CONDITIONS A Publication of The Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Program CONDITIONS 9 781736 244739 90000> ISBN 978-1-7362447-3-9 $0.00 CONDITIONSCONDITIONS A Publication of The Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Program 9 781736 244739 90000> ISBN 978-1-7362447-3-9 $0.00 CONDITIONS 9 7 8 1 7 3 6 2 4 4 7 3 9 9 0 0 0 0 > I S B N 9 7 8 - 1 - 7 3 6 2 4 4 7 - 3 - 9 $0.00 A Publication of The Ford Fam ily Foundation Visual Arts Program A Publication of The Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Program Th e Fo rd F am ily F ou nd at io n, U ni ve rs ity o f O re go n Ce nt er fo r Ar t Re se ar ch , J or da n Sc hn itz er M us eu m o f Ar t at P or tla nd S ta te U ni ve rs ity , D ou gl as F . C oo le y M em or ia l A rt G al le ry a t Re ed C ol le ge , a nd t he P ac ifi c N or th w es t C ol le ge o f A rt a t W illa m et te U ni ve rs ity a re lo ca te d on th e tr ad iti on al h om el an ds o f I nd ig en ou s pe op le . S in ce t he a rr iv al o f E ur op ea n ex pl or er s, th e In di ge no us p eo pl e of O re go n ha ve r ep ea te dl y be en di sp os se ss ed o f t he ir la nd b y se tt le r c ol on ia lis m , in cl ud in g th e Un ite d St at es g ov er nm en t a nd th ei r p ol ic ie s to fo rc ib ly re m ov e th e In di ge no us p op ul at io ns to re se rv at io ns in O re go n an d ar ou nd th e co un tr y. To da y, th e de sc en da nt s o f O re go n’ s fi rs t p eo pl e co nt in ue to m ak e im po rt an t c on tr ib ut io ns to c om m un iti es , in st i- tu tio ns , t he s ta te o f O re go n, th e Un ite d St at es , a nd to th e w or ld . In a ck no w le dg in g th e or ig in al p eo pl e of t he la nd w e oc cu py , w e ex te nd o ur r es pe ct t o th e In di ge no us pe op le o f O re go n an d al l o th er d isp la ce d In di ge no us p eo pl e w ho c al l O re go n ho m e. W ith th is pu bl ic at io n an d ou r c ol le ct iv e ac tiv ity , C rit ic al C on ve rs at io ns re co gn ize s O re go n’ s fi rs t p eo pl e as th e pa st , p re se nt , a nd fu tu re st ew ar ds o f t hi s l an d, a nd w e pl ed ge o ur c om m itm en t t o m ak e on go in g eff or ts to c en te r I nd ig en ou s ex ist en ce a nd re la te d kn ow le dg e, c re at iv ity , r es ilie nc e, a nd re sis ta nc e in th e w or k w e do . CONDITIONS © 2022 The University of Oregon, Center for Art Research All content copyright the authors and artists Executive Editors: Meagan Atiyeh Senior Advisor to The Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Program Brian Gillis Director, University of Oregon Center for Art Research Critical Conversations Program Manager Editorial Board: Mack McFarland, Commissioning Editor Executive Director, Converge 45 Maryanna Ramirez Director, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University Stephanie Snyder, Commissioning Editor John and Anne Hauberg Director and Curator, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College Editorial Coordinator : Laura Butler Hughes, Critical Conversations Program Coordinator Advised by: Carol Dalu, The Ford Family Foundation Design by : Omnivore Typefaces : Bebas Neue by Ryoichi Tsunekawa Freight Sans and Freight Text by Joshua Darden Printed by: Typecraft, Inc. Pasadena, CA Published by: Center for Art Research 5232 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 centerforartresearch.uoregon.edu This publication is made possible by The Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Program. The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication is available in accessible formats upon request. ISBN: 978–1–7362447–3–9 Conditions 76 rubén garcía marrufo: Being Here Alejandro Espinoza Galindo 84 Shields, Open Wounds, and New Landscapes: An Artist’s Account of Creation Stephanie Gervais 92 Lynne Woods Turner Process and Patience Stephanie Snyder 104 Activist Art and the Poetics of Junk Mail K. Silem Mohammad 110 Patterns of Protest: Pat Boas and the Making of Sentinels Prudence Roberts 118 No/And: Contemporary Conversations About Queer and Trans Art Sara Jaffe 135 Acknowledgments 136 In Memoriam: Lee Kelly 6 Editorial Statement 8 Bibliography 14 Retelling Stories: Sarah Farahat’s Palestine Then and Now and Towards the Setting Sun Amelia Rina 24 Hard to Describe: Alt Text and Artworks Laura Butler Hughes 34 Nobody’s Fool at Carnation Contemporary Luiza Lukova 40 Malia Jensen: Nearer Nature Sara Krajewski 54 Mutual Adaptation Lumi Tan 58 Greg Archuleta and Lifeways: Cultivating resilience through education Steph Littlebird 66 HONEY Ido Radon Contents 76 rubén garcía marrufo: Being Here Alejandro Espinoza Galindo 84 Shields, Open Wounds, and New Landscapes: An Artist’s Account of Creation Stephanie Gervais 92 Lynne Woods Turner Process and Patience Stephanie Snyder 104 Activist Art and the Poetics of Junk Mail K. Silem Mohammad 110 Patterns of Protest: Pat Boas and the Making of Sentinels Prudence Roberts 118 No/And: Contemporary Conversations About Queer and Trans Art Sara Jaffe 135 Acknowledgments 136 In Memoriam: Lee Kelly 6 Editorial Statement 8 Bibliography 14 Retelling Stories: Sarah Farahat’s Palestine Then and Now and Towards the Setting Sun Amelia Rina 24 Hard to Describe: Alt Text and Artworks Laura Butler Hughes 34 Nobody’s Fool at Carnation Contemporary Luiza Lukova 40 Malia Jensen: Nearer Nature Sara Krajewski 54 Mutual Adaptation Lumi Tan 58 Greg Archuleta and Lifeways: Cultivating resilience through education Steph Littlebird 66 HONEY Ido Radon Contents Conditions 7 Editorial Statement Conversations once again dispatched two commissioning editors to enlist authors to tune their curiosity antennae toward a subject. Returning to this role for a fourth year is Stephanie Snyder, the John and Anne Hauberg Curator and Director of The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College, whose past editorial works, along with those of Sue Taylor, Professor Emerita of Art History at Portland State University, were published online by the Visual Arts Ecology Project in cooperation with the Oregon Arts Commission. This year Snyder was joined by a new com- missioning editor, Mack McFarland, a cultural producer, educator, and Executive Director for Converge 45. In addition to these new texts, the editorial board reviewed texts previously commissioned by the Foundation and by Oregon ArtsWatch. Fourteen works in total were gathered for CONDITIONS. Perhaps shy of full clarity, together they aid in sharpening the picture of our nesting in the same temporality; that is, within a shared resolution of time and being. In an effort to find our footing in the river of the moment, we gathered words surrounding us, forming stepping stones, aiding our way toward publishing this volume and building our resolve for the next. We came to this list by passing words back and forth, absorbing the pres- ent, ruminating on the recent past, and hypothesizing what may come. While by no means a catalogue raisonné, the ensuing pages offer more of a functional précis. Temper / Invisibility / Land / Encoded / Lack / Immemorial / Suffering / Dissociated / Abundance / Alternative Facts / Access / Migration / Reclamation / Valuation / Accelerated / Projection / Fetish / Mutual-aid / Historicity / Revision / Post-Linearity / Hesitancy / Disoriented / Volatile / Collapse Critical Conversations Editorial Board Meagan Atiyeh Brian Gillis Mack McFarland Maryanna G. Ramirez Stephanie Snyder The Ford Family Foundation’s Visual Arts Program honors Mrs. Hallie Ford, the Foundation’s late co-founder, whose lifelong interest in the arts inspired her to support Oregon’s established visual artists to actively pursue their work. One element of the program is Critical Conversations, a collaboration between the Foundation and the University of Oregon, along with three academic partners — the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery; Reed College; the Pacific Northwest College of Art at Willamette University; and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University. Critical Conversations encourages exchange and inquiry. The partners above facilitate a year-round calendar of studio visits for Oregon artists by prominent visiting curators and arts writers who present public lectures and other forms of engagement in our community. Recognizing the nexus between artists and those who research, reflect upon, and present their work, Critical Conversations also sponsors a series of convenings that specifically engage Oregon’s curators and arts writers with currents in the field. The title and concept for CONDITIONS came into focus as the editorial team launched its first issue, FIGURING. Here, we shift from FIGURING’s multiple perspectives on the body and the psyche to examine the cultural and biological mysteries and actualities of life at this tenuous environmental and socio-political moment. As our need for breath and sustenance are foregrounded across an accounting of our shared lives, we hope that CONDITIONS offers a space to meditate on the ways in which works of art (including writing) support us in making meaning from our state of, and provisions for, being. In an effort to awaken new insights from the visions, projects, and persons that make up the arts communities in this state, Critical https://centerforartresearch.uoregon.edu/cc/ Conditions 9 A bibliography is a list of sources referred to in a scholarly work, typically included at the end of a publication. A bibliography’s content is founda- tional to the text it relates to as it informs research and writing processes and is referenced after it is published, essentially serving as the conditions from which the text emanates. To extend this publication’s exploration of “conditions,” we’ve positioned the bibliography in front of the text as a bridge between the Table of Contents and the content itself in order to offer access to some of the text’s working conditions. Retelling Stories: Sarah Farahat’s Palestine Then and Now and Towards the Setting Sun, Amelia Rina Earth Medicine Alliance, “Importance of Place; Working with Spirits of Place; Advice for the Younger Generations,” August 23, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9lreuQ1IV0. Justseeds. Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, February 18, 2022. https://justseeds.org/. Haddad, Mohammed. “Mapping Israeli Occupation.” Infographic News | Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera, May 19, 2021. https://www.aljazeera. com/news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine. “Israel’s Borders Explained in Maps.” BBC News. BBC, September 15, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567. Land Back Land Forward Partnership. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.landbacklandforward.com/. Le Guin, Ursula K.. Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places. New York: Grove Press, 1989. Tomahawk Grey Eyes. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://tomahawkgreyeyes.com/. Hard to Describe: Alt Text and Artworks, Laura Butler Hughes Access Reimbursement | Oregon Arts Commission (Oregon Arts Commission), accessed December 5, 2021. https://www.oregonartscommission.org/grants/ access-reimbursement. “Alternative Text.” WebAIM (Institute for Disability Research, Policy, and Practice at Utah State University, 2021). https://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/#context. “An Overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act.” ADA National Network, 2017. https://adata.org/factsheet/ADA-overview. Coklyat, Bojana, and Shannon Finnegan. Alt Text as Poetry, June 2020. https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/. “Cooper Hewitt Guidelines for Image Description: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.” Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, August 23, 2021. https://www.cooperhewitt.org/ cooper-hewitt-guidelines-for-image-description/. Ganger-Spivak, Emma. “A Poetics of Description: Alt Text and The Museum,” 2021. Kleege, Georgina. More than Meets the Eye: What Blindness Brings to Art. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018. Krautzource, “Aria-Tree-Walker: A Lightweight Walker for Labeled Aria Trees,” GitHub (krautzource), accessed December 17, 2021. https://github.com/krautzource/aria-tree-walker. “MCA Guidelines for Describing.” MCA Chicago, accessed February 21, 2022. https://live.coyote.pics/support. “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities and Public Accommodations,” accessed December 12, 2012. https://www.ada.gov/anprm2010/web%20anprm_2010.htm. Papalia, Carmen. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://carmenpapalia.com/. “Self-Description for Inclusive Meetings.” VocalEyes. Royal Holloway University of London and VocalEyes, May 2021. https://vocaleyes. co.uk/services/resources/self-description-for-inclusive-meetings/. Web content accessibility guidelines 1.0. World Wide Web Consortium, accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.w3.org/TR/ WAI-WEBCONTENT/#gl-provide-equivalents. Bibliography 8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9lreuQ1IV0 https://justseeds.org/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567 https://www.landbacklandforward.com/ https://tomahawkgreyeyes.com/ https://www.oregonartscommission.org/grants/access-reimbursement https://www.oregonartscommission.org/grants/access-reimbursement https://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/#context https://adata.org/factsheet/ADA-overview https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/ https://www.cooperhewitt.org/cooper-hewitt-guidelines-for-image-description/ https://www.cooperhewitt.org/cooper-hewitt-guidelines-for-image-description/ https://github.com/krautzource/aria-tree-walker https://www.ada.gov/anprm2010/web%20anprm_2010.htm https://carmenpapalia.com/ https://vocaleyes.co.uk/services/resources/self-description-for-inclusive-meetings/ https://vocaleyes.co.uk/services/resources/self-description-for-inclusive-meetings/ https://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/#gl-provide-equivalents https://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/#gl-provide-equivalents Conditions 11 “Our Story.” Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Accessed February 22, 2022. https://www.grandronde.org/history-culture/ history/our-story/. “Western Oregon Indian Termination Act.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, December 3, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Western_Oregon_Indian_Termination_Act. Honey, Ido Radon “Armillaria Ostoyae.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, February 4, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_ostoyae. “Free Society.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, June 16, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Society. KROPOTKIN, P. Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. BIBLIOTECH Press, 2020. Russ, Joanna. “ ‘What Can a Heroine Do? Or Why Women Can’t Write.’” Essay. In To Write like A Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995. Shand, Adam. “The Wireless Commons Manifesto.” The Wireless Commons, 2003. https://www.sindominio.net/metabolik/ alephandria/txt/wirelesscommons.html. Shields, Open Wounds, and New Landscapes: An Artist’s Account of Creation, Stephanie Gervais “Achille Mbembe: ‘The Idea of a World Without Borders.’” YouTube. European Graduate School, February 10, 2019. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=fLRpH5RRwhQ. Anzaldúa Gloria. Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2012. Butler, Judith. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London: Verso, 2006. Butler, Judith, Zeynep Gambetti, and Leticia Sabsay, eds. Vulnerability in Resistance. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016. Gérard Kouchner, “Objets inanimés, avez-vous une âme?” Le quotidien du médecin, November 10, 2016. Glissant, Edouard. Introduction À Une poétique Du Divers. Paris: Gallimard, 2013. Mbembe, A. “Necropolitics.” Public Culture 15, no. 1 (2003): 11–40. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-15-1-11. Ristelhueber, Sophie. Accessed March 1, 2022. http://www.sophie-ristelhueber.fr/. Nobody’s Fool at Carnation Contemporary, Luiza Lukova “Artist Carrie Mae Weems on 30 Years of Genius [Interview] • Ebony.” EBONY, August 1, 2016. https://www.ebony.com/ entertainment/artist-carrie-mae-weems-on-30-years-of-genius-999/. “Nobody’s Fool: Curated by Ella Ray.” Carnation Contemporary, October 2021. https://www.carnationcontemporary.com/ Nobody-s-Fool-curated-by-Ella-Ray. Mutual Adaptation, Lumi Tan “Alex Tatarsky.” The Kitchen OnScreen. The Kitchen, October 2021. https://www.onscreen.thekitchen.org/alex-tatarsky. Brown, Kate. “‘We Have More Agency Than We Realize’: Serpentine Curator Lucia Pietroiusti on How the Art World Can Tackle Climate Change.” Artnet.com, July 16, 2019. https://www.news.artnet.com/ art-world/lucia-pietroiusti-serpentine-climate-change-1593163. Eastham, Ben. “Anna L. Tsing on Creating ‘Wonder in the Midst of Dread,’”ArtReview.com, November 29, 2021. https://www.artreview. com/anna-l-tsing-on-creating-wonder-in-the-midst-of-dread/. Parkes, Isabel. “Smells Like Burning,” Flash Art, April 22, 2020. https://www.flash---art.com/2020/04/smells-like-burning/. Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017. Greg Archuleta and Lifeways: Cultivating resilience through education, Steph Littlebird “Dawes Act.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, February 1, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Act. “Greg A Robinson.” Chinook Gallery. Accessed February 22, 2022. https://www.chinookgallery.com/index.php/about/. “Greg Archuleta: Plants Are Waiting to Return.” Confluence Project, May 13, 2020. https://www.confluenceproject.org/library-post/ greg-archuleta-plants-are-waiting-to-return/. Heuer, Friderike. “Exquisite Gorge 11: It’s a Print!” Oregon ArtsWatch, August 28, 2019. https://www.orartswatch.org/ exquisite-gorge-11-its-a-print/. Lewis, PhD, D., 2018. Lewis 2008, Termination of The Grand Ronde Tribe, Chapter 1. [online] QUARTUX. Available at: https://www.ndnhistoryresearch.com/2018/08/08/lewis-2008- termination-of-the-grand-ronde-tribe-chapter-1/ https://www.grandronde.org/history-culture/history/our-story/ https://www.grandronde.org/history-culture/history/our-story/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Oregon_Indian_Termination_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Oregon_Indian_Termination_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_ostoyae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Society https://sindominio.net/metabolik/alephandria/txt/wirelesscommons.html https://sindominio.net/metabolik/alephandria/txt/wirelesscommons.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLRpH5RRwhQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLRpH5RRwhQ https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-15-1-11 http://www.sophie-ristelhueber.fr/ https://www.ebony.com/entertainment/artist-carrie-mae-weems-on-30-years-of-genius-999/ https://www.ebony.com/entertainment/artist-carrie-mae-weems-on-30-years-of-genius-999/ https://carnationcontemporary.com/Nobody-s-Fool-curated-by-Ella-Ray https://carnationcontemporary.com/Nobody-s-Fool-curated-by-Ella-Ray https://onscreen.thekitchen.org/alex-tatarsky https://news.artnet.com/art-world/lucia-pietroiusti-serpentine-climate-change-1593163 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/lucia-pietroiusti-serpentine-climate-change-1593163 https://artreview.com/anna-l-tsing-on-creating-wonder-in-the-midst-of-dread/ https://artreview.com/anna-l-tsing-on-creating-wonder-in-the-midst-of-dread/ https://flash---art.com/2020/04/smells-like-burning/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Act https://chinookgallery.com/index.php/about/ https://www.confluenceproject.org/library-post/greg-archuleta-plants-are-waiting-to-return/ https://www.confluenceproject.org/library-post/greg-archuleta-plants-are-waiting-to-return/ https://www.orartswatch.org/exquisite-gorge-11-its-a-print/ https://www.orartswatch.org/exquisite-gorge-11-its-a-print/ https://ndnhistoryresearch.com/2018/08/08/lewis-2008-termination-of-the-grand-ronde-tribe-chapter-1/ https://ndnhistoryresearch.com/2018/08/08/lewis-2008-termination-of-the-grand-ronde-tribe-chapter-1/ Conditions 13 Bishop, Claire. “The Social Turn: Collaboration and Its Discontents.” The online edition of Artforum International Magazine, February 1, 2006. https://www.artforum.com/print/200602/ the-social-turn-collaboration-and-its-discontents-10274. Goldberg, Ariel. The Estrangement Principle. New York, NY: Nightboat Books, 2016. Ori Gallery. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.oriartgallery.com/. “Schemers, Scammers, & Subverters Symposium — Youtube.” Spencer Byrne-Seres, February 23, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ZLR0fc2NoX0. “Sharita Towne: On ‘Black Geography’ and Community Based Art in Portland.” Oregon Public Broadcasting, January 27, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31ADyHT-Qxo. Stevens, Melanie, and maximiliano martinez. “Nat Turner Project.” NAT TURNER PROJECT. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.natturnerproject.co/. “Stroll — No Human Involved.” Visitor Projects, November 2019. https://www.visitorprojects.studio/work/nhi. Wa Na Wari. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.wanawari.org/ about.html. “ZASD.” Urban Nation, February 24, 2021. https://urban-nation.com/ artist/zasd/. Patterns of Protest: Pat Boas and the Making of Sentinels, Prudence Roberts Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books, 2018. Lake, Randall A. “She Flies with Her Own Wings”: The Collected Speeches of Abigail Scott Duniway (1934–1915), October 7, 2011. https://www.asduniway.org/speeches/. Lynne Woods Turner: Process and Patience, Stephanie Snyder Cathcart, E. Odin. “A Meditation on Minimalism in a Hidden Art Sanctuary.” Hyperallergic. Accessed April 30, 2015. https://www.hyperallergic.com/203049/a-meditation-on- minimalism-in-a-hidden-art-sanctuary/. LeWitt, Sol. “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art.” The online edition of Artforum International Magazine, June 1, 1967. https://www.artforum.com/print/196706/paragraphs-on- conceptual-art-36719. Martin, Agnes, and Dieter Schwarz. Writings. Winterthur: Kunstmuseum Winterthur/Edition Cantz, 1991. Activist Art and the Poetics of Junk Mail, K. Silem Mohammad Hickey, Walt. “The Annoyance Engine: Spam Robocalls Became Profitable Scams by Exploiting the Phone System, but You Can Stop Them.” Business Insider, March 3, 2021. https://www.businessinsider. com/why-so-many-spam-robocalls-how-to-stop-them-2021-3. Kaur, Rupi. Instagram. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.instagram.com/rupikaur_/?hl=en. Kaur, Rupi. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.rupikaur.com/. Right 2 Dream Too. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.right2dreamtoo.blogspot.com/. Right 2 Survive. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.right2survive.org/projects. Spre@ding Rum0(u)rs. Accessed March 1, 2022. https://rumourcontent.tumblr.com/. No/And: Contemporary Conversations About Queer and Trans Art, Sara Jaffe Abioto, Intisar. “Black Mark, Black Legend.” Oregon Humanities, April 25, 2019. https://www.oregonhumanities.org/rll/ beyond-the-margins/black-mark-black-legend/. Abioto, Intisar. “The Black Portlanders.” Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.theblackportlanders.com/. Abreu, Manuel Arturo. “Embodying Survivance.” ARTnews.com, September 25, 2017. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/ features/embodying-survivance-63297/. Abreu, Manuel Arturo. Transtrender. Prospect Park, NJ: Quimérica Books, 2016. https://www.artforum.com/print/200602/the-social-turn-collaboration-and-its-discontents-10274 https://www.artforum.com/print/200602/the-social-turn-collaboration-and-its-discontents-10274 https://www.oriartgallery.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLR0fc2NoX0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLR0fc2NoX0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31ADyHT-Qxo https://www.natturnerproject.co/ https://www.visitorprojects.studio/work/nhi http://wanawari.org http://wanawari.org https://urban-nation.com/artist/zasd/ https://urban-nation.com/artist/zasd/ https://asduniway.org/speeches/ https://hyperallergic.com/203049/a-meditation-on-minimalism-in-a-hidden-art-sanctuary/ https://hyperallergic.com/203049/a-meditation-on-minimalism-in-a-hidden-art-sanctuary/ https://www.artforum.com/print/196706/paragraphs-on-conceptual-art-36719 https://www.artforum.com/print/196706/paragraphs-on-conceptual-art-36719 https://www.businessinsider.com/why-so-many-spam-robocalls-how-to-stop-them-2021-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/why-so-many-spam-robocalls-how-to-stop-them-2021-3 https://www.instagram.com/rupikaur_/?hl=en https://rupikaur.com/ http://www.right2dreamtoo.blogspot.com/ https://right2survive.org/projects https://rumourcontent.tumblr.com/ https://www.oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-the-margins/black-mark-black-legend/ https://www.oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-the-margins/black-mark-black-legend/ https://theblackportlanders.com/ https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/embodying-survivance-63297/ https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/embodying-survivance-63297/ Amelia Rina Conditions 15 In Sarah Farahat’s two projects, Palestine Then and Now (2009) and Towards the Setting Sun (2016 – ongoing), she gives us a view into four vastly different worlds. Her stories transport us through nearly 150 years, over 7,000 miles, and don’t necessarily have protagonists. Instead, the stories tell us about the specifics of place and time, and how certain people moved through those worlds—some freely, others not. Despite being made almost a decade apart, and without any inten- tional connections by Farahat, Palestine Then and Now and Towards the Setting Sun illustrate the artist’s decades-long interest in place, identity, and the many political factors that complicate each person’s life story. We’ll start at the beginning. Farahat’s grandparents moved to Ramallah in 1961, where her grandfather worked as a theologist and archeologist studying the recently-discovered Dead Sea Scrolls, and her grandmother worked as an English teacher. Farahat traveled to Palestine in 2009 and attempted to find the locations her grandfather photographed decades prior: Al-Manara Square, which is still a nexus in Ramallah; the exercise yard at the Friends Boys School; and the living room in her grandparent’s old house, for exam- ple. During a second trip to Palestine, Farahat was abruptly and inexplicably deported by the Israeli Defense Forces, barring her from reentering the region and making it impossible to complete the project. Palestine Then and Now consists of diptychs — Farahat’s grandfather’s and her own — that tell a story of presence and absence. Each of her grand- father’s images are full of people, whether it’s a crowded square, a grid of boys with arms outstretched on a blacktop, or smiling family in a holiday living room. In Farahat’s images, these spaces are sparsely populated, if not totally deserted. The schoolyard and Al-Manara Square have a few people moving through them, but nothing compared to the photographs taken in 1961. Farahat’s grandparents were living in a Palestine-controlled city, before the so-called Six-Day War in 1967, resulting in over 300,000 Palestinians fleeing or being expelled from their homes. 1967 marked a major expansion of Israel, occupying the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and most of the Syrian Golan Heights —  tripling the territory under Israel’s control. Today, with only fifteen 3 per- cent of the country’s original historic land controlled by Palestinians, the emptiness in the photographs reflects a region plagued by forced exile. 4 When trying to document an absent person or thing, you have to treat it like gravity. We can’t see gravity in the same way we see opaque objects that light bounces off of, but we can document its effects. Farahat’s pho- tographs document the gravitational pull of a decades-long, violent, and devastating occupation. The multimedia installation Towards the Setting Sun employs a similar tactic of identifying absences and presence to tell the story of colonialist expansion and occupation, this time in the US. First presented as her MFA thesis at California College of the Arts, Towards the Setting Sun combines photography, collaborative sculpture, sound, and text. At the center, there are two photographs. One, taken in 1878, shows nine women shin-deep in slow-moving water, heavy skirts hiked up to keep them dry. Two of the women stand on the river’s rocky edge, and one of them points a rifle out of the frame. The other image, taken in 2016, captures Farahat standing in the Yuba River in eastern Sacramento Valley, California, heavy skirt hiked up to keep it dry, eyes directed straight into the camera’s lens. Farahat told me that when she first came across the nineteenth- century photograph, she was immediately captivated by its strangeness. Who were these white women in some Kansas river, charged with agency “Do we have any better way to organize such wildly disparate experiences as a half-remembered crocodile, a dead great-aunt, the smell of coffee, a scream from Iran, a bumpy landing, and a hotel room in Cincinnati, than a narrative?