by Elliott Wilson
The piece “Geronimo, Goyathlay,” by Scott Fife, made of achival cardboard, glue and screws, is on display through June 14 at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner. The pieces in the show are made from items that otherwise would have likely been thrown away.
LA CONNER — A lot of garbage is filling the inside of the Museum of Northwest Art, and that’s not criticism.
Dead animals, vintage silk ties, saliva and soot are a few of the mediums showcased in the “Finds Refined” exhibit, on display through June 14. With careful embroidery, collage and paint, ordinary — or, in some cases, extraordinarily gross — items have been transformed into art that ranges from delicate to ironic.
Take Seattle artist Scott Fife’s “Geronimo, Goyathlay,” a much larger-than-life head constructed of cardboard, glue and screws. Like many of the 37 works by the 15 Northwest artists participating in the show, Fife’s mishmash of
materials is barely distinguishable from a distance. Only when you come closer to the piece do you see screws protruding from rough cardboard skin, the corrugated edges providing the illusion of an eyebrow and a stern expression.
The MoNA exhibit is part of a three-city recycled art exposition next month that also features gallery and “Haute Trash” fashion shows in Seattle and Burlington. This is the eighth year that The RE Store, a used building supply store with locations in Burlington and Seattle, has sponsored the event, and the first time MoNA has participated.
“The art show is just another way to really showcase what can be done with trash,” said Jason Darling, The RE Store’s education and marketing coordinator.
“Our mission is really about getting people inspired and giving them practical ways to reuse things,” Darling said of the nonprofit organization, which typically deals in doors, hardware, and other supplies — not art.
Unlike other galleries participating in the exposition, MoNA did not rely on an open call for submissions. Instead, curator Kathleen Moles selected works, picking pieces ranging from Guemes Island artist Allen Moe’s salmon, snake and chicken-and-chum skin-covered pots to “Bracket,” a grouping of shelves shaped as fungi sculpted from paper by Jason Mouer of Tacoma.
“Bracket ... explores paper’s relationship to recycling and the natural world through the juxtaposition of the material and subject matter,” reads an artist’s statement accompanying the piece. “Sculpting the paper into natural forms gives me the sense of ‘completing the cycle,’ or returning the material back to its natural state.”
Artist James Castle, who died in 1977, is represented by an untitled drawing of a home interior and black iron stove. He used found materials out of necessity, not just symbolism, said Moles.
“His found materials were stove soot and his own saliva,” she said of Castle, who applied those ingredients to the end of sharpened sticks and drew on paper scraps and notebook paper.
Castle was either deaf or autistic or both, and never learned to speak, read or write, said Moles. So drawing was his main form of communication, she said.
Tacoma artist Marc Dombrosky’s “Curler” may embody the “found” theme most literally. He takes a list — unknowingly thrown away or lost — embroiders its words, scratches and scribbles, and collects the items listed. “He is kind of rescuing them from oblivion and memorializes them,” Moles said.
“He’s a favorite of mine,” she said gesturing to his list and curling iron, light bulbs, bath toys, “boats that float” and other items accompanying the piece. “I know it’s kind of off the charts.”
Elliott Wilson can be reached at 360-416-2147 or at .
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