Jessica Jackson Hutchins: Confessions

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Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Untitled, 2011, couch, glazed ceramic, plaster on wood, Courtesy of the Miller Meigs Collection, photography by Worksighted.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins creates sculptures that combine elements of the domestic and the colossal. Domestic spaces are traditionally associated with delicateness, but for Hutchins, furniture pieces are vigorously manipulated and grow sculptural appendages. 

Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Two Hearts, 2013, acrylic paint, armchair, shirts, glazed ceramic, Courtesy of the Miller Meigs Collection, photography by Worksighted.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Rope Stanza, 2013, Ladder, canvas, acrylic paint, glazed ceramic, macrame hanger, Courtesy of the Miller Meigs Collection, photography by Worksighted.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins, installation image, Courtesy of the Miller Meigs Collection, photography by Worksighted.

The exhibition “Confessions” is presented by The lumber room and the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College as the first Northwest comprehensive exhibition of Jessica Jackson Hutchins’ work. The lumber room exhibition features work from the Sarah Miller Meigs’ collection of Hutchins’ work from 1999-present. In conjunction with the exhibition, the lumber room and the Cooley Gallery are publishing an experimental book by the artist.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Untitled (Piano Print, M), 2010, oil based ink, ceramic, textile, and found object, Courtesy of the Miller Meigs Collection, photography by Worksighted.

Hutchins’ raw sculptures are constructed out of household items, furniture, textiles, and everyday materials. The domestic pieces of furniture take on an imposing presence once Hutchins manipulates them with mounds of plaster, clay, clothing, and paint. For example, in Sweater Arms, a globular ceramic vase sits upon a dining room chair in a state of disrepair and the arms of a frayed knit sweater fall from the seat.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Sweater Arms, 2010, glazed ceramic, sweater, chair, Courtesy of the Miller Meigs Collection, photography by Worksighted.

Hutchins’ stated that she wanted to, “say something about how we can know ourselves through the objects that we live among.” Through her work, Hutchins’ monumentalizes elements of craft such as homemaking and textiles. The exhibition discusses themes of autonomy, motherhood, experimentation, and community.

My pick:

Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Sister's Rock, 2015, glazed ceramic with rocks, hammock hand woven by Sarah Moen, Courtesy of the Miller Meigs Collection, photography by Worksighted.

 Jessica Jackson Hutchins: Confessions

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September 2-November 8, 2015 

The lumber room, 419 NW 9th Ave, Portland, OR 97209

Friday and Saturday, 12-5pm

The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College,  3203 SE Woodstock BLVD, Portland, OR 97202

Tuesday-Sunday, 12-5pm

 Artist Book publication party, November 7th, 2015, Container Corps, 4-6pm

Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility- a project by ERNEST

Coyote Portraits, 2014, digital archival print, 8 x 12 inches, photos by Gwendolyn Courtney, a project by ERNEST made in residence at c3:initiative, 2015.

An eerie silence flows into a low hum, the whir of a tattoo needle gun, the rumble of footsteps, and a chorus singing, “this land was made for you and me.” The Wapato Correctional Facility is a jail located fifteen minutes outside St. Johns, Portland, and has remained vacant since it was built in 2004. The exhibition, “Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility”, is the culmination of a two year investigation by ERNEST hosted by c3:initiative (c3). The result of ERNEST’s investigation of the Wapato facility includes a video, a publication, a special print edition, Wapato Roundtable and panel discussion, and a series of public events.

ERNEST, Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility, video still, 2015, made​ in residence at c3:initiative.

ERNEST, Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility, publication created in collaboration with Container Corps, made in residence at c3:initiative, 2015. Photo by Worksighted.

ERNEST, Coyote Hole, Lithograph, Edition of 35, 16 x 21.75 inches, Watershed Press, made in residence at c3:initiative, 2015. Photo by Worksighted.

 ERNEST is an art collective composed of a flexible group of participants including members from the St. Johns community. The collective provided a democratic structure for the artists and participants to make work that “challenges dominant ideas about site, body, and power” in this exhibition. For ERNEST, “Demos” refers to, “local participatory engagement, keeping methods experimental and provisional, while harnessing the power of generative de(con)struction.”

