Projects

(7/27-8/3, 2018) Leah Wilson and Kate Ali explore the nature of fire as a springboard for growth and regeneration. The artists altered the cube-form of Gray Space, creating an installation both inviting and startling. The work remained outdoors for one week in front of the Hult Center for Performing Arts, where the artists engaged in conversations with daytime and nighttime audiences. Scientific data, gleaned through work with the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, informs the artists’ visualization of form. The hanging forms made of beeswax reflect the shapes of certain nitrogen-fixing nodules, which emerge from roots after a fire and have power to feed and restore the soil. 

Metanoia Catalyst addresses layers of inquiry. With the increased frequency and intensity of fires that sweep through the forests of the West, the local ecology becomes a metaphor for social and institutional change that feels out of control. Destructive fires are roaring through our sociopolitical foundations, just as they roar through our forests. How do we adapt to radical change? What does regeneration look like? Can we identify the forces underlying our social landscape that foster a sense of hope for the future?

(5/26/18) Trophallacy is a performance piece by Vicki Amorose that dissects our cultural obsession with the win/lose paradigm and asks artists why they accept the idea of contests and rankings. The work combines video and voiceover with live monologue. The Gray Space module parked outside the performance venue and anchored Tailgate for Art, a party that took over the city block of West 8^th Ave in Eugene. Tailgate for Art presented an alternative model for an art opening in a college town identified with sports culture.

(5/26, 2018) Gray Space celebrates Vicki Amorose’s performance, Trophallacy, with a tailgate party and exhibition at Eugene Contemporary Art at Slightly Coffee Roasters in Eugene.

(10/28/17) Kathleen Caprario’s digital media installation White Noise explores institutional racism in America, drawing attention to those who have died in racially motivated killings. Gray Space traveled to 3 locations – Oak Grove Rest Stop on I-5, the top overlook from Skinner’s Butte in Eugene, and the historic Mims House—referencing different aspects of the area’s relationship to race.

(9/23/17) Renee Couture installed The Highest Fence within the Gray Space module at an I-5 Rest Area near Rice Hill, OR. The work focused on ideas of boundaries that establish ownership. She presented a view through layers of cut paper fences, and the location created an “open border” audience. The idea emerged from Renee’s experience living in Southern Oregon’s rural system of “checkerboard land ownership”, proverbs, and current political commentary on wall building. Public officials arrived and asked the artists to leave.

(8/18/17) Kate Ali and Lee Imonen constructed two brick and mortar objects simultaneously in downtown Eugene. One construction walled-in the Gray Space module, the other was a pizza oven used to feed the fabrication crew. The work explores labor and intention. The artists share a heightened feeling that real work needs to be done in contemporary society, and where to apply one’s efforts is a primary concern.