In the last several years, our country’s cultural historians have slowly begun to tell the story of the early Chinese immigrant experience in the U.S.  Denied the opportunity to own land, gain citizenship or transport their families to our mainland, these almost exclusively male Chinese laborers suffered deep hardship, all the while clearing much of the land that is now most prized in our great cities located along the entire stretch of the west coast - Vancouver, B.C. to Los Angeles.  For his May project, AiR guest artist, Horatio Hung-Yan Law -  a native of Hong Kong but New Yorker since the age of 16, will explore how our cities might look and feel differently had the Chinese had more opportunity to assert themselves on the cities that they so painstakingly transformed on behalf of others.  In a three-part installation that traverses both the AiR studio and the South Waterfront neighborhood, Horatio will use common materials that we associate with either a Chinese or Asian lineage - rice, bamboo, chopsticks, t’ai chi - to play with how the South Waterfront district might be different today had the Chinese laborers been able to establish a presence there.  Please join Horatio for his opening reception on Saturday, May 3rd from 11a-2p in the AiR studio, and for the free t’ai chi workshops that accompany his residency in preparation for the T’ai Chi for 1,000 gathering on Saturday, May 31st.  In addition to the workshop on May 3rd during the reception, workshop times include:  May 14th, 10a-noon; May 21st, 6-8p; May 28th, 6-8p. To sign-up, please contact Horatio at: horatiolaw@gmail.com 

For those of you who didn’t make it down to Adam Kuby’s end-of-month exhibit in March, he has posted the fruits of his residency at his website.  You can click here to see them. The points and the issues they address were informed largely by the input of many, many participants over the month.  Thank you to those of you who participated. The project will continue to evolve, so please let Adam know of other places and other issues you think could be included.  Adam can be contacted at: adam@adamkuby.com.

   I have long admired the artistic activities of visual artists Maria T.D. Inocencio - a 2x Pollock-Krasner recipient, and Mark R. Smith, represented by the Elizabeth Leach Gallery.  While partners on the domestic side of life, their individual work - while often installation-based, has taken them each down very separate paths that have not crossed since their very early years in school at Cooper Union in NYC.  Until now!  I am thrilled and honored that they have chosen to collaborate on a project for the South Waterfront.  Each with a history of inviting community participation in the realization of their work, the AiR program offered them an opportunity to explore how a new community comes to know itself - together!  COMPASS, their April project, officially begins on Saturday, April 5th in the AiR studio with a series of workshops that invite hands-on participation with the artists.  COMPASS posits Portland as the center of the world and seeks to “map” the individuals in the community through the collection of a few simple coordinates - height, birth place, gender and the spelling (or re-spelling, in this case) of one’s name.  The resulting object of this data will be the creation of a simple flag for each individual that will be placed outside in the context of the larger installation - a 20′x40′ oval that is literally a map of the world with the South Waterfront neighborhood at its center.   While allowing for anonimity, COMPASS seeks to map who we are and from where we came.   Very family-friendly, all ages and Portlanders are invited to participate in this project.  The workshop is from 11a-2p and repeats again on April 12th, 11a-2p.  The final exhibition of this work will occur on Saturday, April 26th, from 11a-1p.

Last July, when I was beginning the process of inviting artists to submit project proposals for the AiR program’s Monthly Guest Artist series, several artists who I deeply respect told me about a project that an artist fairly new to Portland was incubating.   I was unaware of both the artist and the project but was so fascinated that I had to learn more.  I made a call, set up a time to get together and a few days later shared breakfast with artist Adam Kuby.Adam told me about a lot of projects that he was working on and I told him about the kind of work I was interested in including in the place-making project for the South Waterfront.  We kept coming back to his musings about acupuncture, urban places and the idea of looking at a city as a body in order to evaluate its health.  As a dance artist, patient of Five Elements acupuncture and native Oregonian and Portlander, I allowed my mind to really linger on this image of Portland as a body and the prospect of using the concepts of acupuncture to evaluate its health.  Where, I wondered, would this new SWF neighborhood find itself in this metaphorical body and what would its qi be?  I was fascinated by both the poetry and potential of this image for the city.  We talked about March, the energy of spring and his availability.  July has become March and Adam’s project is now in full swing.  

 

 

If you missed the gathering or the accumulated installation of Chris Rauschenberg’s project for the South Waterfront, you can click here to see the 60+ images that he captured of the interior life of the neighborhood.  

When I hear people talk about the South Waterfront district, the conversations most often center on the “green” nature of the architecture, on the development’s proximity to the river, or on the unique access to public transportation found in the tram and streetcar.   Thus far, all of these aspects of the neighborhood have been well documented photographically, particularly the buildings themselves.   Enter the incredible photographic artist, Christopher Rauschenberg, February’s guest artist in the AiR program.  Chris was much more interested in what and who was inside the towers.  As he puts it, the everyday “living and being” of the place.  We queried residents to see if they would let Chris eddying in their homes for an hour or so in order to let him capture the more human side of the development.  What resulted was 12 invitations and 60+ images now on the walls in the AiR studio.  With several residences and a week still to go, the totality of Chris’ portrait of the inside life of the neighborhood is still emerging.  Below find some samplings from early visits.  Please plan on joining us in the studio - Thursday, Feb. 28th, from 6:30-8p, for the culminating exhibit of Chris’ project - Looking at the South Waterfront.