On View:  April 3 – June 14, 2015

Southern Oregon SITE Project:
Invisible Weather

Exhibition Statement

Garrick lmatani’s installation reflected his interest in the history of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a 1930’s government program employing millions of people, including many artists, during and after the Depression. lmatani was working with the imagery of Diego Rivera’s WPA mural, The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City, which is in the San Francisco Art Institute. Rivera’s work had a direct impact on the WPA movement, as did the WPA on the development of Ashland and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. lmatani reimagined Rivera’s trompe I’ oeil style and depictions of workers through a large-scale installation that functioned as a stage set, complete with 3-dimensional stairs, scaffolding, and plywood cutouts for figures to occupy.

This project, funded in part by The Ford Family Foundation, Roseburg, was designed to support the development and presentation of new art by Oregon artists. Similar to the traditional fresco process, a significant number of laborers contributed toward the completion of the project, including Southern Oregon University students:

Emily Beckstrand
Andrea Caulkins
Tony Chrenka
Heidi Dawn
Karissa Fults
Rebecca Hanley
Jason Hayes
Kate Holub
Holly Kilpatrick
Molly Lomax
Olivia Merkle-Lawler
Kelsey Norval
Alex Palomares
A.N.Quast
Madeline Scannell
Evan Short

Special thanks to patron Jim Featherstone for his building expertise.

Over the course of the exhibition, lmatani produced a video with artist Holly Andres and the Portland based dance collective, Physical Education, comprised of dance and performance artists Keyon Gaskin, Allie Hankins, Lucy lee Yim, and Takahiro Yamamoto.

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Artist

Garrick Imatani