I almost didn’t make it to First Wednesday last week — Salem’s attempt to get people out in the streets and experiencing downtown. You see, I go downtown all the time. I shop there. I wander there. I look at things and I buy things. Regularly. So it takes something extra special to lure me away from my home on an evening when I am tired and cranky and just wanting to eat a big piece of pie and chalk life up to one more sacrificed to hard labor at my computer.
But I got an email from a little bird — let’s call her Rachel — telling me about an art exhibition going on at an otherwise empty historic bank right downtown, called Project Space. It is the Salem Art Association’s project to give temporary downtown space to visual artists before the building is leased, and it’s a knockout.
Art + downtown + repurposed historic building + just a modicum of nudging = Flaneur Emily, unexpectedly out-and-about with her obliging friend Karen.
Until now, I’ve been slightly underwhelmed by the visual art offerings here in town. I’ve frequented the Hallie Ford Art Museum and have stopped into Bush Barn Art Center, but nothing has really stoked my fires until I stepped into the bank. There, I found, among other delights, a papery explosion of texture and metaphor (see pic above) that extends the images of a record-keeping bank into the public space of those waiting in line to speak to a cashier — kind of a cheeky comment on a burgeoning paperless society (get your statements sent by email and save US money!).
There was a roomful of works by Paula Portinga Booth, whose slightly jarring collages could be called whimsical if the images weren’t so completely incongruous.
And I spoke with the artist Corinne Lumis Dietz, who told me a story about how her family used to gather at a lake in Michigan many decades ago. Years later they gathered there again and picked horsetails. Her father is holding them here. The painting is obviously from a photograph — but that’s part of the charm, isn’t it? The chance to view your father through the memory of a photograph and the memory of a memory itself?
And just look at the view of the entire, messy exhibition from above. It’s what I imagined an office building would look like if fairies snuck in at night and told us what they think of our lives.
The artists get space for their projects for a three-week spread. You know what that means — more next month!
Little bird here
Glad you liked the show. I’ve been involved with SAA for a couple of years now and Project Space is, by far, my favorite program. In this instance, I love the idea of art taking over a place of commerce. Also the organic nature, with artists responding to the space, and many stepping outside their normal bounds. As you’ve pointed out there are talented artists working in the area, but few venues. Project Space gives the public a chance to see what these friends and neighbors are up to.
Project Space has its own blog…with a list of exhibits, programs and activities; it’s a bit sparse now, but will fill out as the schedule fills up. Find it here: http://www.saaprojectspace.blogspot.com/