We are most interested in new work that hasn’t been shown before, especially proposals that consider the three dimensionality of the space and it’s placement in a busy part of Portland’s arts district with a lot of pedestrian traffic. Projects must abide by SPACE’s mission to present high quality, alternative and unconventional ideas.

This unique space gives artists the opportunity to use the large street facing glass panels (85″ high x 110″wide), the window platform (179″ long, 26″ deep, 17″ tall) and the back wall (centered on the platform, 96″ tall x 122″ wide) for unconventional installation based work that will reach a broad audience.

The duration for window exhibitions is flexible, but generally last for one month. Please consider the amount of install time you will need when determining your availability.

Take a moment to look these examples of successful window installations:

Greta Bank // Clearance: The Four Horsemen
Crystal Cawley // Protective Coloration
Randy Regier // Dime Star
Anna Hepler // Projection Rooms

Commuter, by Joel Davidson

4 images by Deborah Donovan

Keep ‘em coming! Send your images to jenny@space538.org.

Our faithful correspondent Alex Steed sent us this post:

The Perennial Plate is coming to Portland and my excitement is boundless.

As it is described on its website: “The Perennial Plate is an online weekly documentary series dedicated to socially responsible and adventurous eating. The episodes follow the culinary, agricultural and hunting explorations of chef and activist, Daniel Klein.”

I produce Food Coma TV, a show that is similar in its mechanics, though somewhat oppositional in its message and delivery. We eat adventurously, but we do so in a way that is alcohol-soaked and arguably socially irresponsible. Our expeditions are culinary, but our content does not serve as an advocate for sustainability. We are the N.W.A. to Klein’s Tribe Called Quest.

This said, my interest in food stems from a love for sustainability movements. I ran for the Statehouse in Western Maine a few years back on a platform that was built around a reverence for food and the communities responsible for its cultivation and creation. Klein and camerawoman Mirra Fine have created a compelling, engaging body of work around these movements, opening access to many of these concepts in a digital, interconnected world.

In order for causes to be understood, accepted and adopted in this ever-evolving digital media sphere, they require charismatic, digital literates to evangelize for them, and this must be accomplished in as organic and entertaining a fashion possible. This is the role that Daniel and Mirra so elegantly play.

In most popular media, food has been stripped down to a mere commodity (with some exceptions, of course). The mainstream media has done to it what mainstream pornography has done to women over all of these years: the product has by and large been stripped of the context, complexities, and idiosyncrasies that make it beautiful. In its presentation, its role as a social dignitary, a cultural diplomat, has been minimized and in some cases stripped away altogether. As divergent as our topics are, I feel an affinity for the Perennial Plate because we are both, in our own ways, resisting this.

Of Perennial Plate, Food & Wine Magazine wrote that they produce “a level of culinary cinema verité that television can’t (or wouldn’t dare) match.” In this way, it accomplishes something radical that the Internet is allowing for in a post-cable society. It allows us a complex and non-prescriptive way of looking at a subject we all share a love for, but has been trivialized by the gatekeepers of the entertainment industry for too long. In this sense, Daniel and Mirra are liberators, and I welcome them to Portland.

Recess, an artists’ workspace in Soho that’s  both a studio and exhibition space, had  a project by John Miserendino, who reinterpreted Dan Graham’s original plans for his architectural structures and staged a series of three reenactments inside his Pavilion to translate existing artworks into personal terms.

The Armory show at Pier 94 was too full and crowded to really engage with the artwork, but it was fun people watching and an affirmation that what we show at SPACE is competitive with what art buyers like. Also it seems that its popular to include some kind of mirror in your artwork these days.

The Whitney Biennial had a few gems, and my favorite was the screening room of films and videos by Michael Robinson. I really hoped that the audience would sing along during “Hold Me Now,” Robinson’s  sample of clips from “Little House on the Prairie,” overlaid with the karaoke version of the Thompson Twins’ hit. Say what you will about the biennial phenom–I think people’s expectations are always too high, and no American biennial ever seems to please anyone. If Facebook is any indication, the fake Biennial apology site got more love than the real show.

The Independent Art Fair had more of the kind of work we’d show here at SPACE than the Armory. But it, too, was crowded and cramped. The Moving Image Contemporary Video art fair was a tough visit, too. Imagine a cocktail party full of giant tv screens paired with headphones. But I was glad to see the installation of Martha Wilson’s I have become my own worst fear.

El Museo del Barrio had one of the best outsider art shows I’ve ever seen, called TESTIMONIOS: 100 Years of Popular Expression. I particularly liked the room of paño (handkerchief) drawings, painstakingly elaborated by Chicano inmates in Texas. Go see it before it closes on May 9th.

The Cindy Sherman show at MOMA was a good reminder of the importance of seeing photography printed large in its full majesty. Also while at MOMA, I got to see the final day of the Reanimation Library‘s interactive installation in the education building, where visitors were invited to peruse an odd assortment of books to scan, copy and repurpose into new artwork.

