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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2002)
rtacñmhñf B. ft » ? ART ▼ environmental issues such as AIDS, cultural identity and Northwest salmon habitat. He creates the feeling and pretense of museum artifacts in his trademark use o f vitrines, which allow con by S usan D etroy tents to be viewed from the top and sides. These Plexi glas display cabinets are put to good use in Bridges: Frag - ile Circle (Australian Series), which takes over Rogue Community College’s FireHouse Gallery in Grants Pass through Dec. 13. Composed o f a wide array o f materials, his latest installation symbolically documents the cultural conflict between contemporary Aus tralian white and aboriginal cultures. Aborigi nal, native painting fragments are paired with occidental, white culture objects, creating con ceptual maps. O n top o f this exhibit, Walsh has been commissioned to install Works: Fragments o f the Material Age for the Mike Walsh’s installations explore Eugene Public Library’s environmental and social issues mm grand opening next ranging from cultural identity to month. The building is forest practices. Center: the first an example o f a new AID S installation, Preparing for millennium dominated War. Left: Bridges: Fragile Circle by computer tools such (Australian Series) is on display at as the Polaris online card Rogue Community College’s catalog; reminding us o f FireHouse Gallery. those original little . ¿¿o ■ s . index cards, Walsh is creating 50 cards symbolically representing the historic monument on Salisbury Plain in W ilt This exhibit contrasts with Walsh’s first cultural transition from paper to electronic shire, England. In 1999’s Paper Prayers at Mel installation dealing with AIDS, Preparing for War, communication. bourne, Australia’s Herring Island Environ which was at Eugene’s New Zone Gallery in Viewing these will preserve the memory o f mental Sculpture Park, Walsh recognized 1985. More invested in the physical body and in the accidental associations users o f the old sys artists with HIV, living and dead. House danger, the juxtaposition o f objects in the instal lation “suggests purity and contamination as well tem experienced while thumbing through the shaped placards hung from chains on a time paper cards. Walsh invited adults, teens and as safety and vulnerability. [TheJ nude outline of line documenting more than 100 people— my body suggests my own vulnerability.” children to select a favorite book, quote and including famous New York subway artist Keith Haring, New York fumiture/sculpture artist comment, which is incorporated into the 9- by 7-inch wall placards. alsh considers himself an AID S activist. Scott Burton and Los Angeles architect Frank As an artist, a gay man and a survivor By involving the community, Works Israel— whose elegant designs were coveted by o f the Vietnam War, he believes he’s in becomes a collage record o f Eugene’s love o f the Hollywood celebrity set. the midst o f another war— remaining HIV the written word and is a powerful, quiet rever That same year Lest We Forget: A Dialogue negative in a world in which the alternative is ence for the past— an act o f mourning the on AIDS opened at Portland State University’s sense o f spirit and history that vanishes with likely fatal. Littman Gallery. The site-specific installation outdated systems. Walsh feels it’s a reminder o f In July 2000 Walsh completed a Web-based explored AID S through transient ritual, talis forgoing slower, more scenic routes, the green project sponsored by the New York City non mans and icons embodying concerns related to valleys, for the sterile speed o f cyberspace. JH profit Creative Time titled Structuring Fear, mortality, loss o f innocence and temporality. which featured a new image and text each day. Focusing on biographies o f 20 Northwest International artists, activists and writers corre Bridges: Fragile Circle (Australian Series) by artists who died o f AIDS, the exhibition sponded for a month, telling the story o f how MlKE W alsh is on display through Dec. 13 at included bowls filled with blood-red liquid, AIDS affected their communities. Rogue Community College’s FireHouse Gallery, which formed layers o f mold as it evaporated. 3345 Redwood Highway m Grants Pass. Walsh’s undergraduate history background He describes the scene as a “battlefield o f mor remains a strong influence in all his work. Box tality” and characterizes the entire work as ing in objects underscores his interest in map SUSAN D etroy is a Eugene free-lance writer and memorializing and humanizing the disease, artist. ping, framing and archiving diverse social and “ making visible the invisible.” Fragile circles Eugene artist documents history- lest we forget éj &T,~. ______________ _ I f you live in Oregon, you w on’t miss the art o f Mike Walsh. Renowned in local art circles for his site-specific installations, particularly around AID S activism, he is a conceptual artist and fifth- generation Oregonian. For 30 years, he has made one-of-a-kind creations horn from personal politics and pre sented in intricate constructions and assemblages o f everyday materials. Walshs artistic concerns include the environment, native people, American life, history, AIDS and gay culture. A n impressive list o f educa tional achievements has helped him structure the personal into the politi cal into the artistic. Bom in 1943 in Dallas and raised both in Falls City and Newport, Walsh earned a bachelors degree in history at Western Oregon University before attending New York’s prestigious Columbia University. He entered the Navy, served in Vietnam and was awarded the Vietnam Combat A ction Rib bon and Vietnam Campaign Medal. Then hack to his home state, where he studied art history at University o f Oregon, earning a bachelor o f fine arts in fibers in 1972. He’s been in Eugene ever since. The artist’s first site-specific installation was Capacity, in which viewers rearranged hundreds o f ropes filling the U o f O art department gallery. The hands-on project initiated a series o f similar exhibits, including the solo show Rope Chains, which traveled throughout the United States and Canada. Walsh himself is a traveler: Japan, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and Africa with future plans for Egypt and Peru. His travels function as his inspira tion, particularly when creating outdoor installations. 1978’s Stonehenge Burial was a systematic documentation o f a ritual burial at the pre- m wm 360 o f l]l)aterfroni I)in in (j Surround you rself with spectacular views and a fresh perspective on "dining out." A board each Portland Spirit cruise, Executive Chef, D avid Fisher, puts a new twist on N orthwest cuisine. It’s the perfect dining experience, all the way around. Book your holiday party on tfce Spirit! " • rOnUUM I C all (503) 2 2 4 -3 9 0 0 o r (8 0 0 ) 2 2 4 -3 9 0 1 • b o o k o n l i n e n o w at w w w . p o r t l a n d s p ir it . c o m
