VI SU AL ART S
BY ALEX NOTMAN
ADD THIS GEM TO
YOUR COLLECTION
GEODE IN LONG NIGHTS, LONG DAYS
Peter Happel Christian explores
time and wilderness in new Ditch
Projects exhibit
F
or an entire Minnesota winter, Peter Happel
Christian left a thick stack of black and white
photo paper, tied up with twine, on a cedar pallet
in his snowy backyard. Over the season, the
paper turned black, the corners curled and the
waterlogged sheets began sticking together. By
the time the snow was melting, the stack had transformed
into a rigid, solid mass the color of darkness. “I went in as
an experiment not knowing exactly what the result was
going to be,” award-winning visual artist Happel Christian
says of his piece “Long Nights.” “Unlike other predictable
photography, to go into it blind, from my standpoint, is
exciting.”
“Long Nights,” along with “Long Days” (a similar
process repeated in the summer), are the artistic experiments
that lend their names to Happel Christian’s exhibition
Long Nights, Long Days now showing at Ditch Projects in
Springfield. Happel Christian, an Iowa native, came to
Eugene to get his MFA in photography at the UO in the
early aughts before taking an arts teaching position at St.
Cloud State University in Minnesota. But before he left the
Pacific Northwest, the region managed to seep into each
crevasse of his consciousness. “The sense of manifest
Winter
Craft
Sale
Tuesday, Nov 27
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
at the Craft Center
Erb Memorial Union
digital chromogenic print of a geode (Iowa’s
state rock — bought on eBay) placed on a
swatch of celestial fabric, drawing its title
from the “complete description of the geode
as listed by the seller on eBay”: #147# Real
nice crystal filled brilliant gem small size
cracked Iowa Geode. This is a beauty. Full of
beautiful shining quarts. Add this gem to
your collection or a great spruce up in the
garden or yard. Awesome. Cracked nicely.
Length: 4 ¾”. Widht 3 ¾. Height: 3 1/3”. A
great Show Piece~!!! Happel Christian is
interested in the passage of time on a
geological scale – his work includes
thundereggs (Oregon’s state rock), conch
shells and ancient trees. “It’s a contemplative
experience,” he says, “It’s time implied.
Geodes are created over time.” He also looks
“... I learned fi rst hand that the representations I had learned of the West
while growing up … I realized they were absolutely false.”
destiny and how mythologies about the American West
were created,” he says. “There were a lot of people already
living in the West before it was ‘discovered.’ It really
reshaped how I think about representation because I
learned first hand that the representations I had learned of
the West while growing up … I realized they were
absolutely false.”
In addition to representation, two themes that can be
found throughout Happel Christian’s work, inspired partly
by his time in Oregon, are the ideas of time and wilderness.
One of the exhibit’s most visually arresting pieces is a
woodworking
photography
ceramics
painting
drawing
fibers
glass
to find wilderness in un-wild places like his backyard, at an
intersection or on eBay.
Ditch Projects member and UO art professor Donald
Morgan says this exhibition is one of the more conceptual
shows that the gallery has hosted. “Many of his photographs
come out of an idea,” says Morgan. “He [has] a way with
being enchanted with the minutiae in the world around him.
He would notice things that other people wouldn’t.” ■
Long Nights, Long Days ongoing until Saturday, Dec. 1, at Ditch Proj-
ects, 303 S. 5th Ave., Springfi eld. Gallery hours noon to 4 pm Saturdays
or by appointment, www.ditchprojects.com.
Winter 2013
workshop
registration
Starts November 29
the
craft
center
541-346-4361
craftcenter.uoregon.edu
register online or in person
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eugeneweekly.com • November 21, 2012
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