—an immensely flexible technology, or life strategy, which if used with skill and resourcefulness presents each of us with the most fascinating of all serials, The Story of My Life.” —Ursula K. Le Guin1 In 1878, nine women stood in a river near Lawrence, Kansas. In 1961, Sarah Farahat’s grandfather took photographs of life in Ramallah, Palestine. Nearly fifty years later, Farahat retraced her grandfather’s steps and pho- tographed the same locations. In November of this year, I visited Farahat’s studio in Portland, OR, to hear her stories. I’ve been thinking about storytelling a lot recently. Who gets to tell stories, who gets to hear the stories, which ones do we remember, who are the main characters, and why? Ursula K. Le Guin has been a sort of guiding light for me in this line of questioning — a journey to uncover narratives other than what she describes as “the Story of the Ascent of Man the Hero.” Like Le Guin, I think we deserve something more nuanced, meandering, sticky, and true.2 If yet another man — either underdog or demigod — goes on a journey, overcomes a challenge, con- quers a foe, gets the girl, and enters the annals of heroic history, what can we learn? What’s the difference between Theseus, Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, or Harry Potter? Not a lot. Instead of these neat and tidy stories (which, admittedly, can contain a lot of exciting events), I want to know about the peripheral characters, the ones mentioned in passing or not even mentioned at all. Retelling Stories: Sarah Farahat’s Palestine Then and Now and Towards the Setting Sun Amelia Rina Retelling Stories: Sarah Farahat’s Palestine Then and Now and Towards the Setting Sun Amelia Rina Amelia Rina Conditions 17 and independence, during a time when women had far less than today? What is that one woman doing—the one walking across the frame, her face blurred by her movement, with a long, thin stick in her hand, prodding the water? That stick threw Farahat down a rabbit hole of water divination and other explanations for the woman’s actions, rendered inexplicable by their petrification. Speaking across more than a century, that woman asked Farahat: Where do we go now? She answered with a short fantasy installed as a wall text in Towards the Setting Sun: I followed her, wading carefully. The water was cold but not unpleasant. Her eyes were closed, as if in a trance. Holding a long willow stick, she swayed this way and that, pulled by a force that seemed not quite her own. I wondered if she could do it, if she could find the way. It felt so hazy, as if what I knew to be true one day would almost surely be upset the next. I stumbled, jamming my toe on a rock. The water was deeper now and gravity seemed to loosen its grip. As the water reached my belly, she became more transparent. What I thought was a stick started to look a lot like a thin scratch on a negative. Shivering, I reached out to her shoulder for support but found only filmy grasses that slipped gently out of my hand. The story connects the nineteenth century photograph to its sister on the opposing wall: a black and white image of Farahat standing alone in the Yuba River. James Boucher Shane, Group of women in creek with woman pointing rifle, approxi- mately 1870 – 1923. Silver gelatin print. Courtesy Shane-Thompson Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Sarah Farahat, Installation view showing Diviner, 2016. Graphite on wall; and James Boucher Shane, Group of women in creek with woman pointing rifle, approxi- mately 1870–1923. Silver gelatin print. Courtesy Shane-Thompson Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. Sarah Farahat use: Kansas River, Lawrence, Kansas, Kansas Land, 1878. Sarah Farahat, Self-Portrait, Yuba River, Yuba Goldfields, California, Nisenan Land, 2015. Archival pigment print, 44 × 66 in. (Photo: Kristine Eudey) Amelia Rina Conditions 19 Sarah Farahat, Friends Boys School, Ramallah, 2009. Archival pigment print, 101/2 × 7 in. Sarah Farahat, Al-Manara Square, Ramallah, 2009. Archival pigment print, 101/2 × 7 in. David Wieand, Friends Boys School, Ramallah, 1962. Archival pigment print, 101/2 × 7 in. David Wieand, Al-Manara Square, Ramallah, 1962. Archival pigment print, 101/2 × 7 in. Amelia Rina Conditions 21 you have respect for your surroundings just like you would any person.” You can’t think of a place, a stream, a forest, or prairie as a being with the right to thrive, and then credulously destroy it. Just like you can’t hurt your loved ones without at least a bit of internal turmoil. So why is it so easy to disregard (I don’t want to use the word dehumanize here, because forests and rivers shouldn’t need to be humanized to be respected) place? If Farahat’s stories have a moral, it’s that we should pay close attention to the places we’re in, where we’ve been, and where we’re going. We should pay attention to which characters — human and nonhuman ani- mals as well as earthly entities — are missing or overstaying their welcome. Farahat describes Towards the Setting Sun as an ongoing project, but not in the sense that the original photographs and texts will be exhibited again. Instead, Farahat continues to pursue the project’s themes and inquires through her activist and artistic work via organizations like the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and her project Land Back Land Forward Partnership, a website working to connect landowners with Indigenous communities to facilitate land access or transferring of property rights. 7, 8 Through Palestine Then and Now, Towards the Setting Sun, and all her work, Farahat shows us how to build relationship with a place. In each action, she asks herself and others: where do we go from here? “Building a relationship is the foundation of understanding an area,” says Sul, “and the deeper the understanding of and the relationship with a particular area is, within a person, the easier it is to try to figure out what to do next.” Attuned to deeper narrative currents and broader sociocultural significance, Farahat navigated her photographic fasci- nation toward an investigation of western colonial expansion. In the 1800s, Kansas was a hub for settlers moving West. The .44 caliber rifle one of the women is holding had just been invented, along with barbed wire. By the end of the century, the Gold Rush had already hit California so hard that thousands of acres of land had been destroyed by mining operations. Farahat chose the location for her self-portrait because of its environmental significance; in 1893, the river had to be dredged to mitigate environmental disaster caused by overmining. Of course, the environ- ment wasn’t the only one to suffer from US colonialism. Farahat collabo- ratively expands Towards the Setting Sun by including contributions from Charlene Sul and Tomahawk GreyEyes as a way to challenge the siloed nature of solo exhibitions and the lack of collaboration in graduate pro- grams. 5 GreyEyes, an artist from the Navajo Nation, and Farahat were in the same cohort at CCA. Farahat included a Diné medicine wheel offering to the spring equinox made by GreyEyes as a gesture toward land sharing and inter-tribal solidarity. Charlene Eigen-Vasquez, a local Ohlone tribal elder, talks about the importance of place and healing in an excerpt from an interview conducted by the Earth Medicine Alliance in 2011. The two additions allowed the project to look beyond itself and consider both the broader and hyperlocal implications of the ideas addressed in Towards the Setting Sun. 6 “Why is place so important?” asks Sul in the audio recording. “Place is so important because if you believe that everything is living, then Sarah Farahat, Swift House, Ramallah, 2009. Archival pigment print, 101/2 × 7 in. David Wieand, Swift House, Ramallah, 1961. Archival pigment print, 101/2 × 7 in. Amelia Rina Conditions 23 1 Ursula K. Le Guin, “Some Thoughts on Narrative,” in Dancing at the End of the World (New York: Grove Press, 1989) 2 Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction,” in Dancing at the End of the World (New York: Grove Press, 1989) 3 “Israel’s borders explained in maps,” BBC, September 16, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world- middle-east-54116567 4 Mohammed Haddad, “Mapping Israeli Occupation,” Al-Jazeera, May 18, 2021, https://www.aljazeera.com/ news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine 5 https://www.tomahawkgreyeyes.com/ 6 Earth Medicine Alliance, “Importance of Place; Working with Spirits of Place; Advice for the Younger Generations,” August 23, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9lreuQ1IV0 7 https://www.justseeds.org 8 https://www.landbacklandforward.com Amelia Rina is a writer, critic, and editor based in Portland, OR, on the unceded territories of the Clackamas, Cowlitz, and many other Tribes along the Wimahl (Columbia) and Whilamut (Willamette) rivers. She is the founder of Variable West. Sarah Farahat, Day of Rage, -Digital down .2020 ,بضغلا موي loadable graphic, 81/2 × 11 in., justseeds.org Sarah Farahat, Land Day -Digital down .2021 ,ضرالا موي loadable graphic, 16 × 16 in., https://justseeds.org/ Sarah Farahat, Everybody’s Got a Right to Live, 2020. Screen print two colors on Speckletone White French paper unsigned open edition, 121/2 × 18 in. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9lreuQ1IV0 https://justseeds.org/ https://www.landbacklandforward.com https://justseeds.org/ Laura Hughes Conditions 25 What is alt text? Alt text is a form of description for digital images embedded in websites, social media, and digital documents like eBooks, PDFs, and Google Docs. It is an alternative to the image itself and by necessity must be brief (like 125 characters brief). It is the text one sees when an image hasn’t loaded, or, when using a screen reader, the text that exists in place of the image. In most cases, however, alt text lives as an attribute within html and remains invisible. The existence and effec- tiveness of alt text can dramatically change the reading experience for a person with vision impairment. In the best case, a well-described image (i.e., an image with good alt text) can add an important layer of meaning to the artwork. In the worst case, it becomes a disruptive chunk of nonsense, a repeated caption, or a void. The Americans with Disabilities Act, passed into law in 1990, requires that “places of public accommodation” are accessible to all, regardless of disability status.2 Later in 1999, after a number of lawsuits led the Department of Justice to clarify that the internet is indeed a “place of public accommodation,” the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defined guidelines for accessibility.3 The very first guideline states that websites must “provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content,” e.g., alt text.4 And yet it wasn’t until 2018 or 2019 that I had ever heard of alt text. As a sighted person without a background in web design, and a tween when the W3C was formed, maybe this is not so unusual. Then again, as someone who maintains an image-heavy website, is a regular user of multiple social media platforms, a co-organizer of a non-profit exhibi- tion space, and a person who has been teaching at public institutions for six years, it felt pretty shameful. At about the same time that I received my first accessibility training for course materials as a college educator, I noticed image descriptions popping up in Instagram captions as well as little red dials situated next to images on my course websites. The little dial is part of a web acces- sibility checker plug-in called Ally, and it stays red until alt text is added, after which it turns green (regardless of the effectiveness of the alt text’s content). Dionna Camp, Accessible Technology Specialist at Linn-Benton Community College, assures me that I am not imagining the sudden emphasis on alt text. Around 2018, the issue of course accessibility started to become widely discussed within the faculty at Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC). Around this time the accessibility tracker was added to the LBCC course platform. Camp is also quick to remind me that alt text is not the only measure needed for making text accessible for those using screen readers, but that reading order (the way a document is tagged using headings) is just as important. Cody Hurst is a LBCC alumnus and an accessible technology specialist working with Portland Community College (PCC). Hurst uses a screen reader, and reassures me that the 125-character restriction is not a technical limit, but something akin to a strong suggestion. Sure, it’s good to be concise but it’s better just to communicate what needs to be said— standards and guidelines vary. MCA Chicago recommends as few as thirty words for alt text. Other art faculty I’ve spoken with around the state are equally mystified by the lack of conversation about alt text and visual art education. I’ve been asked by some college university accessibility departments whether blind or partially sighted students are interested in Where it started: Sometime in 2018, about twenty minutes before teaching my Introduction to Drawing class, I found myself facing a page on the course website containing twenty images with little red dials in the bottom corners. The red dials indicated that the images were missing “alt text” —  descriptions that replace images when a person is using a screen reader. These particular images exemplified qualities of line and composition; they included drawings by David Hockney, Toba Khedoori, as well as student work. As I began to add alt text to the images, I found that the field for entering the alt text limited me to 125 characters. (There are almost 200 characters in the first sentence of this paragraph!) Beyond the enforced brevity, I felt an immense responsibility to the reader, and to the artwork itself, to write effective descriptions. As someone educated to be suspi- cious of claims to objectivity, I spend a significant amount of time not telling students what to see in works of art so that they build trust in their own vision. So how could I justify describing anything in 125 characters? How could I begin to describe the particular kind of sensitivity, or energy, or ferocity observable in any one drawing (or line!) so to inspire a sense of possibility in someone else tasked with making a drawing? How it’s going: To try and understand how to write effective image descriptions, I dug into any guidelines or writing I could find on the topic. Notably, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and New York’s Cooper Hewitt museum are leading the way with the most thorough guidelines for alt text readily available online.1 I’ve also had conversations with numer- ous web accessibility experts from institutions across Oregon — conver- sations that led down rabbit holes with people who’ve had quite diverse experiences thinking about, and creating access, on the internet. 24Hard to Describe: Alt Text and Artworks Laura Hughes Hard to Describe: Alt Text and Artworks Laura Hughes Laura Hughes Conditions 27 This relates to the idea within disability studies and activism that people with disabilities are to be “cared for” or are a certain special class of people. Instead, we might look at someone who is blind or partially sighted as part of an average — and that a sighted person may at any point experi- ence temporary vision impairment due to eye strain, bright light, or injury. A rule of thumb I’ve encountered frequently in alt text guidelines, and a short answer to my 125-character problem is that, if there is that much to say about an image, then it should not be said in the alt text. Perhaps that big idea about the beauty of a drawing, if it is important enough to express, should be stated on the slide, on the website, or in the essay. Georgina Kleege compares this framing to a wheelchair ramp that is “originally intended to provide access to people using wheelchairs and other mobility devices can now be under- stood to serve anyone, disabled or not, who uses a conveyance on wheels such as a baby stroller, wheeled suitcase, or skateboard.” 8 But there are precedents for major, all-at-once overhaul efforts. Kaela Parks, Director of Disability Services at Portland Community College, described a 2015 collaboration with PCC’s Art History faculty to make an entire course’s lectures accessible to students with low vision. She described a process that blew my mind. The college’s disability ser- vices department hired a student worker who was instructed by a faculty member to add alt text to their course’s images. The faculty member then edited the alt text, which was then evaluated by a variety of “end users.” There was also a tactile component: producing 3D prints and raised-line images of visual concepts. Like the wheelchair ramp, this was likely useful to all students. In the end, Parks told me that the group determined the time and energy needed for this kind of overhaul was just not practical, and that hiring a live describer to aid a student with low vision on a case-by-case basis would be more efficient and result in a higher quality outcome. The willingness to try, to put so much effort behind this kind of experiment, and to reevaluate alt text based on feedback from end users seemed so radical to me. Again, in part, it comes back to how well- resourced a department might be, though there are lessons that can be applied: there is no single fixed solution to any accessibility issue, and open communication is key. As one of PCC’s contracted “end users,” Cody Hurst is part of a diverse group giving feedback on course materials, accessibility strat- egies, and new technologies. Hurst’s degree is in Network Systems, and while he was happy to answer my questions about alt text, he was far more excited to talk about some digital tools he’d reviewed recently. “I’m interested in finding these different, more obscure tools and methods of approaching something that isn’t traditionally accessible. I think that’s where we need to take this accessibility field because to a large degree, we’re still stuck in the 1990s.” 9 Recently, Hurst had been looking at the open-source software Aria Tree Walker as a solution for adding alt text to vector graphics.10 As I understand it, the software gives vector images the ability to be interactive. A reader can access broad information about taking visual art courses. I have not personally had a student with signif- icant vision impairment in my classes. Still, I fear that their absence is a self-fulfilling prophecy, with advisors likely steering away visually impaired students who might otherwise be interested in studio art. If art classes are not designed with blind and partially sighted students in mind, why would they want to take them? This, in turn, generates a lack of perceived interest, and disincentivizes overextended instructors from making their courses accessible. This brings up much larger questions. Who do we assume art is for? In More Than Meets the Eye, on the intersection of art and blindness, Professor Georgina Kleege hopes that “others can extrapolate from this example of blind people and visual art to examine other cases of cultural marginalization.” 5 Kleege’s introduction compels us to address the responsibility we have as curators, educators, writers, and general content producers to ask who we expect our audience to be, who we are welcoming, and who is being marginalized. At the moment I write this, my Instagram account, personal website, and web presence of the exhibition space I am part of, do not contain comprehensive alt text—and yet the more I learn about access, the more evident it is to me that urgent changes must be made. Here we are at the meeting of the under-resourced cultural produc- ers, adjunct faculty, community colleges, artist-run-spaces, etc. with their enormous backlog of undescribed images. Even larger cultural institutions have a difficult time climbing this hill. Emma Ganger-Spivak, in her 2021 Reed College thesis: A Poetics of Description: Alt text and The Museum, is sharply critical of the (perhaps cynical) motives an institution may have for announcing their moves toward access. “The fact of its invisibility to most people means that past examples of image description programs have been largely forgotten, and along with them museums’ commitments to the practices themselves with little accountability. While you might expect that art museums would widely publicize such inclusion efforts, as they indeed publicize other access programs for blind visitors such as touch tours, alt text largely falls by the wayside.” 