KALA - HIPFiSHmonthly

KALA@HIPFiSHmonthlyopeningCall of the WildAnne Greenwood & Renia YdstieIN CELEBRATION of creative work in fi berand textiles, HIPFiSHmonthly is sponsoringtwo mixed media artists to participatein the Astoria Second Saturday Artwalk.This inaugural event for Astoria’s newestartspace takes place on Saturday, July 9from 5 – 9pm in the new gallery space/Hipfi sh production offi ce, KALA, at 1017Marine Drive in Astoria.KALA @Hipfi shmonthly collaborates with Northcoastarts curator/painter/multimedia artist RebeccaRubens. Rubens is a regional native and longtimecontributor to the arts movement on the coast. Shewas an original founder of Astoria Visual Arts twentyyears ago, and has worked with many artists and artsprojects as the fertility of cultural arts continues itsgrowth on the coast.The ground fl oor space at the hipfi sh production office will program visual arts, performance and lecture,as a fl exible space. CALL OF THE WILD is its inauguralevent. Serendipitously, the space whose name baresthe Finnish word for “fi sh” (pronounced with a glottalstop “K”), is also the Sanskrit term for “goddess of thecultural arts.” The exhibit space will be open for viewingFri – Sun, 12noon to 5pm, and by appt.Call of the Wild features the work of artists AnneGreenwood and Renia Ydstie. The work of the two artistswill complement each other and show off HIPFISHmonthly’s newdigs.Portlandmixed mediaartist, AnneGreenwood(www.annegreenwood.net) workswith textilesand printmakingto create aphysical linkageor recordthat connectsideas tohuman experience.Greenwoodworkedin Scotland,studied at theUniversity ofOregon andreceived a BA from Moorehead State University, MN.Her creations are infl uenced by her experiences workingwith visual art, horticulture, and history. Her artisticprocess is infl uenced by collaboration and communitybasedprojects and in her work, she uses pattern toexplore the the tight technical precision of workmanshipand the relative looseness of freeworkmanship.Of the two pieces created for Call of the Wild,Greenwood states: “I am a mixed media artistinterested in culture and folk art. This exhibit is abouttextiles, sleep, a trip to Argentina, the feeling of oldquilts and their beautifully colored fabrics, bandanahandkerchiefs, rest, the ocean, the wind, and freshair. My materials are mostly all castoffs: scrap wood,ice cream spoons and bottle tops my family collectedin Argentina, muslin curtains, and shredded documents.”Greenwood’s Dresden Plate Quilt is created fromrift-sawn white oak plywood, silkscreen, and foundobjects. She says: “I want to make quilts, not of fabricbut form wooden or other found, leftover things. Ithink old quilts are cultural artifacts that tell aboutthe person or community that made them. I like thequilts that were made of old clothes, feed-sacks, orfabrics that used to be something else. The fabric hasbeen so many places. It has gone on trips or comefrom other lands. Old, used fabrics have a life of theirown and their energy is full of life. People slept underthese quilts, they held dreams and picnics, and overheardmany tales. The Dresden Plate quilt pattern wasone of the most popular quilts made during the 1920sand 30s. The popular name for this quilt, DresdenPlate, refl ects the romance of the Victorian Era withits love of elaborate decoration on household itemsand décor. Dresden, Germany was a center of 19thcentury romanticism movement in art, one that includedthe fi ne decoration of porcelain. The plates wereembellishedwith elaboratedesign usingfl owers, fruitsand foliage.The beautifulplates wouldsurely havebeen admiredby women ofthe early 20thcentury.”Greenwood’ssecond pieceis entitled:A Kind ofBlue, Sleep,I’ve Got U.Constructedfrom cottonthread, indigodyedmuslinshredded documents A Kind of Blue consists of ananimalistic fi gure suspended in a net from the galleryceiling. Greenwood says, “Muslin, the color of indigo,and an animal-person caught in the air in a net is asensation, premonition, gut feeling, or instinct. Thisfi gure describes the feeling.” Is the net a sieving? Atrap? An embrace? Is the fi gure a memory, a person,a dream?A Renia Ydstie bird, from her flock, that will accompany ahuman-size bird nest entitled Birds and Nest.Local artist,musicianand teacherRenia Ydstiewas bornin Halifax,Nova Scotiaand movedto Astoriawith herfamily atage 5. Sheearned adegree inInternationalEducationfrom theUniversityof Oregon. She then went on to teachEnglish in Costa Rica, France, and Spain.She is an accomplished accordionistand was a member of Action Panther, aPortland-based Alternative/Indie band.Recently, she moved back to Astoria andhas worked for her alma mater, AstoriaHigh School.In Call of the Wild, Ydstie will presentinstallation work that relates to the naturalenvironment, using found material andpaper. These works are intended to beinteractive. Viewers are invited to touch,manipulate, enter, and even contribute toYdstie’s art in this exhibit.Of her work in Call of the Wild Ydstiesays: “Birds and a Nest is an interactivesculpture installation of a movable fl ockof birds and a human-sized nest. It isconstructed with materials that can befound in the immediate environment andis installed in a gallery setting in the hopethat other people will enjoy it, play with it,and add to it through their participation.The Birds were made after watchingan enormous fl ock that was living overby Burger King this winter. Movement ofindividuals in a system is what interested[me] most. However, coming up with apaper and string mechanism to replicatefl ock dynamics ended messily, so a simplifi ed optionwas adopted.Each bird is built around a blown (local, thank youCo-op) chicken eggshell. The body is sculpted withpapier-mache feathers cut from a romance novel,newspapers, tickets and linen, then fi nished withbeeswax. Birds are hung in mated pairs so that whenone bird is pulled, another moves. Participants maymove birds as they wish, thus constantly changing theshape of the fl ock. More participants = more fl ockmovement.The Nest is based on many forms of enclosed wovenbird nests but is built to human proportions withPortland artist Anne Greenwood debuts two new pieces at KALA. These photos aremodels for two giant scale pieces. Dresden Plate Quilt and A Kind of Blue, Sleep, I’veGot U (an animalistic figure suspended in a net from the gallery ceiling).local materials woven together with hands, not beaksand tiny feet. Participants may climb inside the nestand are also encouraged to add to it. Nesting materialsare provided and children are absolutely invited.More participants = more interesting nest.For me, the big payoff in a project like this is thesatisfaction that comes from manipulating basic materials(like making a blanket fort when you are a kid),and the ideas that are generated when interactingwith a set of ideas in a new way (as when you travel).All are invited to participate.”- Cathy Nist15 july11 hipfishmonthly.com