ROUND RIVER

The blended sculptural and audio setting was the outcome of a residency at Building 5. The wood structure was made from a local millworks’ cast-off saw rips. We started exploring possibilities with a mountain of wood collected over a couple months. Once we knew we were working in a weaving vernacular we sorted out and retained the more flexible material and passed the rest on to various artists and builders for other projects. We lashed the structural elements together with bands made from discarded bicycle inner tubes. The rags are a byproduct of T shirt recycling. They were cut and color-sorted by a Portland rag company. When they were finished here they went back to that company to be sold for industrial wiping applications. We fabricated the sandbags from pieces of large bulk hauling bags once used by a local brewer. The sandbags were essential to anchoring the temporary bracing used during construction of the piece.

The sound designs were created for this work and setting by four artists. Each artist or team introduced an interpretive sound overlay that was intended to create the experience of an audio suspension in the visual environment. AUXART is a play on the idea of using an installation space and large scale structural sculpture to amplify various creative inputs across artistic disciplines. This first project tried-on the concept of an occupyable sculpture serving as a stage or AUX port for synchronous creative voices, in this case primarily sound art. In addition to the scheduled sound design work the installation hosted a solo performance by Nancy Ives, principal cellist for the Oregon Symphony.

On June 14, 2021 the sculpture was disassembled and recycled. Leave no trace.

-Philip Krohn
AUXART Creator