Giant strips of decayed film, blotchy with green spots, hang from the ceiling. On the wall, the same film, a General Electric commercial, plays on a loop, flashing eerie projections about the room.
Giant strips of decayed film, blotchy with green spots, hang from the ceiling. On the wall, the same film, a General Electric commercial, plays on a loop, flashing eerie projections about the room.
This is Portland State assistant professor Julie Perini’s latest installation at Place Gallery in Pioneer Place Mall. The exhibit, titled “Big Film,” will be displayed through Saturday, April 14.
To create her piece, Perini used a film she “made” this summer. She took 16mm film of a General Electric commercial and buried it underground. She then unearthed it after 20 days.
“I saw what kinds of effects being in the ground had on the film. It speeds up the decay process. Film is already going to fall apart, and this just speeds that process up,” Perini said. “I liked the results because it turned this commercial into this crazy, psychedelic, trippy, multicolor, abstract experience.”
She scanned the individual frames of the now-decayed film, blew them up and printed them, then hung them from the ceiling. A projector plays the film on the wall while visitors walk around and examine the individual frames in the film strip.
“I was really interested in how beautiful it made the individual frames,” Perini said. “It’s a new way to see that particular film. It makes it three dimensional, so other people can have the amazing experience I had of being able to look at these little frames.”
“She could just have the projection, or she could just have the images. But she wants you to acknowledge the breakdown, not just get lost in the breakdown,” said Gabe Flores, co-founder and curator of Place Gallery. “This is making sure that we recognize the intimate breakdowns that are happening with each frame, which is very different than watching the film.”
Perini began teaching at PSU this year. She is a video artist and mostly teaches film studies classes.
“I focus on coursework about the artist’s use of film,” Perini said. “I’m very interested in documentary and experimental media. I also focus on video and art production by marginalized communities. I’m interested in feminism and gender and work made by people who are not represented by mainstream media.”
Flores admires how Perini works sociologically.
“A lot of her ideas come from ideas of whiteness or identity-based ideologies,” he explained. “That’s something that really resonates with me.”
The commercial that Perini uses features a white, middle-aged, middle-class woman.
“[The woman’s demographics] are interesting things to start looking at the decay of. That’s what I’m really getting from the piece,” Flores said. “We’re looking at the wear down, the break down, of some of these identifiers and the importance of them.”
Flores co-founded Place Gallery with Gary Wiseman in 2010. The gallery, located on the third floor of the atrium of Pioneer Place Mall, is constantly putting on events, with openings on third Saturdays. They also host literature readings, performances and presentations with philosophers and artists. They try to attract a diverse audience and encourage artists to experiment freely with their work.
“Artists who make experimental projects like this are trying to give people something new, a new way to see or think. We think it’s important enough that other people should consider what we’ve been considering for a while,” Perini said. “There’s a benefit to that kind of mind, that kind of consciousness, that kind of enhancing experience.”
Flores, a PSU alumnus, encourages students to visit art galleries even though they can be intimidating.
“I’m still self-conscious when I go to a gallery now,” Flores said with a laugh. “So I can imagine that someone who is maybe a little younger, or a first-generation student like myself, would feel intimidated.”
“It’s a different way of learning. We get a little bit stuck in the way we’re trained to go to school, read, write and do homework. Going to an art gallery allows you to think and learn, but with all your senses,” Perini said. “Especially since so much of what we do is online now, that makes it even more important to put yourself in situations where your awareness is heightened.”
Flores said he is almost always at the gallery and would love to see students come in and talk.
“Questions that come from people besides those immediately involved in the arts are often much better questions. Someone from the sciences, humanities or social sciences is going to come in with much fresher eyes,” he said. “Being the curator director, I don’t come in with as fresh eyes. Even the artist loses their relationship with their own art. Meeting people who are not used to seeing this kind of art allows us to see it again.”