ERNEST, Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility, video still, 2015, made​ in residence at c3:initiative​.

The video, Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility, sets the scene with footage of the desolate correctional facility. A space that is traditionally filled with people seems uncanny with clips of empty halls and beds. The correctional facility is not completely empty, as the main character of the video appears. An unexpected participant in the Demos exhibition, ERNEST discovered that coyotes have been roaming the correctional facility and they embraced the coyote in their investigation. The correctional facility has become a habitat for the coyote’s mischief as nature reclaims the vacant site. ERNEST members and participants donned coyote masks and stampeded through the halls of Wapato. Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility and ERNEST brings new life and introspection to the empty site looming over the St. Johns landscape.

ERNEST, Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility, video still, 2015, made​ in residence at c3:initiative​.

 C3 Community Dialogue Series
Reading Group: The New Jim Crow | Wednesdays, October 7, 14, 21, 7–8:30pm
Stories in Movement | Saturday, November 7, 5pm
No Thank You Democracy, The politics of non-participation | Sunday, November 22, 4:30pm

  "Demos Wapato Correctional Facility"
A project by ERNEST
September 18-November 22, 2015
c3:initiative 7326 N. Chicago Ave, Portland, OR
Hours: Friday-Sunday, Noon-Five

Ellen Lesperance: We Were Singing

[Image: Ellen Lesperance, Prop for a Turkish Bath, 2014, courtesy of the artist and Adams and Ollman.]


“We Were Singing” is a solo-exhibition at Adams and Ollman featuring the work of Ellen Lesperance. The exhibition highlights Lesperance’s new body of work based on the feminist painter Sylvia Sleigh. Pieces in the exhibition include new paintings on paper, sculptural textiles, graphite drawings, and photographs. The centerpiece of the exhibition, Prop for a Turkish Bath, is an assemblage of textiles and Polaroid photographs that references Sleigh’s painting, The Turkish Bath. “We Were Singing” is a personal investigation into Lesperance’s experiences as they correlate with Sleigh and the history of art and feminism.

[Image: Ellen Lesperance, Joseph McVetty with Easter Lily, 2014, unique color Polaroid mounted on Sintra, courtesy of the artist and Adams and Ollman.]

Sleigh was a feminist painter who created paintings of nude males. She was radical in her reversal of traditional sexual roles. Her work recalls the female subjects of classic paintings such as those by Titian or Ingres. While placing males in provocative nude poses traditionally reserved for female figures, Sleigh created intimate portrayals without objectifying her subjects. She stated, "I wanted to give my perspective, portraying both sexes with dignity and humanism."  

 [Image: Ellen Lesperance, Prop for a Turkish Bath, 2014, courtesy of the artist and Adams and Ollman.]

 [Image: Ellen Lesperance, At the Turkish Bath (Joe as John Perreault, 2015, unique color Polaroid mounted on Sintra, courtesy of the artist and Adams and Ollman.]

In Prop for a Turkish Bath, Lesperance recreates an object from one of Sleigh’s most iconic paintings, The Turkish Bath. The textile sculpture provides a backdrop to a series of Polaroid portraits of Lesperance’s husband. The photographs reinterpret Sleighs paintings by placing Lesperance’s husband in the role of the subject. Lesperance provides evidence for the intimate exchanges between husband and wife. The photographs also create an interesting juxtaposition between the classicized nude poses and the geometric textile patterned backdrop.

 [Image: Ellen Lesperance, Joseph McVetty Reclining (Pink Quilt), 2015, unique color Polaroid mounted on Sintra, courtesy of the artist and Adams and Ollman.]

To see the comparison between Lesperance's Polaroids and Sleigh's paintings, here's a link to Sylvia Sleigh's Paul Rosana Reclining.


My pick from the exhibition:

  [Image: Ellen Lesperance, Members of the A.I.R Gallery Cooperative Meet on a Saturday Morning in 1977 SOHO to Redress History, 2015, gouache and graphite on tea stained paper, courtesy of the artist and Adams and Ollman.]

 “We Were Singing” is on view at Adams and Ollman Gallery until October 10, 2015. Hurry and see it before it closes.

 Adams and Ollman: 209 SW 9th Avenue, Portland, OR 97205
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm and by appointment