Over in Brooklyn I had great conversation with Jen Rosenblit about her ideas about dance and what happened during her recent residency at Bodega. We talked about the fact that most people don’t have adequate vocabularies for discussing dance and movement and that it’s frustrating to hear someone compare her work to painting or other visual mediums.

The highlight of my trip was an open studio tour of the residency program at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace location, in the financial district. In three short hours I was only able to see about 15 of the 25 studios, because of the great conversations I had with the artists. I was particularly interested in:

• Agathe de Baillencourt‘s text-based landscape drawings
• Bang Geul Han‘s video lexicography of NPR and FOX news
• Jessica Ann Peavy‘s improv-dual actress-narrative performance
• Valerie Hegarty‘s faux-destroyed fine art and furniture
• Amy Whitaker‘s musings on artist as businessperson
• Rob Carter‘s time-lapse videos of plants

I also checked out the New Museum Triennial The Ungovernables (confounding), The Dependent Art Fair (MFA hubris?), a new show at Primetime (all purple) and had a wonderful dinner chat with Yanira Castro, a choreographer with whom we hope to do a project in 2013.

TV SHOW Episode 4 TRAILER from TV SHOW on Vimeo.

PART 2: Mitchell Rasor spoke to Bruce Hyman, City of Portland Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator

MR: Is Portland going to see a noticeable increase in the number bike / ped accommodations or is there a “transportation glass ceiling” due to any of number of reasons – such as standards, policy or demographics?

Bruce Hyman: Related to bicycling, there is no per se ‘ceiling’ related to the vision, but some lag time will occur related to implementation due to funding and staffing capacity. We have essentially implemented about one fourth of the bikeway network on the city’s arterial and collector streets where bike lanes, shared lanes and paved shoulders would typically be the bike facility provided. These cater to a smaller segment of the existing and potential biking market; most cyclists (or people most likely to become more frequent cyclists for transportation purposes) prefer streets with lower volumes of traffic and lower traffic speeds than arterial streets such as Forest Avenue or Brighton Avenue.

To address this potentially larger cycling ’market’ we are piloting a new type of bikeway called (in other locales) a Bicycle Boulevard – a network of primarily local, residential streets that is prioritized for bicycle travel while still providing for motorist use. We are branding them as Neighborhood Byways here to encompass the much broader intended livability benefits to the neighborhood and pedestrians. These projects can incorporate traffic speed/volume management techniques, streetscaping, and pedestrian safety projects. A 4-mile pilot Neighborhood Byway/Bicycle Boulevard project is being implemented now in the Deering Center neighborhood. We have emerging plans for a city-wide implementation of a Neighborhood Byway/bicycle boulevard network as part of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Element of the Comprehensive Plan we’re writing now.

On the pedestrian front, we are trying to more systematically address accessibility issues related to implementing the Americans with Disability Act (including new and rehabilitated curb ramps), safe street crossings of arterials (called for in the ’93 Transportation Plan), adding new/enhancing existing crosswalks, expanding the shared use pathway network, improving the quality of streetscapes, working with schools/parents on Safe Routes to Schools projects, filling gaps in the sidewalk network/rehabilitating existing sidewalks in poor condition, and enhancing pedestrian access to the bus transit system (a big turnoff to attracting more riders is the safety in accessing bus stops/routes).

We are also working to adopt a Complete Streets Policy this spring which will make it city policy to formally incorporate the considerations of all users of the streets of all ages, abilities and modes of travel (motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, transit users and operators, freight providers, and the young and old) into the planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of the city’s streets and street network.

Mitchell spoke to Roger Conover, Executive Editor of The MIT Press

MR: As the publisher of some of the most important books on  art, architecture and urbanism published in the last 30 some years, and as a resident of Maine, you must have a unique and maybe even privileged view of many aspects of Portland, especially its arts and design culture. I know you are also a writer, and wrote  architectural criticism for the Portland Press Herald for a period of time.  How was that experience? Do you think a full-time architecture / design critic – not just a blogger – could have a positive impact on Portland?

Roger Conover: There is no architecture without criticism, and no criticism without architecture. Architecture is a language, and to read it requires a literacy that goes beyond an immediate, subjective, personalized response to buildings. Buildings exist within social, political, economic, temporal, and cultural contexts. It is the function of criticism not just to look at how buildings are made, but to make their meanings and values visible. My experiment with the Portland Press Herald did not continue beyond a certain point because I was not in the praise business, and it became apparent after a while that what was desired, both by the paper and its readers, was someone saying what a great city Portland is, and how wonderful its buildings are. My last column was going to be a polemic about the threat that historic preservation poses to the future of architecture in Portland. It probably won’t surprise you that it wasn’t printed, and that I didn’t submit any columns after that.

Whatever the game, there is no doubt that rigorous observation and constructive criticism raises the level of play. Portland wouldn’t have so many good restaurants if it didn’t have demanding diners. But those diners’ tastes are not just enabled by chefs. They have been fed by one of the country’s most discerning food-discourse providers, aka as the bookstore Rabelais. This combination of access–to food and food criticism–has contributed enormously to the culinary literacy of Portland. Portland is not lacking buildings, but would the buildings be different–dare I say better– if there was more critical exchange around them? I think so.

