Zymoglyphic Residents at the 1122 Gallery

 

Diorama by Sam David, Museum as Muse exhibit, 1122 Gallery. About 2.5 feet wide.

I just came from The Museum as Muse exhibit, the result of a summers worth of work for six residents at the Zymoglyphic Museum. (Full disclaimer - Jim Stewart, owner and curator of the museum is my husband. Click on any image to enlarge.) The show is held at the 1122 Gallery in Portland, Oregon. I went on a beautiful rainy afternoon that had bright moments of sun now and then. The exhibit space is in the back yard - go up the driveway on the right and through the gate. Be sure to check out the open hours on the website, it feels a little weird to walk into someone's yard. The space is magical. There is a covered car port, a shed and an old hen house that serve as the exhibition areas. Everything is sheltered by several huge Douglas firs. The whole experience is very Portland magical.

To make their art, the residents were allowed free rein in the preparation area of the museum. Most are assemblage artists, so they used the materials at hand in the museum's archives. You can see the museum's signature detritus in each person's work. It's fascinating to see how differently each person uses similar materials.

There is also work by a writer - Jason Squamata who is no longer in Portland, and Coleman Stevenson who interpreted the museum in patches of color. 

Sketch by Sam David of their planned project

The image at the top of the post is by Sam David. They also exhibited a sketch for the finished project (above) which is expected to take about a year to complete.

Ancestor by Erinn Kathryn, about 12 inches tall.

Womb by Erinn Kathryn. About 14 inches tall. I love the title written on the wall. It's the personal touch of the artist's hand.

 

Assemblages by Chandra Glaeseman. They are all related to the diagram at the bottom.

Diorama by Alex G. About 2.5 feet wide. 

Alex G. is the youngest resident at 10 years old. She is the author of the Kid's Guide to the Museum. Available on the museum's publication page.

Video and music by Alice Langlois. There is no way to capture the mysterious beauty of this video with a still photo. It is exhibited in an old hen house with water dripping from a huge Douglas fir. Alice animated materials from the museum's archives. She spent hours carefully photographing things like tiny sea horses and dried up creatures. Be sure to enlarge this to see the still image.

 

Coleman Stevenson interpreted the museum in bands of color and text. The sun coming through wavy plastic adds an element of watery magic.

Jim admiring Sam David's diorama.

The Zymoglyphic tintamarresque installed in the exhibition space.

There is a page for the residents on the Zymoglyphic Museum website which has links to websites if they have one.

Defining Zymoglyphic

People often ask Jim what makes an object suitable for the Zymoglyphic Museum? I don't have a good handle on it myself. About a week ago we were out walking and I found a piece-of-wood-rotten-root-thing that he liked and kept to use in his museum. I often hand him stuff I find, hoping it will meet with his approval. I think about 10% of my finds are accepted. When I handed him the rotten wood and he accepted it, I felt victorious. So I decided I need to document the successes. And maybe some of the failures.

We just came back from a few days in Rockaway Beach. There had been a storm before we arrived so there was a lot of stuff at the high tide line. Below you can see what I found on the beach that Jim thought he might use in the museum - I was doing unusually well for some reason.

There were mole crabs all over the beach, in various states of decay. These were interesting because they still have their digging parts attached.

This is possibly a piece of bamboo. The harder it is to tell what it is, the better Jim likes it.

I think this one was accepted because of it's interesting texture. The piece of bark in Jim's left hand was found by Jim.

This one is very twisty and ambiguous in size. I believe it has already been assembled into something.

I don't remember anything about this.

This chunk of wood was selected because it's potentially a stand - things with holes in them are useful that way. I would have brought this home for myself if Jim didn't take it.

Another with interesting texture.

The appeal of this one mystifies me - it looks like just another chunk of driftwood to me.

There was a large log on the beach with a beautiful pattern. I was amazed when Jim reached for his camera to record it. I had to take a photo. He almost never reaches for his camera.

This is the log texture that Jim couldn't resist.

And finally an end-of-the-day shot. Happy treasure hunting to you all!