Nudity and beer at the Portland Art Museum
For my first foray into the field, I decided to go to the Shine a Light event at the Portland Art Museum on October 15th. Now in its second year, Shine a Light is ostensibly a massive art party geared towards drawing a younger audience to the museum. DJed dance parties raged in the entrance hall, beer and food carts filled the courtyard, and the musical lineup in the grand ballroom included local bands Wampire, Guidance Counselor, and Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside. But to make it more than just a choice party in a pretty setting, PAM partnered with a number of students and faculty from the M.F.A. Arts and Social Practice concentration at Portland State University to create a number of participatory art installations and performances. There were roving dance performances, re-created pieces from the museum’s collection with signs that said “You can touch this,” orienteering games, marriage ceremonies, and light shows on the silver collection. But the undisputed champion of the night, if you’re judging by audience size, was “Two Boys, Wrestling,” a performance inspired by a statue in the permanent collection. Listen to the story to learn how Jason Zimmerman and his wrestlers grappled with the line separating an art museum and, well, a strip club.
The rest of the photos (with no nudity, just so you know) are after the jump.
A crowd straining to see the performance “Two Boys, Wrestling” stands above the statue that inspired the project. Along with 99 other plaster casts of Greek and Roman statues, it was among the museum’s first acquisitions to the permanent and European collections in 1892.
Artists Jason Zimmerman holds up a title card before introducing the wrestlers.
The wrestlers feign left and right, collide, lift each other into the air, and otherwise work the crowd into a civilized frenzy. Dollar bills rain like snowflakes. Not quite the Coliseum, but close.
Wrestlers Steven Peterson and Johnny Christiansen pose for photos with the evening’s revelers. Johnny himself is a professional photographer. You can see his work at Atrilliance. Steven is a personal trainer.
Elsewhere guests had the opportunity to marry a piece of art, complete with a ceremony, vows and, if they were one of the lucky first 50, a membership to the museum to visit and contemplate your relationship with your new spouse.
Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside performed in the ballroom.
The silver collection gallery was bathed in a psychedelic light show.
And of course, no Portland event would be complete without a courtyard full of food and beer carts.
All photos courtesy of Wayne Bund.
