Partnerships

Field Work

Poultry Party

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2013 AT 8:03PM

Do you have a story to tell about a chicken? It could be funny, sad, hair raising or harrowing. Do you want to hear stories about chickens and have your photo taken with local poultry? Then we want you to be a part of this fun filled ‘Poultry Party’. We’re looking for people to come tell stories about chickens for this open mic style event. Stories should be approximately 5-10 minutes in length and appropriate for all ages. All stories will be recorded and made available on a publicly accessible website. Local photographer Sarah Gilbert will be shooting portraits with live chickens. Bring your chicken in for a more personalized portrait session. If you forget or don’t have a bird, we’ll supply you with one for the photo shoot.

Community Choir

Travis Neel, Zachary Gough, and I went on a tour of the organizations surrounding Field Work (the downtown storefront where we have all of our classes).  While touring the neighborhood we met with Susan Gilson, the former director of the Elm Court Meals on Wheels Center in downtown Portland. During our conversation with Susan we learned that at one point there used to be a piano and music in the Elm Court Space but for whatever reason they had to get rid of it.  Travis, Zachary, and I applied for and were awarded a small neighborhood grant from the Neighbors West Northwest organization to hire two choir directors and purchase a keyboard for the Meals On Wheels Center.  The choir will meet for 15 weeks and culminate in a performance at a neighborhood Yard Sale.  Feel free to join us on Thursdays at 1:30pm at 1032 SW Main Street Portland , OR  97205.

Materials and Movement Studio

For the month of April, Heather Donahue and Grace Hwang will turn Field Work into a hybrid studio space in which to research, exercise, and play with art materials and physical movement. Beginning with the question, “How does one document choreography,” each week’s explorations will shape the following inquiries. The artists will use the space as a working studio, inviting the public to join. Open studio time will take place each Mondays from 6:30PM until 9PM, and documentation will be on view throughout April. Field Work is located at 1101 SW Jefferson Ave, Portland, OR.

Visit the Materials and Movement Studio website to follow what is happening during open studio time!

On View at Field Work: Community Advice by Susan O’Malley

Susan O’Malley interviewed a few shy of 100 people in Palo Alto for this project. She asked: What advice would you give your 8-year-old self? What advice would you give your 80-year-old self? Using the words of those she met, she designed ten different letterpress posters. Sometimes the poster text is verbatim from the interview; other times she conflated several people’s advice into one. In addition to hanging the works in the opening exhibition at the Palo Alto Art Center, these posters were installed along Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto for passersby to see.

For this exhibition of the work at Field Work, the Art and Social Practice MFA program has displayed these pieces of advice in their neighborhood. The posters are displayed in the windows of Field Work, as well as in the windows of nearby organizations and businesses.

For more information on the project visit: www.communityadvice.org

Bio

In her socially-based art practice, Susan O’Malley uses simple and recognizable tools of engagement – offering Pep Talks, asking for advice from strangers, installing roomfuls of inspirational posters, distributing flyers in neighborhood mailboxes, conducting doodle competitions at high schools – in order to offer entry points into the understood, and sometimes humorous, interactions of everyday life. Interested in shifting these otherwise mundane exchanges into heightened experiences, O’Malley’s projects rely on the backand- forth between herself and others in the creation of the artwork. Ultimately O’Malley’s projects aspire to incite hope, optimism and a sense of interconnectedness in our lives.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, O’Malley received her MFA from California College of the Arts’ Social Practice Area. As both an artist and curator, she has participated in programs and exhibitions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and internationally in Denmark and Poland.

Art Students Build Indoor Greywater System at Field Work

With a grant from the 2012 Solutions Generator, a group of students led by PSU Art and Social Practice graduate Katherine Ball built an indoor greywater system for Field Work, a community classroom and art space that is collectively run by masters students in Art and Social Practice at PSU. For the last two years, the sink at Field Work has not functioned properly and empties into a bucket that is poured down the toilet when full. The student’s solution uses mushrooms to filter the wastewater and plants to transpire the water into the air. While most greywater systems pipe water into outdoor landscaping, this building required an innovative indoor solution. You can read their plans to build your own indoor greywater system (pdf).