6 Still, this is most certainly an issue of bandwidth and financial resources. Funders like to see money go toward a big new project, and rarely to operating costs and maintenance. In other words, how do you raise money for something that is invisible? While in Oregon there is some funding available for arts spaces to improve accessibility, it is usually project-based support.7 In a wide-reaching, big picture conversation I had with Megan McFarland from Portland State University’s Office of Academic Innovation, McFarland talked about the issue of “capacity building” — that an overhaul of a course or an organization’s website might not be in reach right now, but one accessible image is better than none. I’m encouraged by this, and continue to enter alt text for every new image I add to my courses, even though I know this is not nearly enough should a person with low vision enter one of my courses tomorrow. McFarland talked about how we, as educators, build in access to everything we share all the time, and that it’s just a matter of who we imagine our audience to be. McFarland used the example of twelve-point type. Educators use twelve-point type because they’re imagining a perceived “average” reader. They seem to know, intui- tively, that twelve-point type is easy for most people to read and is gener- ally larger than the type used in most printed books. McFarland believes that if we shift our idea of what “average” is, it becomes easier to shift our perceptions and our habits. A rule of thumb I’ve encountered frequently in alt text guidelines, and a short answer to my 125-character problem is that, if there is that much to say about an image, then it should not be said in the alt text. Laura Hughes Conditions 29 communication can be found on Alt Text as Poetry and discussed in depth in the final chapter of More than Meets the Eye.13 What follows is my own exercise in writing alt text as a functional process as well as generative writing experiment. Some text was gener- ously contributed by artist-friends bekí basch and Brian Hagermann. In the spirit of Alt Text as Poetry, and following various guidelines I’ve come across, I’ve written alt text for five artworks from the collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene. The artworks were chosen because in one way or another they are difficult to describe. Each artwork is preceded by lists of potential alt text descriptions. While there is only one alt text entry that is associated with any given image (in any particular situation), there is no definitive alt text for an artwork—alt text is always context dependent. My alt text descrip- tions were written over multiple weeks as I imagined different contexts and had informal conversations with the people around me. 1 “MCA Guidelines for Describing” (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago), accessed December 5, 2021, https://live.coyote.pics/support; “Cooper Hewitt Guidelines for Image Description” (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum), accessed August 23, 2021, https://www.cooperhewitt.org/cooper-hewitt- guidelines-for-image-description/. 2 “An Overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act” (ADA National Network), accessed 2017, https://www.adata.org/factsheet/ADA-overview. 3 “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities and Public Accommodations” (United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division), accessed December 12, 2012, https://www.ada.gov/anprm2010/web%20 anprm_2010.htm. 4 Web content accessibility guidelines 1.0 (World Wide Web Consortium), accessed December 5, 2021, https://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/#gl-provide-equivalents. 5 Georgina Kleege, More than Meets the Eye: What Blindness Brings to Art (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 13. 6 Ganger-Spivak, Emma. “A Poetics of Description: Alt Text and The Museum,” 2021. 33 7 Access Reimbursement | Oregon Arts Commission (Oregon Arts Commission), accessed December 5, 2021, https://www.oregonartscommission.org/grants/access-reimbursement. 8 Kleege, 99 9 Hurst, Cody. Personal Conversation, November 11, 2021. 10 Krautzource, “Aria-Tree-Walker: A Lightweight Walker for Labeled Aria Trees,” GitHub (krautzource), accessed December 17, 2021, https://github.com/krautzource/aria-tree-walker. 11 Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan, Alt Text as Poetry, accessed June 2020, https://www.alt-text-as-poetry.net/. 12 Kleege, 60–66 13 Kleege 122–146 14 “Alternative Text,” WebAIM (Institute for Disability Research, Policy, and Practice at Utah State University, 2021), https://www.webaim.org/techniques/alttext/#context. Laura Butler Hughes is an artist living in Eugene, OR by way of Buffalo, NY and Baltimore, MD. Through diverse research and production methods [drawing, writing, bookmaking, garbage archiving, butter sculpting] she wonders what it means for all of us to live and die together, right now, in this present moment. Hughes has been an artist member at Ditch Projects artist-run gallery in Springfield, OR since 2016, curating a number of exhibitions there, including QUILT BLOC, a collaboration with the Springfield History Museum and artist Krista Raasch, exhibiting historical quilts alongside contemporary artists. All images courtesy the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon. Special thanks to Danielle Knapp, McCosh Curator, and Jonathan Smith, ​​Museum Photographer/Rights & Reproductions. the image in the alt text with the option to click around and explore the image in more detail. As someone who understands both back-end imple- mentation as well as front-end functionality, Hurst grasps the potential of this open-source software. Perhaps not originally intended for complex images of artworks, and impractical in many situations, the possibilities of new technologies are exciting and have me feeling less beholden to, and restricted by, alt text’s 125-character text field. Lastly, I want to share the most useful tool I’ve found for writing alt text. Alt Text as Poetry is a project by disabled artists and activists Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan. It’s a website, a workbook, and a series of workshops.11 As the name suggests, the project encourages users to approach alt text as a creative form. “Instead of focusing on compliance and doing the minimum, what if we approach access creatively and gen- erously, centering disability culture? How do we make spaces and experi- ences that people with disabilities not only can access but want to access?” Coklyat and Finnegan encourage looking toward poetry’s careful attention to language, word economy, and experimentation, though never at the expense of web accessibility. They give examples of effective alt text that is personal, evocative, and funny — even promoting the use of different voices in different contexts (e.g., the alt text you write in an institutional context is not the same as the alt text you add to your social media feed). Alt Text as Poetry’s website and workbook are dense with information, and include helpful tools and links to other disability advocates in the arts. Their writing is everything they encourage in their workshops; it is concise and approachable. I recommend that anyone reading this immediately visit their website: https://www.alt-text-as-poetry.net/. There are inherent challenges that visual art comes up against in terms of access, but there are also unique opportunities. Art is social. While viewing/making/writing about art is typically a solitary activity, none of it happens in a vacuum, or without a community of others doing the same. I have heard of multiple exercises in which writing image descrip- tions becomes a generative activity in a classroom or museum program- ming. Georgina Kleege discusses a guided museum tour at MoMA in which she had been given access to handle a number of artworks. The docent was there to guide her through the galleries and provide visual description, while through her handling of the artworks Kleege was able to provide a tactile descrip- tion to the docent who was not able to touch the work, and so the conver- sation became a reciprocal exchange rather than a one- sided handing-down of knowledge.12 Art, in the best case, is also challeng- ing. We are used to asking questions in order to stretch boundaries. There are many artists who center these questions of access and ability, such as Coklyat and Finnegan as well as Canadian artist Carmen Papalia. A won- derful list of other artists working at the intersection of disability, art, and There are inherent challenges that visual art comes up against in terms of access, but there are also unique opportunities. Art is social. While viewing/making/writing about art is typically a solitary activity, none of it happens in a vacuum, or without a community of others doing the same. https://live.coyote.pics/support https://www.cooperhewitt.org/cooper-hewitt-guidelines-for-image-description/ https://www.cooperhewitt.org/cooper-hewitt-guidelines-for-image-description/ https://adata.org/factsheet/ADA-overview https://www.ada.gov/anprm2010/web%20anprm_2010.htm https://www.ada.gov/anprm2010/web%20anprm_2010.htm https://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/#gl-provide-equivalents https://www.oregonartscommission.org/grants/access-reimbursement https://github.com/krautzource/aria-tree-walker https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/ https://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/#context https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/ Laura Hughes Conditions 31 A line drawing of a scratched-out face. A drawing of a bald person with a large, pointed nose, wide-set eyes, and red lips. A sparse drawing of a clown. A charcoal drawing of a face with quick red, blue, and yellow marks, centered on almost- square ivory paper. An energetic drawing of a face made with scratchy black lines and smudges of red, blue, and yellow pastel. A color and graphite drawing of a face overlaid by loosely rendered graphite [or pencil] lines. A portrait, centered on white paper, with features blurred by quickly scratched and smeared charcoal and pastel. There is a ruffled collar and one line that suggests a shoulder. A portrait of a person with no hair that looks as if they are being drawn while in motion. A drawing of a distorted face with strange proportions made with scribbled charcoal lines and primary colors. A drawing of a face with a sharp pointed nose, wide dark eyes, scarlet lips, rosy cheeks, and a bright blue mark above one eye. There is a suggestion of glasses and a flat-brimmed hat amidst quickly hatched lines. On a field of white, a human face is expres- sively rendered in minimal strokes of graph- ite. Its exaggerated features are imprecisely distributed and covered in light scribbles of black, red, blue, and yellow. A landscape-oriented drawing on cream col- ored paper. It is a simplistic line drawing of an abstract face with color smudges and swipes. Rick Bartow (American, Mad River Wiyot, 1946–2016), Untitled, n.d. Graphite on paper, 8 1/2 × 10 1/2  in. Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon. Gift of Rick Bartow and Froelick Gallery. Accession no: 2016:4.17 An abstract beach scene with birds, sand, and dried grass. A tangle of swooping brushstrokes in a vari- ety of yellows from pale to gold fill the center of the composition layered over washy pinks, tans, and grays. There are shapes suggestive of birds. An abstract beach scene coming in and out of focus with expressive brush strokes. From afar it appears yellow and tan, punctuated with green and black. Upon closer inspection, it resembles a bird with orange wings, maybe sand dunes, maybe a dog or a fence. An abstract landscape of swirling, interweav- ing yellow strokes run through abrupt marks and shapes of orange, green, white, and black on a rosy beige canvas. A landscape-oriented abstract painting with experimental marks of wide-ranging vari- ety. There is a central cluster of yellow and orange noodle shapes. Peach background. Light colors and black flecks. David McCosh (American, 1903–81), Beach Things, 1951. Acrylic on paper, 10 3/4 × 14  in. Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon. Virginia Haseltine Collection of Pacific Northwest Art. Accession no: 1975:3.3 Laura Hughes Conditions 33 A tilted soft grey rectangle with large visible brushstrokes streaked across the canvas. The rectangle appears transparent over a deep black background. Blurred overlapping rectangles give the appearance of reflected light. A painting of light reflected through a window filling a tall rectangular canvas. Inside a framing band of black, a pair of gray, heavily textured, superimposed rectangles — one slightly askew of the other — is sparsely covered in superficial, sand-colored, dry brushstrokes. Wispy-edged rectangular surface of rich black handmade paper with a stonelike rub- bing or painting in its center. It is grayscale with hilights of very light pink and gold. An abstract black sculpture with a rough tex- ture made of three conjoined organic forms. Two large lung-like shapes joined to a small base. Two sail-like black shapes are held off of the ground by a small stool of the same material. One sail has a small hole punched through. The sail shapes are joined toward the top creating a distinctive negative space between the two. The entire sculpture has an uneven jagged texture and a black patina. An imposing black abstract sculpture, heavy at the top with small feet at the base. A thick, flat, roughly bell-shaped slab of asymmetrical, abstract blackened bronze sits vertically atop a comparatively tiny, two-legged base. Its surface evokes a rough cliff face, with one large and one very small void at the center. An abstract, rough-textured, hand built sculpture cast in bronze. It is dark in color and resembles human ribs or lungs. Carl Morris (American, 1911–93), Turning Light, 1960. Gouache on paper, 21 1/2 × 29 1/2  in. Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon. Gift of Mrs. Jacob Kainen. Accession no: 1969:24 Hilda Morris (American, 1911–91), Turning, 1978. Bronze, 36 1/4 × 29 in. (approx.) Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon. Gift of the Artist, Friends, and Family of Harry Alpert (1912–1977). Accession no: 1980:12. A face sculpted into a wide rectangle with soft edges sits atop a pedestal that tapers toward the top in a wobbly sort of way. A flattened face with pinched edges rests on a platform as tall as the face is wide. A judgmental face roughly modeled into clay. A face formed from clay like a mud pie with eyes punched all the way through by a finger- tip. One eye is perfectly round, and another is squashed in such a way that the eye seems set into its socket. A face that has holes for eyes, a small, pinched nose, and a wide mouth that turns downward slightly in an uncertain expression. A wide irregular shape with evidence of finger pinches at the edges sitting atop a column. A face is modeled into a wider shape with a drippy ring of silver encircling the face, other drop of silver just below the lip. A wide rectangular face sits atop a tall, thin rectangle. The face has a wide mouth and round holes for eyes. A sarcastic looking face formed from clay. A flat, wide, earth-colored mask sits a top a tall, narrow plinth of the same material. Along with holes for eyes and a broad nose, a thin wide mouth in an almost-frown completes the face, which is ringed by a silver line. A rough-textured tabletop sculpture of a crude, childlike mushroom shaped bust. It has asymmetrical eye holes, straight through a flattened head. Betty Feves (American, 1918–85), Self-portrait, 1964. Terra-cotta, 17 × 15 in. Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon. Gift of the Friends of the Museum/ Accession no: 1965:1.2 Luiza Lukova Conditions 35 and the resulting exhibition, Ray poses the question of “What would you amplify, glitch, flip, process, retract, or destroy to make it to the otherside?” The “otherside” here is malleable — at its crux it demonstrates a realm where these makers are addressing similar concepts and working toward different articulations of that dream space.  Entering the gallery, viewers first come across a GoldStar television placed on a short white pedestal, playing a video that seems to be aglow with bright neon colors and moving bodies. The only noise heard is the soundscape created by the echo of the work. The installation, cavity, by ariella tai (they/them), is a five-minute, looped film that tai has dubbed “a deadly siren song.” Audiences may be lured with a sense of familiarity given the material: existing media of Black performances from film, video, and television. Closer inspection reveals that the material is queered and is meant to subvert and dissect the original cinematic intention. The scenes on the screen shift rapidly unlike a traditional film. At first the dig- ital video is washed in deeply textured blue, lines running across the face on the screen, only to shift into a bright pixelated purple that, haltingly, fills only the bottom half of the screen. The images expand and retract, depicting at times multiple frames within the larger material one, and are consistently manipulated in some manner. Among others, we see the characters of Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) in “Scandal” and the vam- piress Queen Akasha (Aaliyah) in “Queen of the Damned.” The characters act as heralds desirous of power, autonomy, frenzy, and answers. tai constructs an arena for their retribution, the possibility to exist beyond the limita- tions of their characters. cavity seems to imply a gap, a depression, a void to Nobody’s Fool, curated by art historian, cultural worker, and writer Ella Ray (she/they), opened at Carnation Contemporary on Saturday, October 23, 2021. The exhibition presents six contemporary artists whose work centers on each apex of the imagination of Black alternative realities. These real- ities depend on artists being afforded the opportunity to operate outside of racially charged and capitalistic systems. Weaving together a multitude of media, the pieces on view coalesce to map out a framework for working beyond their present conditions. No other field than that of the (canonical) visual arts is more his- torically (and precariously) steeped in the trope of the white (male) artist. There exists an inherent tension in acknowledging that tearing down this model and building a new one might not be the domain of museums and galleries as we currently understand them. The art world cannot ade- quately function for artists of color when its very system is built off of an existing world of theft and anti-Blackness. To this effect, and what it means in terms of gaze and engagement, Ray tells me the execution of the show felt even more weighted. She notes, “While the portals, loopholes, maps, visions, and dreams created by these artists are technically on dis- play for whomever is in the gallery, each work is speaking very specifically to Black participants. Knowing that the invitation to envision oneself in these futures and alternative realities is not extended to all audience mem- bers, space becomes less important.”  What feels uncompromising about this group exhibition is the way in which the artists have attempted to move beyond the white-walled room and the socio/cultural/systemic parameters it imposes. Here the work shifts expectations and aims to construct a new narrative that seeks to become the norm. As the focal point in the curator’s selection of artists Nobody’s Fool at Carnation Contemporary Luiza Lukova Installation view. Nobody’s Fool, Carnation Contemporary, 2021. (Photo: Luiza Lukova) 34“Nobody’s Fool” at Carnation Contemporary Luiza Lukova https://carnationcontemporary.com/Nobody-s-Fool-curated-by-Ella-Ray https://carnationcontemporary.com/ Luiza Lukova Conditions 37 be filled only by re-conceptualizing an entire pantheon of Black characters. Artists Mariah Green (they/them) and Nia Musiba (she/her) employ paint as their primary medium. In We Are Not One Hundred Percent Ourselves, Musiba uses vivid green and red colors to delineate the background from her figures, which are rendered in a smooth black and a textured off-white. The figures feature larger-than- life hands and bodies that contrast with small heads but are somehow humanizing nonetheless. Musiba presents bodies that could exist in sur- rogate spaces, free from homogeneity. There is levity in this type of play where bodies are fluid and averse to hyper-penetrative conventions.  