{"id":6267,"global_id":"portlandartmuseum.org?id=6267","global_id_lineage":["portlandartmuseum.org?id=6267"],"author":"15","status":"publish","date":"2023-07-27 14:07:49","date_utc":"2023-07-27 21:07:49","modified":"2023-08-14 14:01:13","modified_utc":"2023-08-14 21:01:13","url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/event\/being-present\/","rest_url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/events\/6267","title":"Being Present","description":"

Revisiting, Somewhat Unfaithfully, Portland\u2019s Most Experimental Art Experiment, PCVA<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From 1972 to 1987, the Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA) was a major force in the Pacific Northwest, introducing progressive forms of contemporary art from around the country to Portland audiences. Temporary site-specific installations by major, mostly New York-based sculptors, announced its early ambitions. Later, an impressive schedule of avant-garde performances signaled a turn towards a more socially inclusive model\u2014one that, unfortunately, proved financially unsustainable. More than thirty years after its demise, this artist-founded organization remains an inspiration for both the art it brought to the area and the impact it had on this city\u2019s cultural scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But PCVA\u2019s mythology as a leading-edge organization in one of the country\u2019s most liberal cities is paradoxical. The exhibitions that brought it national attention reflected the social biases of an American art world that has long been less \u201cprogressive\u201d than it has purported to be. Simultaneously, while Portland was being celebrated as a leader in urban planning\u2014adopting urban growth boundaries and investing in bike trails and public transportation\u2014it was engaged in the disinvestment in, and displacement of, its black and working-class communities. Given this layered context, how do we celebrate the PCVA\u2019s extraordinary achievements while acknowledging that it bore some of the troubling qualities of its age? And in doing so, at what point do we risk falling victim to presentism; judging the past through current-day values and expectations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This unorthodox exhibition, curated by Triple Candie, delves into these issues. Comprising unfaithful sculptural objects, spatial interventions, animated videos, tapestries, and hand-drawn documentation\u2014all fabricated by the curators themselves\u2014 Being Present<\/em> is designed to transport viewers, if only partially and somewhat unfaithfully, to this bygone moment. Like other Triple Candie exhibitions, it seeks to turn our articles of faith back on themselves. Moreover, it asks us to reflect on how we define cultural progress, and what art can, or should, do today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the curators: Founded in Harlem by two University of Washington alumni (Shelly Bancroft and Peter Nesbett), Triple Candie is a phantom curatorial agency that produces exhibitions about art, but without art. Its exhibitions typically consist of what it calls \u201csurrogates\u201d\u2014reproductions, unfaithful copies, fake documentation, stage-sets, and other elements. Until 2010, Triple Candie presented these in its own space in Harlem. The New York Times <\/em>described it as \u201cManhattan\u2019s one truly alternative<\/em> alternative space.\u201d Since 2010, Triple Candie has been producing exhibitions and occasional performances across the U.S. and Europe. Recent projects include: If Michael Asher <\/em>at the Grazer Kunstverein, Austria (2018-19); The Institute for Universal Uncertainties, Part II: Capitalism, <\/em>Galerie Baumann and the Jind\u0159ich Chalupeck\u00fd Society, Prague (2017); Kurt Varnedoe: In the Middle at the Modern<\/em>, Telfair Art Museums, Savannah, Georgia (2017); Let the Artists Die (If They Want to)<\/em> at NICC, Brussels (2014), James Lee Byars: I Cancel All My works at Death<\/em> (2014), and Of the Siren and the Sky: All that Which is at the Edges of Whatever Might Be <\/em>[An exhibition about the fugitive artist Sky Jones] at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City. Surveys of Triple Candie\u2019s curatorial practice have been presented at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts (2017) and Frac \u00cele-de-France\/Le Plateau, Paris. Today, Triple Candie is based in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being Present is curated by Triple Candie, in collaboration with Sara Krajewski, the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Funding provided through the Miller Meigs Endowment for Contemporary Art.<\/em><\/p>","excerpt":"","slug":"being-present","image":{"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Being-Present.jpeg","id":6268,"extension":"jpeg","width":1200,"height":1200,"filesize":269341,"sizes":{"medium":{"width":700,"height":700,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":73499,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Being-Present-700x700.jpeg"},"thumbnail":{"width":270,"height":270,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":13292,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Being-Present-270x270.jpeg"},"medium_large":{"width":768,"height":768,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":86472,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Being-Present-768x768.jpeg"},"small":{"width":375,"height":500,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":32536,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Being-Present-375x500.jpeg"},"medium-large":{"width":900,"height":900,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":115097,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Being-Present-900x900.jpeg"},"card":{"width":904,"height":565,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":75217,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Being-Present-904x565.jpeg"},"post":{"width":975,"height":500,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":72782,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Being-Present-975x500.jpeg"},"hero":{"width":1200,"height":1080,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":184610,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Being-Present-1200x1080.jpeg"}}},"all_day":true,"start_date":"2019-11-16 00:00:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2019","month":"11","day":"16","hour":"00","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2020-10-18 23:59:59","end_date_details":{"year":"2020","month":"10","day":"18","hour":"23","minutes":"59","seconds":"59"},"utc_start_date":"2019-11-16 08:00:00","utc_start_date_details":{"year":"2019","month":"11","day":"16","hour":"08","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":"2020-10-19 06:59:59","utc_end_date_details":{"year":"2020","month":"10","day":"19","hour":"06","minutes":"59","seconds":"59"},"timezone":"America\/Vancouver","timezone_abbr":"","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"$","currency_code":"USD","currency_position":"prefix","values":[]},"website":"","show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"hide_from_listings":false,"sticky":false,"featured":false,"categories":[{"name":"Exhibitions","slug":"exhibitions","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":17,"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","description":"","parent":0,"count":201,"filter":"raw","id":17,"urls":{"self":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories\/17","collection":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories"}}],"tags":[],"venue":{"id":290,"author":"1","status":"publish","date":"2023-03-28 10:28:29","date_utc":"2023-03-28 17:28:29","modified":"2024-03-07 10:38:06","modified_utc":"2024-03-07 18:38:06","url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/venue\/portland-art-museum\/","venue":"Portland Art Museum","description":"

The Museum is conveniently located on the historic Park Blocks in the center of downtown Portland, which is easy to get around by public transit or on foot. The Portland Business Alliance has installed way-finding signs which direct you to the cultural district, where the Museum is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is generally plenty of street parking surrounding the Museum. These spaces range from 1 \u2013 4 hours and can be paid for using a credit card or the Parking Kitty app<\/a>. There are also surface parking lots, and parking garages within 1 \u2013 4 blocks of the Museum. The closest surface lot is located at SW Main St. between SW 10th Ave. and Park Ave, and there are dedicated accessible and van accessible spaces. This lot accepts credit card or the Reef app<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public transit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Getting to get to the Museum by public transportation is straightforward and economical. The bus and streetcar travel directly past the Museum, and the MAX light rail has a stop only four blocks away.\u00a0TriMet\u2019s Trip Planner<\/a>\u00a0gives you step-by-step travel directions from your location by bus, light rail, or streetcar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n