Artwalk: Pioneer Square
It’s been a long time since I wrote about artwalk. Tonight’s was a blast. It also hammered home the trend that the most interesting stuff isn’t in the swank galleries on Occidental Ave anymore (Davidson excepted), but in the little off-beat places that you have to work a little to find. (Mirroring my musical and cinematic tastes exactly).
Ron Reeder’s show at Wall Space was a treat. The show is entirely photographic nudes done in a variety of interesting ways. Some are fanciful montages that reminded me of Uelsmann’s work - winged angels, ghostly reflections in pools of water, the birth of Venus, etc. (See photos 14-20 on Wall Space’s site). Others are mysterious images printed as tintypes - yes, civil war era technology. The process gives them a darkness that amplifies their mystery. The back room of the gallery holds more typical nude studies, which you can gloss over on your way to see the fun of the show: the “toys”. Throwing all typical concepts of framing to the wind, Reeder mounted his photos in a number of interesting, hand-made contraptions. First is a series of standing nudes mounted on a wheel, which was connected through a series of gears and pulleys to a crank - giving you a kind of kinematoscope. Continuing the Victorian riff, another photo - of a late 19th century photographer photographing a nude - is hung with a lace curtain over it. The curtain can be rolled up with a little crank at the top. Finally - and most alluring - is the nude of an asian woman lying down, mounted in a long wooden box with a japanese sliding screen in front (and everyone slid the screen back, giggling to themselves). I liked how the toys invited participation in a way that mirrored the complicity of the model with the photographer - like everyone was in on the game.
Following Yesler towards the water, our happy crew made a discovery: the artists lofts at 619 Western. Five labyrinthine floors of artists lofts - many of them live-in. Every one was packed with great work. The diversity of work is overwhelming - from classic landscapes, to fetish photography (complete with improvised goth club), to student works, to paintings, etchings, graffiti, and watercolor. Just about anything you could imagine on a wall, somebody’s got on a wall in this place. Happily, the building was full of an equally diverse range of viewers. This place makes the TK lofts up the street look like a side-show. There was a lot to see and it was well worth it. (My favorites were some of the work by Shawn Foote).