Mitchell spoke to Charles Colgan, Chair/Professor, Community Planning & Development Program / Public Policy Policy and Management – Muskie School of Government

MR: Your research is in the areas of regional growth and development, economic forecasting and transportation policy.  While there is an apparent trend to mass urbanization on a global level – last year in China the number of people in cities surpassed the rural population as people migrated to seek employment – there are also numerous “shrinking cities” such as Detroit, Flint and St. Louis. What are the general socio / economic demographic trends for Portland? Is there a critical mass Portland needs to achieve to become more sustainable from an economic and transportation perspective?

Charles Colgan: Portland and all of Maine’s other major cities saw population growth from 2000-2010, which is a reversal of trends away from the cities that have been going on since 1970. The shift reflects an increase in residential real estate development in Portland, particularly on the Peninsula, the growing international migrant population, and a trend among older people to re-locate nearer to urban services. Whether these trends will continue in this decade is an open question given the disruptions in the real estate markets and the economy, but in general Portland is well position to emerge with both a growing economy and a growing population. Most of the jobs that Maine will add over the next decade are jobs that tend to be centered in our urban areas, and Portland still has room for denser housing development in many parts of the city. Portland is a city that is well-sized for sustainability- neither too small to lack key urban assets nor too large to suffer the worst of urban disamenities like traffic congestion.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Mitchell Rasor is a musician, writer, and artist. He is also the Principal and founder of MRLD Landscape Architecture + Urbanism, an interdisciplinary design studio. Mitchell holds degrees from Oberlin College and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Submission guidelines:

Each artist may bring one piece to SPACE during the dropoff period as follows:
Thursday, January 12, 3-7 PM
Friday, January 13, 3-7 PM
Saturday, January 14, 12-6 PM

Guidelines:

• 2D work dimensions (1width + 1height) not to exceed 100 inches
• 3D work footprint dimensions not to exceed 36 inch diameter
• One piece per artist
• All works must be dropped off ready to hang / display
• All work must be accompanied by a submission form
• All work must be dropped off and picked up during stated times. No exceptions!
• Artist is responsible for the transport of work to and from SPACE
  
• Artist grants SPACE permission to use images of work to promote Free for All and SPACE.
• SPACE will retain a commission of 40% of the retail price of each work sold.  All artwork sold will remain on display through the end of the exhibition.  SPACE will pay all proceeds due to Artist within 30 days of the end of the exhibit.
• SPACE will provide insurance of artwork for the duration of the loan stated above.  In the event of loss or damage that cannot be restored, Artist will be reimbursed 60% of the retail price listed above.
• By submitting work, Artist understands the spontaneous, experimental nature of Free for All and understands that SPACE will make all decisions regarding placement/hanging of work in the show.
• SPACE is very excited by the range and volume of work expected for Free for All and plans to exhibit each and every piece of work submitted…however, we reserve the right to make final curatorial decisions.

In a recent article for Business Week, Liz Ryan commends Joey for making a bold decision about what was right for him, leaving behind a position that didn’t utilize his talents. She writes, “Instead of getting his musical friends organized to stage a mini quitting concert, Joey might have been using his creative energies to come up with good ideas for the hotel and its patrons. One of my chief complaints about work in most big companies is that they make tasks and assignments so compartmentalized that bright people get squeezed into tiny boxes that waste their brainpower.”

Isn’t this the heart of what the creative economy is about? We need creative and innovative problem solvers at work, and it’s the best companies or organizations that skip the tiny boxes in favor of letting their workers reach their potential.

Unfortunately Ryan misses an opportunity to highlight the real purpose of the video, which was to bring attention to the injustices Joey experienced in his workplace. She should have noted that the Joey Quits “brand” extends to a new website which “serves to expose the abuses against workers that happen everyday in the hotel industry.”

We applaud Joey and company for being opportunistic with the attention they’ve received. Only a truly creative mind would think to turn a crappy hotel job into a workers’ rights movement.

Christopher Cambell's award-winning house, photo by Raymond Koch

1. Andy Graham sold Portland Color to New York City firm Designtex. You can read a MaineBiz article about it here. We particularly liked hearing Andy talk about the impetus of the sale: “The reason they chose to buy Portland Color was because of the quality of our work force.” Portland Color employs a number of artists that have worked with SPACE over the years. We wish them luck!

2. Winky Lewis and a small gang of artists worked with Joe Malone (also a SPACE Board member) to open a pop-up art gallery for the month of December. They’re having an opening on Wednesday evening.

3. Betsy Evans Hunt is the representative of American photographer Todd Webb’s estate, and she’s been working with the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on a Webb exhibit called “After Atget: Todd Webb Photographs New York and Paris.” There’s an opening on December 9.

4. Our longest-standing Board member (and super landlord) Christopher Campbell designed a house on North Haven that was included in Dwell Magazine’s list of their Top 10 Homes in America. You can read a Huffngton Post story about it here. He’s up there with with some greats, including Walter Gropius and Eero Saarinen.