take nearly twenty minutes to settle into it; to become comfortable; to try it on. Then it was gone. How often are we offered the luxury of silence in our lives?
Our host rose from where he was seated and asked us to accompany him on a walk. We were led through the twists and turns of Ladds Addition to SE 16th and Hawthorne at which point he told us the performance was concluded. He invited us to meet him at 16th and Hawthorne on Wednesday the 3rd of September at 6 pm to join him for the second dinner of the SIXSIXSIX project. I for one will be there.
E.G.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Meeting Location For The First SIXSIXSIX Co-Relational Performance
Please Read the following information carefully.
Meeting Place: SE 16th Ave and SE Brooklyn Street
Follow posted instructions. Walk the blue line.
Time: 6pm
The first six people to arrive - who meet the below criteria and are willing to stay for the entire performance) will be invited to play the part of those experiencing total immersion. Those who arrive after the first six will be invited to play the part of intentional partial immersion and will be free to come and go as they please.
Dress Code: Blue - first half of your ticket (Primary blue or ultra marine is preferred however any shade will do)
Wear or bring shoes you are comfortable to walk in.
Bring - a pine branch and a rock (Required - second half of your ticket)
If you have an old feather pillow or comforter that you do not want anymore please bring it with you. These items will not be usable after the performance (Not required)
Please note: Cameras, Phones, personal music players, bags and all non-essential items etc. will be checked upon arrival, to the dinner location. These items will tagged and locked in a safe place and returned to you at the end of the performance. This is to your advantage and will allow you to participate and enjoy the performance more fully. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Systems: The Ecology Of Place And Line: Towards An Architecture Of Healing (Paternal Void)
Chapter Two
I know two things about my paternal Grandmother. The first is that she was of Blackfeet Sioux and Lacota decent. The second thing I know about my Grandmother is that my father found her dead on the kitchen floor of a heart attack induced by alcohol. My father was fifteen at the time. It was March 1974, six months before I was born. He ran away and never came back.
Benzene
“The tar deposit at the former GASCO site [on the Willamette] was created by discharges from the oil gasification facility early in the 20th century, but the contamination remains in and on top of river sediment. The tar contains high levels of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (TPAH), as well as other chemicals, most notably benzene.”
“…about 15,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment will be dredged from the [Willamette River] followed by placement of a protective cap. The action includes a silt curtain system designed to contain contamination loosened during removal and prevent fish from entering the dredge area. The silt curtain will also be engineered to withstand boat wakes and high-river flows. Contamination will be taken by barge and then truck for disposal at the Chem Waste Subtitle C (hazardous waste) facility in Arlington, Oregon.
6/21/2005 – from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website - http://www.epa.gov/
Benzene, or benzol, is an organic chemical compound and a known carcinogen with the molecular formula C6H6. It is sometimes abbreviated Ph–H. Benzene is a colorless and highly flammable liquid with a sweet smell and a relatively high melting point. Because it is a known carcinogen, its use as an additive in gasoline is now limited, but it is an important industrial solvent and precursor in the production of drugs, plastics, synthetic rubber, and dyes. Benzene is a natural constituent of crude oil, but it is usually synthesized from other compounds present in petroleum. Benzene is an aromatic hydrocarbon and the second [n]-annulene ([6]-annulene), a cyclic hydrocarbon with a continuous pi bond.
An aromatic hydrocarbon is a hydrocarbon, of which the molecular structure incorporates one or more planar sets of six carbon atoms that are connected by delocalised electrons numbering the same as if they consisted of alternating single and double covalent bonds. The term 'aromatic' was assigned before the physical mechanism determining aromaticity was discovered, and was derived from the fact that many of the compounds have a sweet scent. This sweet scent actually came from impurities in the compounds. The configuration of six carbon atoms in aromatic compounds is known as a benzene ring, after the simplest possible such hydrocarbon, benzene.
Benzene, C6H6, is the simplest AH and was recognized as the first aromatic hydrocarbon, with the nature of its bonding first being recognized by Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz in the 19th century. Each carbon atom in the hexagonal cycle has four electrons to share. One goes to the hydrogen atom, and one each to the two neighboring carbons. This leaves one to share with one of its two neighboring carbon atoms, which is why the benzene molecule is drawn with alternating single and double bonds around the hexagon.
Many chemists draw a circle around the inside of the ring to show six electrons floating around in delocalized molecular orbitals the size of the ring itself. This also accurately represents the equivalent nature of the six bonds all of bond order ~1.5.
Benzene burns with a sooty yellow flame because of the high carbon-hydrogen ratio.
