A JUMBLE OF ROPES SWOOP AND ARC FROM THE CEILING AT FRONT OF HOUSE, A LIGHT-FILLED SITE-SPECIFIC GALLERY SPACE AT THE ENTRANCE TO PORTLAND-BASED INTERIOR DESIGNER JESSICA HELGERSON’S OFFICES. The installation, Drawing Room by local mixed-media artist Heather Watkins, envelops the viewer and challenges the space’s physical limitations and freedoms, incorporating the gallery itself as a medium.
According to the press release, the work “evokes a sense of menace,” yet employs “happy, physical distractions to deflect us from this sublime sense of unease: the density of lines, the lightness of the cotton, the swinging knots, even the double reading of the arcs as both hanging loosely, but also actively springing from the ceiling.”
Drawing Room, Front Of House, 112 SW 1st Ave.; Portland