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The Modern Zoo Center for the Arts
The Modern Zoo Presents: Disposable Portland, Ore. - What can an artist do with a seemingly unlimited supply of a single material? Six local artists in The Modern Zoo’s Disposable exhibit at Reed College’s Reed Arts Week (RAW) offer their interpretations. Each artist was given access to an enormous roll of paper-thin plastic sheeting normally used to line disposable diapers and asked to create work for RAW using the show’s overarching theme of “interaction”. The artists include: Bruce Conkle, Kaosmosis, Brenda Mallory, TJ Norris, Rob Off and L. Aili Schmeltz. With this muslin-like material, Bruce Conkle creates an installation entitled “Disposable Forest” for RAW—a snowy environment of tree-like forms suspended from the ceiling and surrounded by snowmen. The collective of Kaosmosis asks visitors to participate in a series of interactive outdoor installations culminating in an ambient lounge on the night of RAW’s Masquerade Ball, Saturday March 7. While each Kaosmosis event is unique unto itself, the source of inspiration is derived from the constant inquiry, "what would happen if...?" L. Aili Schmeltz presents ideas of contradictions in comfort with familiar sculptures of easy chair-like shapes with undertones of suburban sprawl, traffic and corporate growth. Brenda Mallory composes her mixed media sculptures using repeated forms that juxtapose natural materials such as cloth and beeswax with industrial objects to reflect her concerns with the shaky ground of biotechnology. Art tours and artist discussions are scheduled for Saturday, March 6, from 11am – 1 pm, with other events and lectures happening throughout the week. Gallery hours vary. Visit http://web.reed.edu/raw online or call 503-777-7708 for more details. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Kaosmosis is a Portland-based creative ensemble founded and directed by Darcy Dziedzic and John Averill. With collective professional backgrounds in film, sculpture, music, photography, graphic design, and animation, they have spent the last two years combining their energies to produce highly eclectic, often playful events designed to inspire individuals to tap into their own creativity through participation. The result has been a successful experiment of collaborative events involving numerous artists, performers, musicians, and participants mixed together in theme-based environments. www.kaosmosis.org Brenda Mallory is a graduate of the Pacific Northwest College of Art and also holds a BA in Linguistics from UCLA. She resides with her husband and daughter in Portland Oregon. Her mixed media sculptures are most often composed of repeated forms that juxtapose natural materials such as cloth and beeswax with industrial objects to reflect her concerns with the shaky ground of biotechnology. Multimedia artist TJ Norris is an independent curator and owner of the former Soundvision Gallery in the Everett Station Lofts, recognized as one of the “10 Best New Places in Portland” by the Oregonian. He has shown his work in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Maryland, Mexico and Canada. www.tjnorris.net Rob Off creates personal landscapes—large physical pieces that demand being contended with by an encouraged sensitivity rather than by force. His work slows down time by heightening the awareness of the viewer to all of the things that surround them. L. Aili Schmeltz returned to Portland from Tucson Arizona where she earned her MFA in sculpture from the University of Arizona. She holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Her work conceptually explores dualities inherent in the American suburban landscape as hideous and seductive, kitsch and homey, humorous and heartbreaking. ABOUT THE MODERN ZOO CENTER FOR THE ARTS ### |