Mineral Spirits

Portland2016 - A Biennial of Contemporary Art
Paint, scaffolds, looped audio, 68'x43'x23', 2016
Astor Hotel, Astoria, OR. Curator Michelle Grabner

In Mineral Spirits, the decayed and darkened lobby of the Astor Hotel is the location of an assemblage of non-functional scaffolds and recorded sounds. The scaffolds, painted in a soft metallic gold, hint at the hotel’s glorious past. Stage lighting and residual natural sunlight interact to produce subtly changing shadows of the scaffold on the floor and the ceiling. Stretches of silence are interrupted with modified field recordings of the construction of the scaffold, invoking the spirits of guests past and present.