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

Meeting Details For Fourth Dinner

Please meet at the NW corner of East Burnside and 12th at 6 PM Friday, September 12, 2008.
(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.

Kalapuya: Original People Of the Upper Willamette Valley

'The Upper Willamette Valley has been populated by a series of native peoples for thousands of years. The most recent native American inhabitants of the Upper Willamette Valley were collectively called Kalapuya. They spoke 3 closely related but mutually unintelligible languages of Kalapuya linguistic stock: Tualatin-Yamhill (north), Santiam (central), and Yonkalla (south). They lived throughout the valley in bands ranging from 20 to 500 inhabitants. The band in the Eugene area was the Calapuya Proper. Several villages were concentrated near Eugene. An increased concentration of major tributaries in the Eugene area was more productive for subsistence activities, and therefore this was a more populous habitation area.Kalapuyans were seminomadic. Groups generally remained within a specific sub basin of the valley, moving on a seasonal round between winter villages and summer base camps. People congregated in large winter villages as soon as the flood waters began to rise, staying from mid-October to mid-March. Houses were pole structures with bark roofs surrounded by earthen banks; each held from four to ten families. During the remainder of the year, people divided into smaller bands to harvest food and hunt on the rich floodplains of the Willamette River. They did not build summer homes, but occasionally constructed windbreaks of fir boughs. Summer base camps were used for harvesting tasks and were frequently revisited over the centuries. From these locations—winter villages or summer base camps—smaller groups went to task-specific sites to exploit upland or lowland resources. '

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

Alongside his collages, Schwitters also dramatically altered the interiors of a number of spaces throughout his life. The most famous was The Merzbau, the transformation of six (or possibly more) rooms of the family house in Hannover, Waldhausenstrasse 5. This took place very gradually; work started in about 1923, the first room was finished in 1933, and Schwitters subsequently extended the Merzbau to other areas of the house until he fled to Norway in early 1937. Most of the house was let to tenants, so that the final extent of the Merzbau was less than is normally assumed. On the evidence of Schwitters' correspondence, by 1937 it had spread to two rooms of his parents' apartment on ground floor, the adjoining balcony, the space below the balcony, one or two rooms of the attic and possibly part of the cellar. In 1943 it was destroyed in a bombing raid.

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 May 22, 2005

'NW NATURAL AGAIN ASKS TO DELAY CLEANUP'

'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 Willamette's west bank, between what later became the Fremont and St. Johns bridges. Within a decade, the plant was making the lowest-cost gas in the nation by selling byproducts.

The work created huge volumes of waste that Gasco dumped directly into the Willamette and, after 1941, into four settling ponds. Once pipelines brought natural gas to the Portland market in the 1950s, Gasco closed the plant and changed the company name to NW Natural Gas Co., later shortened to NW Natural. The company still stores liquid natural gas and has two tenants on the site. It sold the site's southern portion, later developed by Siltronic Corp., which makes the silicon wafers that computer chips are printed on.

But the tar remained. Pollution spreads

By the 1970s, tar waste from the four ponds had been mixed with soil and spread between the Siltronic and NW Natural site. Test drilling in 1998 encountered tar and tar oils at 60 feet. Tar oils have turned up in two neighboring wells near the river at 120 feet. '

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

Chapter Four

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

Where We Have Been So Far?

Tonights Event (September 6, 2008) Is Fully Booked

Please consider attending one of the remaining four events (September 12, 18, 24 or 30). We hope you are enjoying your day and look forward to eating with you soon.

- g

SIXSIXSIXSIX: Struggle (Opening Game)

SIXSIXSIX: Dinner Three Details

Hello! Tomorrow will mark the third dinner in the SIXSIXSIX series.

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

Chapter Three

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.)

Featuring:

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.

SIXSIXSIX: Dinner Two Details

Please meet at SE Hawthorne Blvd. and 16th St. 6 pm sharp. You will be glad you did.

Menu for this evening will feature

Fire-Roasted Salmon, Wild-Huckleberry and Acorn Pudding with Duck Eggs and Pine Nuts.

Please bring whatever you would like to drink.

WEAR BLUE.

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/

SIXISIXSIX: Dinner One

We followed a blue chalk line from where we had been told to meet (SE 16th and Brooklyn) to an empty space in the Ford Building on SE 11th and Division. In the middle of an art installation there, ("Schema") was a table covered in a blue cloth. There were amaranth flowers and cat tails upon it. Two candle sticks, blue plastic cutlery, blue Styrofoam plates, clear plastic cups. To the left of the entrance there was a basketball hoop. To the right was what seemed a shrine. A black light leaned against a corner, a latch hook rug of a robot on the floor - all whites glowing fluorescent - the cords, the yarn, the inside of a flash umbrella, piles of blue yarn, a plastic hanger.

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.