Smokin’ in the Boys Room

On Sight Opening at The Works, 09.03.09
Posted by: Jim Radosta
Photo by: Kenneth Aaron
While most kids are dreading going back to school next week, contemporary art lovers jumped at the opportunity during TBA’s opening celebration last night.
The Works, the festival’s rotating venue for late-night debauchery, takes place this year at Washington High School, a centrally located but regrettably abandoned space with an uncertain future: Should our cash-strapped city sell the prime real estate to condo developers, or will Buckman neighbors turn the school into a community center? The debate will surely heat up as hundreds of Portlanders pass through these halls for the next 10 days. (Many of the exhibits will remain on display through Oct. 18.)
This year’s art installations range from disturbing drug trips (Brody Condon’s Without Sun) to interactive sculptures (Jesse Hayward’s Forever Now and Then Again) as well as technical innovation in video (Antoine Catala’s TV) and audio (Johanna Ketola’s The Walls of My Hall). The auditorium entertainment will include the short-attention-span smorgasbord of Ten Tiny Dances as well as avant-garde tributes to mainstream artists like Michael Jackson and Britney Spears. Yesterday there was even some impromptu artistic expression going on outside, where a man named Jarrett Mitchell distributed fliers protesting NASA’s lunar bombing scheduled for Oct. 9.
But the true standout of The Works is the school itself. Accompanied by my friend Angela, whose father attended Washington in the 1960s, I marveled at this life-sized time capsule. One locker, preserved behind Plexiglas, was stacked with books and videotapes circa 1995. A display case was filled with warm messages from children welcoming victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As an impatient crowd waited for the late entrance of electro-tribal band Gang Gang Dance, I noticed paper airplanes flying through the auditorium. It was as though the mischievous energy of former students had taken over.
Upon entering The Works, I ran into City Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees Portland Parks & Recreation, the agency that will decide the school’s fate. He eagerly requested feedback on what should become of the space. I suggested, at the very least, a compromise where the building could be saved and some of the adjacent property could be sold. To share your thoughts with Fish, click here.