VBC artisan natural builders, Sol, Andrew, Sebastian, and Julia install a tea house in the gallery made of the bones of the city.
As a curator, the Apathy Rehabilitation Place has been a completely unique and wonderful experience. Rather than colonizing the gallery with their art, City Repair approached the space with the intention of enhancing its ability to generate community.
Not only was it the first time I was covered in mud in my gallery, it was also the first time an exhibiting artist group invited SEA Change co-curator Alec Neal and I to collaborate. As we collectively transformed the empty gallery into a teahouse roofed with a treehouse stage, I was deeply touched as I got to know each of the City Repairers as individuals by hearing their stories.
I listened to Sebastian’s stories about scavenging the wood from an abandoned warehouse, dreamed about Julia’s upcoming book on women natural builders, gleaned advice from Sol’s experience running a similar venue in San Francisco, watched Frances trace back in time to her lineage of sign painters, heard Michael’s music collection make the puppet show come alive, and learned from Andrew how to use a skill saw and drill screws diagonally—the only two power tools we used to build the entire structure. On First Thursday, art walk attendees—including the building’s super—were overjoyed with the opportunity to climb the hobo ladder into the pillowfilled nest~leaving with a new story to tell about the gallery with a teahouse treehouse.
A great thanks to everyone who helped build and organize the month’s events!
-Katherine Ball, Curator of SEAChange Art Gallery
Upcoming Apathy events
Located at SEA Change Art Gallery, 625 NW Everett #110, Portland OR
Social Isolation Exploration Workshop: Friday March 12th from 4:00 – 6:00pm
In the spirit of Apathy Rehabilitation we welcome you to join us in exploration of the various methods we’ve discovered that combat social isolation! We believe that reconnecting with each other in a constructive way empowers us with the tools necessary to tackle everything from personal to planetary challenges. Expect creative action, interactive participation, guest speakers and most importantly, cookies.
On Friday March 12th from 4:00 – 6:00, we shall become the community in which loneliness has no place and the snarling countenance of Apathy looses it’s head once and for all!
Build Your Own Awesome Sheet Fort Workshop: Friday March 12th from 6:30 – 8:30pm
Immerse yourself in the ancient art of pillow and sheet fort building while exploring the interaction between the ways we set up shelter and how it shapes who we are in community. In this two hour workshop we’ll have a ton of fun building two different styles of sheet forts and sheet villages.
The Build Your Own Awesome Sheet Fort Workshop (BYOASFW) is a program of City Repair’s Apathy Rehab Place in residency at the Sea Change Gallery, offered on March 12th. All ages are welcome and the workshop is free. Some materials provided but please bring one bedsheet per person, any pillows or other items and snacks to make your fort super deluxe.
The Real New Year’s Celebration, Saturday March 13th from 6 – 10:00pm
Have you ever wondered why there’s a fake New Year’s and real New Year’s? Well, now is your chance to find out. I wouldn’t want to give it away here, in electronic land, but I can say that it provides a much needed opportunity to celebrate, to wish upon a tree, to become the recipients of seeds, food, music, dance, stories and mayhaps even fire. I dare you to come, I double dare you to expect something wild, a bit bold and most certainly alive!
Do you dare?
When? Saturday March 13th, from 6:00 – 10:00
Where? The SEA Change Gallery at 625 NW Everett St.
Why? Because you need to
How Much? Why Free of course, down to the last dobblet of soil
Shezam, Expect the most from the world! and email Frances at frances@cityrepair.org with questions about any of these upcoming events!
What’s happened so far
Wow! This has been amazing. We’ve done something really beautiful. Everybody was pouring their heart and passion into this gallery. The opening night was so intense we were all a little crazy from working restlessly in the days before, shouting, singing, whirling in circles. And then it began. The Pagan Jug Band started kicking up the dust outside and the people started to pour in. So many!
So many bright and beautiful people. They just kinda flooded in and before I knew it, Frances and I were standing in front of a huge crowded, sitting giddily on pillows on the floor waiting for us to give our first puppet show performance (and our first actual run through for that matter).
Thank you to everyone who came, to our front row lighting & effects technician, to those of you who laughed, to that dude in the back who kept laughing, to that girl in the middle who cracked up when I was trying to be profund, and to those who stood up and shouted.
Im too shy to post the entire thing, but if you missed it, you’ll have more opportunities to see it this month and it will definitely be performed at the VillageBuildingConvergence.
Also! As a way to help support VBC, you can host our puppet show performance at your own house party or event! All money goes to put on VBC and support the community sites that we’re working with. Contact michael@cityrepair.org for more information!
Apathy rehabbers watching puppet show and wondering if michael has any idea what he's saying (he doesn't).
Then, on Friday, the Public Social University held their monthly event, joined this time by City Repair and representatives of Dignity Village to discuss the issue of housing. I was unable to attend and don’t have any pictures, so if any one has photos or stories to share, please send them to me! (michael@cityrepair.org)
Sunday was Community Story telling and Reware. I had been looking forward to the storytelling very much and I hope to do it again in the future. Member’s of the community surrounding the Freda’s Tree Intersection Repair came and told us all about how the project came about, Freda and her tree, and how it’s effected the community since. Really beautiful. We talked about how the story behind Freda’s Tree has changed over the years and become somewhat of a myth. Then we talked about how exciting it was that communities had reached a culture where myths (not gossip or tabloid) were being created and passed along. As someone who advocates City Repair a lot its always deeply affirming to hear about the power of placemaking straight from the mouths of the community members. Anyone who hasn’t seen Freda’s Tree should go check it out at NE 56th & Stanton
Reware that day was so vibrant! Spending time in that space is very enliving and makes me miss our previous office location. Roberto has been doing such a great job with Reware and we’re very excited about its future. The next Reware will be March 28th at a new location: Flipside (behind Muddywaters (RIP)) on 29th and Belmont. More info about that will be announce soon.
I think that’s pretty much it. If you haven’t been to the gallery yet, you really ought. It’s the art of placemaking and you can come be a part of it.
