APR 4 - APR 27
Surface Tension
Exploring Unseen Layers of the Columbia River
An immersive exploration into the fathoms of life & it’s shadows.
Allowing the river to expand our relationship tension between self and the natural world.
Featuring artists Archer Mayo, Sylvianne Johnson, and Anna Kai-Walsh
Three artists, three mediums, three perspectives. A sculptor, a painter and fiber artist collaborate to create an artistic experience expressing their complex relationship with the various layers of the Columbia River. How do they each grapple with the human imprint on the natural landscape of the river and how do they propel that complexity into an artistic expression?
One day the fiber artist visited a beach along the Columbia River with a friend. While both waxed poetics over the view, serenity and joy of living in such an amazing part of the world they happened upon an area where seepage from the river’s bank was flowing into the water, creating rivulets of unnatural color and texture. While fascinated by the sight, there emerged a deep sadness for the life of the river and a desire to find a constructive expression for those feelings and thoughts. A year later, the friend showed her photographs of some images he’d created – she instinctively knew they were of the seepage they had seen the year before. She was amazed that her immediate response was fascination, feelings of beauty and curiosity.
How did he manage to transform the ugliness of our own human impact on a force of natural beauty in such a way that it invited her to look on with fascination rather than disgust and anger? So began her inquiry into the complex relationship between the river and her humanity. Through conversations a spark was ignited between 3 artists. A painter fascinated with the subtleties of color and pattern that only water can create. A fiber artist grappling with the tension between the discards of humanity that flow into our waterways with the many projects working toward an ecologically balanced environment. A sculptor who is a trained diver and spends many hours deep in the crevices of the Columbia River grappling with the darkness he sees.
They have joined together to investigate and share their artistic journey grappling with the tension between the shadows of humanity and the natural wonder of the Columbia River. Each one’s journey is unique and reflects different depths both literally and metaphorically. For as in life, our shadow lives with us both internally and collectively and we are daily asked to teeter the fine line of balancing both. The exhibit invites the viewer to experience three artists’ relationship with the river.
About the Artists
Sylvianne Johnson, Fiber Artist
Sylvianne Johnson, BFA and MAT is a fiber artist who felts, experiments with natural dyes, and creates with a variety of natural and man made elements foraged from her surrounding landscape. Her work represents the impressions the landscape imparts on her in the immediate and over time.
Archer Mayo, Sculptor
Anna Kai-Walsh, Painter