- From Wikipedia 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Full SIXSIXSIX Schedule
Why Hexagon?
Benzene comes from tar. It is known to cause cancer (specifically leukemia).Tar comes from petroleum refinement. GASCO (which became NW Natural Gas) dumped a lot of tar into pits that got covered up by dirt in the 90's. The tar began leaching Benzene and other toxic chemical compounds into the river. In 2006 the EPA made them clean up. They dug out 15,000 cubic yards of tar from the bottom of the river. There was 365 ppm Benzene in the earth around the site and 17 ppm Benzene in the water (including groundwater).
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
SYSTEMS: The Ecology Of Place and Line: Towards An Architecture of Healing
“You carry your own joy with you wherever you go."
- Kurt Schwitters
Blue (Early Visions Of The Void)
My room was always blue when I was a child; like an inside-out robin’s egg. May be that is why I spent so much time in there, because it felt safe. I was an only child. I spent most of my time alone.
When I was seven years old I had a vision while seated on the floor of my room. I know it was not a dream because I was awake when it happened.
I come to a fork in the road. The right fork is well lit and easy to navigate at first. It is smooth and wide If I go this way I know that eventually I will get lost. I will never come back. I will die. It will end in pain.
The left fork appears treacherous and uncertain. It quickly disappears into shadowy nothingness If I go this way I know that it will be very painful and difficult at first, but I will eventually come out the other side alive. I will be OK.
I understand the path on the right is a path to substance abuse and that the path on the left is the path of sobriety.
Everyone wonders why I have never used drugs and rarely drink. It is because I don't want to die.
http://web.reed.edu/gallery/
SIXSIXSIX
A Co-Relational Weaving In Six Parts
(Six Dinners, Six Locations, Six Days)
“Take care! Nothing has crystallized as yet; nor can I say what will happen after this. I can only say that today I am no longer as afraid as I was yesterday… I find myself before you…ready to dive into the void.”
- Yves Klein
“The space that appears to separate us actually connects us.”
- Ian Dorsey
“Our elders teach us…protect the water…the water is life.”
- Danny Beaton
Turtle Clan, Mohawk Nation
Richard Brandt, Jessica Tannenbaum, David Liberty, the Intertribal Fisheries Department, Robin Shanti, Paul Middendorf, Caitlin Moore, Stephanie Snyder, Matthew Stadler, Greg Sheran, Brennan Novak, Ashley Kaempf, Seth Nehil, Todd Balmer, Gordon Barnes, Chris Hudson, Gary Wiseman, Walter Fenk, Yves Klien, Marcel Duchamp, Situationist International, Fluxus, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Rikrit Tiravanija, Vanessa Beecroft, Doh Ho Suh, Louise Bourgeois, Gordon Matta-Clarke, Christo and Jean-Claude, Kurt Schwitters, Damian Hirst, Jeff Koons, Joseph Bueys, Maurizio Cattelan, Fritz Heag, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ingmar Bergman, Theo Angelopoulos, Rudolf Steiner, You
Tarpaulin (Blue = future, possibility, protection, restoration, erasure, healing, Eve, Dawn, Void, IKB, Anthropometric - one note symphony, twenty minutes, silence Situationist International, Spectacle, Revolution, Fluxus, Happenings; Tarpaulin Entomology - heavy canvass, coated with tar, waterproof (nautical connection, water connection) Tar = (sailor = grandfather = navy = electrician) = Benzene = (hexagon = 6 sides, 6 = lucky number = number of man = SIXSIXSIX = six diners, six locations, six guests) = industrial solvent, plastics, synthetic rubber, pharmaceuticals, (Lamictal = hexagon shape = pharma-molecules in water supply) liberation (Tar = modern tarpaulin), Tar = by product of oil gasification (early 20th century), GASCO (NW Natural Gas) (Tar Baby [trap] Tar and Feather) Willamette River, Portland, 2005, EPA; 15, 000 cubic-yards of tar removed from Willamette, 2005, Benzene in sediment, water, earth, air (clinically proven cause of leukemia). Willamette, pollution, superfund, 8 sewage treatment plants, agricultural runoff, past industry, current industry, open sewer; destruction = creation = future = possibility [indigenous people, plants, animals, food] original inhabitants, Grandmother, Alcohol, Father, The clearing, Indian Fishing Camp, Prior to 1845, Co-Relational Ecology, Social Architecture, Homeland, Family, Identity, Lineage, Place, interconnectedness, energy, magic, timelessness, the void
SIXSIXSIX: Schema Installation
More photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyeugenewiseman/
Photos by Walter Fenk