Photos courtesy of Mario Gallucci
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Tables Turned Events:
Kids' Table
Snacks and colors provided.
Saturday, September 30 11am-1pm
at PataPDX
Come celebrate the release of The Best Cool Coloring Book in the Universe, an activity and coloring book made by a kid for kids (and adults too); And join us at the kids' table to draw, doodle, and color in the round. Inspired by the way that kid logic and hypotheses can frame what we believe to be true, Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Paulsen and Calder Gray Paulsen collaborated on the construction of a 6 ft. circular coloring page full of prompts and characters that ask questions about what it means to be small and alive in the world we share.
Hosted by Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Pauslen and Calder Gray Paulsen.
Political Ideas Potluck
Food will be provided. Conversation will be shared.
Thursday September 21 6-730pm
at PataPDX
Bring one of the ideas that your mind uses when you are thinking about politics. We will each share and then try to digest our ideas as a group. Some ideas we might nibble on together: non-violent protest and/or property damage, white supremacy, democracy as an ideal or not, the commons and whether it is a tragedy or our hope...
Which political ideas structure how we understand and how we act in this time? Where do these ideas come from and how do they spread?
Facilitated by Ariana Jacob
RSVP required
guestwork and Samuel Wildman:
Tables Turned
Exhibition Dates: September 7 - October 21, 2017
Reception: September 7 6-8pm
Tables Turned is a research monument that recovers the not-too-visible legacy of American Communitarian spatial design.
From the 18th-20th century, a number of dissident idealists experimented at the intersection of lifestyle and life space; testing the balance between authority and participation, community and privacy, and discipline and release. Their architecture and industrial design challenged dominant social structures in attempts to embody new values and institutions, such as equity and celibacy in the Shaker villages or perfectionism and complex marriage in the Oneida community. However flawed and problematic, these experiments offer insight into a collective imaginary and design process and provide evidence of an unlikely narrative in american history.
Tables Turned recreates physical objects from these experiments as a starting point from which to consider how ideology manifests in the built environment and how the built environment is a site to challenge dominant paradigms.
Among other works, the exhibition will feature a recreation of the lazy susan table, adopted and patented by the Oneida Community in the 19th century. The table will feature programming developed by artists Ariana Jacob and the collaborative Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Paulsen.
Tables Turned is part of a yearlong series of guest curated exhibitions at Portland ‘Pataphysical Society.
Tables Turned is funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council.
Image credit: guestwork
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Tables Turned is a project by artists Erin Charpentier, Travis Neel, and Samuel Wildman. Erin Charpentier and Travis Neel received their BFAs from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and their MFAs in Art and Social Practice from Portland State University. Sam Wildman received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design.
As serial collaborators, they produce projects, performances, exhibitions, and publications that test their idealism in the politics of everyday life and explore new ways of being together in the world.
Their work has been exhibited in the Brooklyn Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, The Boise Art Museum, Disjecta, Weiden + Kennedy, and numerous DIY and public spaces at home and abroad.