Art at Bumbershoot: A Few Observances
Posted Aug. 31, 2008 at 6:57 pm by Adriana Grant
Photographs by the author
Vaughn Bell: This Land is My Land
Bell (spelled by her sweet hubby) offers small plots of land to adopt, with a serious contract to sign, where you promise to take care of the salal or knickknick. These are both native Northwest species, this time purchased from City People's in quantity. This afternoon, Bell had given away just 30 plants (total) at Bumbershoot, but the count for the project was closer to 300. In the past the artist has sourced her greens from the woods, as a permit will allow you to remove a certain number of plants from the National Forest, which is public land.
This a green progression for the artist: A few years ago, Bell was giving away small plastic terrariums (I have to admit, my moss died of neglect, inside it's gumball machine plastic globe) whereas these 3 inch plants come in cardboard planters. Frankly, this branched leafy being demands a bit more respect, and (one hopes), a bit more care.
Make sure to stop by The Seattle-Tehran Poster Show. Images here. Gorgeous, graphically strong work from here and the capitol city of Iran. You might just be inspired to troll telephone poles for the next lovely, letterpress band poster to hang on your wall.
Katharina Mouratidi's large-scale photographs of famous and not so famous people are paired with a paragraph of text written by the subject, explaining why they do what they do. These works make for politically charged reading, including such figures as economist Joseph Stigletz.
Jasmine Zimmerma's Bottle House was crowded with people stooping down to get inside.
Make sure get inside yourself, for within this plastic structure all the bottle ends stare at you, and the colors make a lovely pattern in the sun. From outside, it's somehow more of an academic piece, but from inside, this work is both more pleasing (sun shining through the colored plastic) and more accusatory.
Topics: Visual Arts
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Cover Story: Pipe Schemes
