Here Today

A monthlong public art event in Olympia
by Alec Clayton
Aug 07, 2008

The Here Today public project art sponsored by the City of Olympia features temporary art installations in various locations throughout downtown Olympia and along the boardwalk at Percival Landing. Including visual, performing art, literature and music, these works by local artists “celebrate a sense of place through reflection and response to our physical and social environment,” according to promotional materials from the Olympia Arts Commission. Some of the works are one-time-only events such as Bill Fleming’s dishwashing performance (that’s right, dishwashing; more to come on that later) and some are installations that will remain in place throughout the month of August, such as Dana Squire’s Leaf and Twig and George Kurzman’s Would it Be. While still others, such as Shaw Osha’s Public Private Eyes will be in different places at different times — you never know where these eyes might pop up and stare you down.

The event kicked off this past Saturday with public painting of plates at Olympia’s Farmers Market in preparation for Fleming’s dishwashing performance and a tour of both temporary and permanent art installations along the waterfront. The permanent installations are not part of the project but were included in the tour.

Squares is a painter who dabbles in many other art forms. You may remember her Japanese bento boxes that were featured in the “Food as Art” article in the June 12 Weekly Volcano. Along the boardwalk, she has decorated three trees with spice-infused paper leaves, flowers, poems, and recipes, referencing the spirit trees of Asia. Each tree presents a signature spice mixture from one of three different areas: garam masala from India, advieh from Persia, and ros el hanout from Morocco. She describes the installation as “an environment of color, movement and scent.” The trees are festive with their hanging paper leaves, as if they are all decked out for a party. And the whole thing is interactive. You can touch them, smell the aromas, and watch them twirl and flutter in the breeze. Many of the leaves have little spice packets attached.

Kurzman is a sculptor who often works with found wood objects. He is also a boat builder and boat restorer by trade. Here he has combined his trade and his art. There was an old boat left to rot in the woods during a restoration project when the boat’s owner, a fireman, died of work-related cancer. Kurzman was asked to remove the boat. It had rotted beyond restoration, and the artist was allowed to do with it what he could. He cut the 30-foot sailboat into pieces, sanded and painted sections and stood them up like sails billowing in the wind on a grassy field in front of a clump of trees. It is a majestic piece of sculpture that you can walk around and through to discover endlessly interesting shapes and textures. It is truly a beautiful work of art. I wish it could be permanently installed in this location.

Now to the dishwashing. During the kickoff event the public was invited to paint plates, which will be used to serve food at the Farmers Market. Then on Aug. 15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. the artist will wash the dishes. There will be music, and he will give away plates.

Shaw Osha is a painter. She has selected pictures of eyes from her own paintings and has placed them in different locations around town. Viewers who have the energy and dedication to do so can wander around town in search of her Public Private Eyes, or they can be surprised by them as they go about their business. The surprise element is, of course, part of the fun and of the mystery.

Tony Perkins’ Like Everyone Else is a one-time-only event, a reading from his novel, which is set in present day Olympia. It happens Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. in the Yashiro Japanese Garden.

Faith Hagenhofer’s Rising Tides calls attention to an environmental disaster that is projected for the year 2100 when rising waters will flood much of downtown Olympia. She has placed 40 small monuments along the projected high water line. Wow! That’s scary. Look for the future Olympia shoreline south of Fourth Avenue.

Jenn Kliese and Jeff Shannon’s Bus Station at the Intercity Transit Station is described as “an auditory landscape that activates the mind and our internal worlds, that encourages us to explore our imagination and to feel a public and personal ownership of the space, whether it be on the streets or in our own heads.” Sounds intriguing.

Also happening at various times and places is Trudes Tango’s A Bird in the Hand: Lessons in Letting Go. The artist will “release” 100 handmade clay birds throughout the city and throughout the month. If you find one of the birds, it’s yours to keep or give away or throw away. As the title implies, you should probably let it go.

Locations can be found at www.olympiawa.gov — click on Here Today

User comments

submitted 11:29 on Aug 8, 2008 by Bil Fleming "Head Dishwasher"

Bringing home the message of the City's Zero Waste Resolution, throughout this performance piece the artist will wash dishes used by patrons of the Market food vendors. Interspersed with original live dishwashing music and other offerings including a free plate-giveaway, the event will create impetus for discussion of and possibly change for citizens to move from disposables to re-usables. Accompaniment will include: 8 year old fiddling/singing sensation Maggie Nederlin, puppet show by Heather Duke, clowning and pie throwing by Jusby the Clown, original dishwashing music to be performed by "Human Jukebox" Chris House, guitarist singer Jon Larrabee, banjoist Joe Batt, and more!

submitted 07:14 on Aug 9, 2008 by jusbytheclown

�The pie is meant as a sacred honor bestowed at the completion of a rite of passage - graduating from college, for instance. The pie represents crossing into dreamtime, into a lucid euphoria, a liminal space between ordinary states, neither the known world nor the unknowable ground of being. It represents the union of the mundane and the divine. �A messenger arrives and the recipient becomes the message by donning a sweet pillowy mask of non-dairy clouds. It represents inspiration, expiration, ecstasy, synergy, epiphany, catharsis and spiritual transformation. When the clown comes, your life goes from the average to extraordinary. He brings attention to your experience. You are participating in an event that lasts mere seconds but whose residue lasts quite a bit longer.�

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