{"id":8690,"global_id":"portlandartmuseum.org?id=8690","global_id_lineage":["portlandartmuseum.org?id=8690"],"author":"15","status":"publish","date":"2023-12-13 11:41:21","date_utc":"2023-12-13 19:41:21","modified":"2024-07-24 14:44:13","modified_utc":"2024-07-24 21:44:13","url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/event\/ellen-lesperance\/","rest_url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-json\/tribe\/events\/v1\/events\/8690","title":"Ellen Lesperance: The Subjects and W.I.T.C.H. 1985","description":"

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

On the occasion of Converge 45, Ellen Lesperance will publish Peace Camps<\/em>, a novel partially set in the Greenham Common Women\u2019s Peace Camp in Berkshire, England. The exhibition, titled The Subjects<\/em>, will feature the book, published by the Portland arts press Container Corps with illustrations by Jeffry Mitchell, as well as archival photographs, source materials, and other texts linked to the all-woman, direct-action, anti-nuclear-proliferation occupation established outside the Greenham Common Royal Air Force base from 1982 until 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lesperance invokes the work of female activists in her art; the Greenham Common Women\u2019s Peace Camp and the rich archive of images of their campaign have long inspired her. Most notably in gridded paintings, Lesperance recreates the patterns, colors, and gauge of hand knit sweaters worn by the women in the camp. The garments communicated the wearer\u2019s ideological intentions and Lesperance\u2019s paintings serve a dual purpose: to assign valor to the woman who originally wore the sweater and to beckon a new wearer to pick up the fight for causes greater than themselves. The novel Peace Camps <\/em>deepens her engagement with this historical source in new and provocative ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To view The Subjects<\/em>, visitors are invited to access the foyer of the Museum\u2019s Crumpacker Family Library on the second floor of the Mark Building (1119 SW Park Avenue) Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. \u2013 4 p.m. In addition to the publication and ephemera, the exhibition will host a reading in the Library at 5:30 p.m. on August 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Museum will also present Lesperance\u2019s W.I.T.C.H. 1985<\/em>, produced in collaboration with the curatorial project Zena Zezza, in the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art. Sited on the fourth floor of the Center, this sculptural installation consists of thirteen cloaks recreated from a scene of the 1985 made-for-television video called Can\u2019t Beat It Alone <\/em>that included footage from the Greenham Common Women\u2019s Peace Camp. Lesperance faithfully recreates a cloak worn by a protesting individual: black, hooded, and with various popular 80s-era women\u2019s power symbolism. This unusual and theatrical robe also heralded the wearer\u2019s probable affiliation with W.I.T.C.H., or the Women\u2019s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, a radical socialist feminist group founded in New York City in 1968. Lesperance\u2019s thirteen cloaks feature embroidered components, beaded components, and multiple silkscreen printed surfaces; they were produced by Portland Garment Factory in Portland, Oregon with additional fabrication by the artist and Hand and Lock, London. W.I.T.C.H. 1985 <\/em>is part of Zena Zezza\u2019s longer-term artist project season, Ellen Lesperance: Land of Feminye<\/em>, February through June 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the artist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ellen Lesperance\u2019s work has been exhibited across the United States and is represented in the collections of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of Art and Design; the Portland Art Museum; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and the Kadist Art Foundation. She has been awarded the Betty Bowen Award (Seattle Art Museum), a Ford Family Fellowship in the Arts (Oregon), and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. She received her MFA from Rutgers University in 1999 and has had residencies at the Skowhegan School; the MacDowell Colony; the Djerassi Foundation; and the Atlantic Center. Her work has been featured in frieze<\/em>, AnOther<\/em>, ArtUS<\/em>, Art Monthly<\/em>, Cura<\/em>, GARAGE<\/em>, Guernica<\/em>, the Los Angeles Times<\/em>, the New York Times<\/em>, the Oregonian<\/em>, and Tema Celeste<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Converge 45<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Converge 45 is a curatorial-driven arts platform that engages audiences and artists in Portland, OR, connecting the city in a global dialog through the vision of leading curators. Experimental in nature, the curatorial model for Converge 45 functions on a three-year cycle, in which a Guest Curator is invited to shape a platform working with institutions in Portland and throughout the state of Oregon. The Guest Curator is granted a tremendous amount of autonomy to define a broad intellectual framework and create a program aimed at connecting regional, national, and international artists. \u201c45\u201d refers to the proximity to the 45th<\/sup> parallel.<\/p>","excerpt":"","slug":"ellen-lesperance","image":{"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/CantBeatItAlone-still.jpeg","id":8692,"extension":"jpeg","width":995,"height":688,"filesize":107219,"sizes":{"medium":{"width":700,"height":484,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":43355,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/CantBeatItAlone-still-700x484.jpeg"},"thumbnail":{"width":270,"height":270,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":13700,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/CantBeatItAlone-still-270x270.jpeg"},"medium_large":{"width":768,"height":531,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":49666,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/CantBeatItAlone-still-768x531.jpeg"},"small":{"width":375,"height":500,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":26397,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/CantBeatItAlone-still-375x500.jpeg"},"medium-large":{"width":900,"height":622,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":62329,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/CantBeatItAlone-still-900x622.jpeg"},"card":{"width":904,"height":565,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":55200,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/CantBeatItAlone-still-904x565.jpeg"},"post":{"width":975,"height":500,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":48423,"url":"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/CantBeatItAlone-still-975x500.jpeg"}}},"all_day":false,"start_date":"2017-08-09 08:00:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2017","month":"08","day":"09","hour":"08","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2017-11-05 17:00:00","end_date_details":{"year":"2017","month":"11","day":"05","hour":"17","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_start_date":"2017-08-09 15:00:00","utc_start_date_details":{"year":"2017","month":"08","day":"09","hour":"15","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":"2017-11-06 01:00:00","utc_end_date_details":{"year":"2017","month":"11","day":"06","hour":"01","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"timezone":"America\/Vancouver","timezone_abbr":"","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"$","currency_code":"USD","currency_position":"prefix","values":[]},"website":"","show_map":false,"show_map_link":false,"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