distance don’t matter
Space Gallery. Portland, Maine // October 15, 2009
New York based Swoon and her collaborators Ben Wolf, Greg Henderson, Conrad Carlson, Monica Canilao and Ryan Doyle to construct an installation of found materials, wheatpasted prints, paintings and more. The installation was featured at Space Gallery in Portland, ME, from mid November–December ’09. The raw materials were recycled from dumpsters, waste piles and thrift stores then transformed into a 3-dimensional world that allowed the audience a direct experience of the brilliant color, texture, symbolism, intricate pattern work, and themed imagery. Swoon’s work includes the transformation of abandoned buildings, rundown warehouses, and broken walls into new and urban landscapes. An illuminating way to revitalize and ignite life in otherwise broken spaces.
The six of us wander the world and pick up tiny things. Sometimes we are together in pairs, alone, and sometimes whole.. on boats and in water. We are are a family from different parts that thrives on being in the same place. Trickling into Portland, Maine we have found an excuse to come together again. We come by air, by truck and by tandem bicycle via New York and San Francisco. We see the space and take off instantly to go glean materials from every dumpster, alley, abandon lot and thrift store. Outsiders offer their hands and time, moving through the rubble of our projects with us, the piles and planks, threads and paste are all put to use. New friends and old ones bring us bread and food and beers to keep us running... the generosity of Portland is overwhelming. We attract feral things... tiny animals in the streets... find a tiny bat that lost its way in daylight and hang out with it for a day. We mix paint based on smoke stains and mold we saw that one time in that building we broke into... that grass stain on your knees from wrestling on the lawn. Lace and blankets and carpet are shredded, dyed with paint water and rewoven into mounds that swallow up the ceiling. Everything we build is for fun. Our opening is one massive dance party into the night, thank you to DJ Dirty Finger. War paint and bare feet. We have not slept in days.
We cook together and sleep in piles.
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Photo Credit: selection of photos by Tod Seelie
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