Labor & Art & The Labor Of Art
In 2003, I graduated from Willamette University and moved back to Portland. Almost immediately, I was cast in Sojourn Theatre’s remount of 7 Great Loves, a devised theater piece that played off the nooks, crannies, and quirks of the decaying B&O Warehouse in the industrial area of SE Portland.
Today, the old Warehouse is a mustard yellow instead of the powder blue it once was, and it has been fully refurbished. Its new incarnation is as the Olympic Mills Commerce Center and the building is barely recognizable.
Last night, Art & Labor & The Labor Of Art, a group show in which I am one of the featured artists, opened in the gallery/lobby of the Center.
Though there’s still plenty character left in the place, I was relieved to see that a new elevator had been installed. Six years back, one of the audiences of 7 Great Loves got trapped in the old elevator when it suddenly fell three stories on its way up to the seventh floor performance space!
It’s funny to come full circle like this and show art—though of a very different kind—again in the building that saw my beginnings as an art-maker for the first time independent of school. And it’s especially strange to see the B&O so changed: it makes me realize I must have done some of my own “remodeling” in the interim as well!
Lora Fisher, the show’s curator, with Chris Haberman’s work
Art & Labor & The Labor Of Art is up through 28 August.
Olympic Mills Commerce Center Gallery
107 SE Washington Street
Portland, OR 97214
It’s open Monday through Friday from 8 to 6.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Mitch Baird, Christopher Mooney, Allen Schmertzler, Celeste Bergin, Susan Gallacher-Turner, Chris Haberman, Susan Schenk, Tom Virgin, Shelley Radovich, Patricia Gifford, David Burbach, Anthony Lazorko, Jr., Sarah Hauser, Sandy Carter, April O’Conner, and myself.
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