Used, musings around foster floodplain
For August Gallery 114 presents an artistic collaboration on Portland's Foster Floodplain Natural Area, with drawings by member artist Heather McGeachy and photographs by guest artist Dale Schreiner. Each has several works in the show, and the two artists collaborate on five pieces, in which McGeachy's drawings are overlaid on photographs by Schreiner.
In this exhibit, "Used: Musings around the Foster Floodplain," the two artists focus on the City of Portland's Natural Area project south of Foster Road in Lents, which was designed to reduce flood risk and restore fish and wildlife habitats on a 63-acre area along Johnson Creek. Restoration was completed in 2012, and through land acquisitions over a period of 15 years, the City relocated 60 families who lived in the 100-year floodplain.
"The area continues to be a place where homesteaders of all species take up residence and are removed if deemed appropriate," muses McGeachy, "from homeless camps to invasive blackberry."
Heather McGeachy offers drawings in charcoal on sanded plexiglass which serve as her articulations of Foster Floodplain's story. "For me, [it] is a story of the used, useful and useless. I grapple with what it means to use land. We create significance of place through memorials, designations, and categorizations--we dictate use and impose our will. We decide what the land is to be--even when land itself holds no memories. What doesn't fit our ideal, must be removed."
Artist talk--August 4, 1-2 pm
Presentation on Foster Floodplain, Ali Young, City of Portland Environmental Specialist- August 9, 12-1 pm
Demonstration: Making Artist Charcoal, August 11, 1-2 pm
Closing Reception--September 1, 1-3 pm
