Some people have really interesting stories that are waiting to be told. Some people live their lives unnoticed by most. They may do memorable things in their time, and they may make life better for dozens of people. Their memory, however, will be relegated to a photo album or a dusty cassette tape recording of their voice, completely overlooked by the rest of the world.
Some people make art
Some people have really interesting stories that are waiting to be told. Some people live their lives unnoticed by most. They may do memorable things in their time, and they may make life better for dozens of people. Their memory, however, will be relegated to a photo album or a dusty cassette tape recording of their voice, completely overlooked by the rest of the world.
A new Portland-based art project seeks to tell the stories of some of those people through a variety of mediums. Tonight at 6 p.m. artist Harrell Fletcher will debut the launch of his newest project, Some People, in collaboration with Wieden+Kennedy 12.
Fletcher, a professor of art and social practice at PSU, created the project in partnership with Wieden+Kennedy 12, an intensive 13-month advertising and design program that accepts 12 applicants each year to participate.
Students of the W+K 12 program have been given the task of exploring the life of someone in their community and then documenting and publishing that life in any medium they choose.
According to a statement released by the program, the goal of the project is to connect the artist with the subject, and to spread knowledge of previously unknown people.
The Some People Web site will continue the project as an open and ongoing adventure collaboration, where anyone and everyone can become a biographer. The concept is to put the spotlight on people who might otherwise be unknown, on the fringes of our awareness.
“I really wanted to set up a place where people could sort of recommend other people that they think are interesting,” Fletcher said in an e-mail.
He hopes that in time, the site would become an archive of interesting people from across the globe.
People like Kay Newell, the “Light-bulb Lady” of Portland, or London Ware, a high-school senior in San Francisco, who is working on writing and directing a film, both now have biographies posted on the Some People Web site (www.somepeoplepeople.com).
The project’s debut signifies a growing trend of artists moving toward the unique freedoms and collaborative opportunities that the Internet allows.
“The Web has freed artists from the need to work with commercial galleries,” said Fletcher.
Fletcher hopes that the site and the preceding gallery exhibit will spur on the creation of further interpretations of the project’s heart, such as books, film screenings or ongoing exhibitions. The multidisciplinary artist said he is open to the idea of people from all over the world taking the concept and recreating it in their own way.
The exhibit will be held from May 1 through May 8 in the lobby of the Wieden+Kennedy Building (224 N.W. 13th Ave.). Those interested in participating in the project can register at http://www.somepeoplepeople.com.
