I’m happy to announce two exhibitions that I have work being shown in. The first is Progress which opens this Friday at the Center for Art Research at the University of Oregon and examines the varied definitions of “progress” in the ongoing effort to witness, tend to, and historicize human intervention in places often considered unleveraged.

Progress the third and final part of the exhibition series Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World, organized by curators-in-residence Ashley Stull Meyers and Aurora Tang. Ashley and Aurora selected pairs of artists to show together on a common theme. I am so happy to be paired with Lisa Ward. We quickly found that each of us were thinking about infrastructure and what is left for future generations. Lisa was very interested in objects and structures related to high voltage electrical transmission and I was focused on dam removal and freeing rivers from containment systems.

My piece for the show is a 4 channel sculptural sound work using empty water containers as resonating chambers. The sound played through the resonators all originates from water. Drips, drops, running, rushing, ebbing and flowing. From sparse rhythmic patterns to washes of white noise. I took inspiration from these lines in “What the Thunder said”, part V of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”

If there were water

And no rock

It there were rock

And also water

And water

A spring

A pool among the rock

If there were the sound of water only

Not the cicada

And dry grass singing

But sound of water over a rock

Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees

Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop

But there is no water

The exhibition is a short one. It runs from May 3rd – 19th with a reception on Friday, May 3rd from 5:30-7:30pm. Please come by if you are in or around Eugene at that time.

The normal gallery hours are Friday- Sunday from 12:00- 4:00 pm.
CFAR is located at 510 Oak St, Eugene, OR 97403

The second exhibition is the 2024 Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial curated by Jackie Im & Anuradha Vikram.

“The Artists’ Biennial is a survey of works by visual and performing artists who are defining and advancing Oregon’s contemporary art landscape. Which is focused on themes of networks, community, care, and support. Rather than a hierarchical approach to artists' works, the curators' goal is to present work that is timely and relevant to the communities of Oregon.”

For the Biennial I am exhibiting “This Map is Not the Territory” a 10 channel audio piece spread across twenty speakers suspended from the rafters of the gallery. All the recordings used in the piece are played back is a zone of the room that corresponds to a geographic region of Portland where it was recorded. Dividing the room into North, North- east, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. The recordings were selected to highlight areas of the city where nature in industry meet leading to sometimes jarring overlaps in sound and texture.

In addition to the installation, I will also be leading a series of one day workshops on DIY electronics. The workshops are designed to be beginner friendly requiring no prerequisite skills. They are about experimentation with low cost materials and giving people access to tools they may not have regular access to. More information to come on those soon.

The Artists’ Biennial opened last weekend but there will be a First-Saturday gathering this coming weekend on May 4th and is located at 8371 N. Interstate Ave
Portland, OR 97217

video postcard

a little excerpt from “carry the water”.