A Peculiar Brightness in the Sky
Patte Loper
Link to Patte Loper's exhibition images

Drawing from John Ruskin’s notions of the "Pathetic Fallacy" in which the outward manifestation of the landscape mirrors inner emotional states, Patte Loper's new body of work employs Antarctica—hostile, empty, beautiful—as a fictional site of historical, scientific and emotional speculation. The images are inspired by accounts of early 20th century explorers and their attempts to map uncharted lands with woefully inadequate knowledge and equipment in order to fulfill a sense of manifest destiny—all the while maintaining impeccable manners and civility in the face of hopeless brutality.

Certain works in the show draw upon images of structures built by early Antarctic explorers in dire circumstances and with limited means. For example, Improvised Shelter (Hut 2) is based on the structure that Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton's expedition crew built from a salvaged lifeboat after they were stranded on Elephant Island (1915). Other visual references for works are drawn from 1950’s bomb shelter plans, ships caught and destroyed in the pack ice, as well as viable existing structures currently in use at the South Pole.

The exhibition's drawings focus on these structures in their relationship to the geological and atmospheric phenomena found on the Antarctic continent—vast ice fields, bottomless chasms, and Aurora Polaris. While leading an early scientific expedition, explorer Sir Douglas Mawson, was moved to write: “Powerless, one was in the spell of an all-enfolding wonder…we had come to probe its mystery, we had hoped to reduce it in terms of science, but there was always the ‘indefinable’ which held aloof, yet riveted out souls.”

The animation, Love Song, is based on a scene from a David Attenborough nature documentary which depicts tiny crustaceans and insect larvae that can live only at the height of the Antarctic summer in rare pools of melt water.

The show’s title, A Peculiar Brightness in the Sky is a phrase lifted from Douglas Mawson’s account of his 1912-1913 Antarctic expedition. He uses the phrase to describe what is commonly known in the polar regions as “Ice Blink," the glare of the ice reflected on the undersides of clouds.

I Love You to Death, Platform
An Installation by Marc Dombrosky
Link to Marc Dombrosky's exhibition images

The title of this installation comes from one of the included works: I Love You To Death or, A Georges Marciano for Guess? denim jacket, probably autographed by River Phoenix in Tacoma, Washington, circa 1988, during the filming of the movie 'I Love You to Death,' signed JENNA. E. on inside front panel and J.E. on label, hung on a metal hanger, possibly belonging to Robert Smithson, recovered from Spiral Jetty, Rozel Point, Great Salt Lake, Utah, in March, 2007.

The collection of objects assembled for this installation ask questions about our relationship with celebrity and our proximity to it and extends Marc's exploration into the often overlooked and typically underfoot. Every handmade mark on any scrap of paper he finds (whether names, phone numbers, drawings of eagles' heads, directions to someone's home, a prescription, a plea for the purchase of used flooring, or a phrenology diagram) is salvaged and embroidered over with thread that most closely approximates the mark underneath it, in both line weight and color. Each successive found scrap expands (and complicates) the project. What may be a quiet walk from the bus stop to the convenience store is abruptly charged by a chance encounter with an emphatically scrawled rough draft for a first novel, wet and pockmarked from the asphalt. This installation developed to suggest dialogue; groupings shift, with older works returning and newer pieces appearing. Found objects are arranged and juxtaposed with embroidered found language. The fluid configuration then becomes a loose, partial conversation with our surroundings, our neighbors, our losses, and our memories.

This exhibition coincides with the Portland Art Museum's Sixth Apex Exhibition focusing on Marc's unique investigations into place and memory, which runs June 28 to October 26, 2008.

Review: Seattle Times
Review: Seattle P.I.