In turn, Green eschews color, favoring solely black and white oils to depict their canvases as possible vehicles toward Blackness, expanding on the topics of Afrofuturism, transportation, and the “otherside.” THE FOLD / THE ROOK doubles as an image of a face and a wormhole. In the lower right hand corner, three wisping shapes appear almost as eyes with a pupil in the center, as if already possessing the ability to see the nearing of a tangible future. As an interpretative solution to the reality of space and time, viewers can speculate transcending this plane and accelerating forward to new horizons. Viewing these works becomes the first step in the process of moving past. Carrie Mae Weems said: “Art is the one place we all turn to for solace.” For multidisciplinary artist Azha Ayanna Luckman (she/her), solace is found in the deeply intimate and candid moments she captures with her camera. Black Cherry Reprise and I am called back into myself are large-scale prints of medium-format self-portraits shot by the artist in 2021 and 2020, respectively. In the image on the left, Luckman gazes directly into the camera, a towel wrapped around her freshly-dyed, cherry red hair. In the image on the right, she looks away and into the light, giving us a view of her left profile with a shaved head. The ritual of changing one’s appearance is akin to shape-shifting, becoming grounded in a moment of transformation. With these two self-portraits, Luckman allows herself to be observed in two moments of revolution. While the body fluctuates and adapts, that which the lens captures remains and solidifies the becoming. On either side of the parallel walls of the gallery are linocut and intaglio prints by artist, writer, and educator Melanie Stevens (she/her). Emphasizing storytelling at the core, these smaller framed pieces offer concentrated windows into this practice. Pushing against false narratives which supposedly center the African diaspora, Stevens sheds light on their harmful nature by juxtaposing and empowering her own reinterpretation of history. The Fire Inside mirrors tai’s cavity in its intensity and rage. The figure in the right foreground holds a lit torch while a fire in the back- ground blazes through a large, plantation-style home. Through Stevens’s meticulous linework, we can almost see the flames flickering intensely. Speculative fiction can serve to sublimate the rest of our understanding of the setting. We are confronted with the image of how literal the fire inside this character has manifested itself; here it liberates and storms freely.  The violent chaos of white colonizer history has consumed and directed patterns of contemporary history making since the beginning of recordkeeping. Those who are not subsumed in these violent acts or prej- udiced against them as a result are left to wonder how to effectively deal Mariah Green, THE FOLD /  THE ROOK (2021) and X.1 (2021), Oil on canvas, 30 × 30 in. and 30 × 30 in. (Photo: Luiza Lukova) Azha Ayanna Luckman, Black Cherry Reprise (2021) and I am called back into myself (2020), 120 mm, 30 × 40 in. and 16 × 20 in.   (Photo: Luiza Lukova) Luiza Lukova Conditions 39 Luiza Lukova is a visual arts writer, poet, and curator. She is an art historian with an academic background in Postmodern Art History and Literature. She is the co-founder of homebase, a non-traditional backyard gallery space in Southeast Portland. Her other critical writing can be found at Art Practical, Art & About PDX, 60 Inch Center, and other journals. Born in Bulgaria, she is currently living and working in Portland, Oregon. This writing was commissioned for and originally published by Oregon ArtsWatch November 4, 2021 with this knowledge. Through serigraphy, artist and educator Kendyl Boyd (she/her) presents images interlaced with text that prompt audiences to engage with themselves and their lived experiences. Her two pieces are shown in tandem and offer love, commu- nity, and understanding as reparative discourse. The text printed on both canvases is open, an interrogative: “What does love look like?” Its repeti- tion conveys an urgency to engage, printed twice, once in red and once in blue and etched in the lower right hand corner of each work. In turn, one iteration of the same image is presented on each canvas, again in red and blue and diagonal from the question. The image in turn appears closed, enduring. From the artist statement we gather it is a photograph of the art- ist’s parents taken in the early days of their relationship. The in-between expanse from photo to present, and all that that time encompasses, is what visitors are meant to face. The simple phrase holds the weight of a univer- sal relationship far heavier than that of just Boyd’s parents. As Ray tells me, “The works feel like a mirror — I see my kin, my family, my lovers, myself.”  Nobody’s Fool was born of the curator’s interest “in understanding the markings and language of these feelings/actions/callings/pursuits [of fantasy/pleasure/revenge], finding overlap and divergence across art- ists, and seriously and thoughtfully engaging with dream-space.” Nobody’s Fool affords the imagination to build an ecosystem wherein there are no restrictions on creative output. The works exhibited could be seen as arbiters, halfway points between this world and another; an ecosystem whose framework is innately more kind and truthful for Black people, and presents the opportunity to see compositions of this nature all of the time.  Installation View. Nobody’s Fool, Carnation Contemporary, 2021. (Photo: Luiza Lukova) Kendyl Boyd, What does love look like? (Blue) (2020) and What does love look like? (Red) (2021). Serigraph on canvas, 30 × 35 in. each. (Photo: Luiza Lukova) Sara Krajewski Conditions 41 Ed ito r S te ph an ie S ny de r i nv ite d Po rt la nd A rt M us eu m C ur at or Sa ra K ra je w sk i t o in te rv ie w a rt is t M al ia Je ns en a bo ut h er m aj or w or k, N ea re r N at ur e.   SA RA K RA JE W SK I: Th e tit le o f t he p ro je ct , N ea re r N at ur e, h as m e th in ki ng a bo ut th e re la tio na l a nd a bo ut p ro xi m ity . W ho is n ea re r to na tu re o r ne ed s to b e? H ow d o w e m ov e to w ar d na tu re a nd w ha t is th at r el at io ns hi p lik e? M AL IA J EN SE N : I n pa rt th e tit le d es cr ib es m y ow n lit er al a ct io n of ge tt in g ou t o f t he s tu di o bu t I a ls o en jo y ho w th e sl ur ry a lli te ra tio n of N ea re r N at ur e f ee ls a w kw ar d to s ay . J us t s ay in g it re qu ir es a n eff or t th at fe el s fo re ig n bu t i m pl ie s ge nu in e lo ng in g. G et tin g cl os er to n at ur e co ul d m ea n te n- m ile h ik es o r s im pl y be in g at te nt iv e to w ha t y ou e at . H ow m uc h en er gy a nd c os m ic te ch no lo gy d id it ta ke to p ro du ce th at fi sh ? O r t ha t r hu ba rb ? H ow d id h um an s (a nd a ni m al s) fi gu re o ut w ha t w as ed ib le a nd w ha t w as h ar m fu l? I’ d lik e to th in k th at  w e ca n st ill c ul tiv at e th at le ve l o f i ns tin ct ua l k no w le dg e an d co nn ec tio n if w e pa y cl os e at te nt io n. It ’s no t m ea nt to b e pr es cr ip tiv e, b ut if y ou sp en d en ou gh ti m e w ith th e si x- ho ur v id eo (W or th Y ou r S al t) , i t’s m y ho pe th at y ou e nd u p di sc ov er in g so m ep la ce n ew . SK : T he re a re s o m an y w ay s to d iv e in to th is c on ve rs at io n. F or m e, na tu re a ct s lik e a fo il in th e w or k. It c an m ea n fo llo w in g th e w ild lif e in to an a s- ye t- un kn ow n de st in at io n or , i n th e lit er ar y se ns e, a ct in g as a ch ar ac te r w ho se q ua lit ie s co nt ra st o r ch al le ng e as pe ct s of a no th er , in th is c as e, u s hu m an s. M J: Th at ’s a go od w ay to e xp re ss it . I ’m in te re st ed in o ur p er si st en t t en de nc y to p la ce o ur se lv es o ut si de o f n at ur e. T he v id eo c an a ct a s a st ag e, o r s pa ce , f or co nt em pl at io n. I’ m d efi ni te ly tr yi ng to se t u p a si tu at io n in w hi ch th e vi ew er m ig ht fo llo w a n un an tic ip at ed id ea a nd g ai n in si gh t s im pl y by w at ch in g. S o m uc h ca n co m e fr om ju st le tt in g yo ur m in d w an de r, an d w e do n’ t d o it an y m or e be ca us e w e re ac h fo r o ur p ho ne s. N at ur e ha s a lw ay s b ee n a pr ot ag on is t fo r m e, g oi ng b ac k to m y ch ild ho od sp en di ng c ou nt le ss h ou rs in th e w oo ds “t hi nk in g, ” w hi ch m ea nt p ok in g ar ou nd in th e fo re st fl oo r o r s itt in g in a tr ee fo r h ou rs . I t w as n’ t a bo ut m ak in g up sp ec ifi c st or ie s b ut I re m em be r b ei ng v er y co ns ci ou s o f t ry in g to fo m en t r el at io ns hi ps w ith m y fe llo w o cc up an ts o f t ha t w or ld , i m ag in ar y or re al . I ’d li ke to su pp or t t he d yi ng a rt o f d ay dr ea m in g. 4 0 M al ia J en se n: N ea re r N at ur e S ar a K ra je w sk i M al ia J en se n, W or th Y ou r S al t, 20 21 . V id eo st ill, T ua la tin M ou nt ai ns c am er a lo ca tio n Sara Krajewski Conditions 43 SK : O ne o f y ou r fir st a ct io ns in N ea re r N at ur e w as to c ar ve s ix s al t sc ul pt ur es , d ep ic tin g a he ad , b re as t, tw o ha nd s, a fo ot , a nd a s ug ge st io n of a s to m ac h (v ia a d oz en d on ut s) b ef or e pl ac in g th em in s ix lo ca tio ns ac ro ss O re go n to d ra w in w ild lif e.   M J: H a! T ha t w as m y be st tr ic k. T he a ni m al s ar e al re ad y th er e, a nd th e sc ul pt ur es a re a ct ua lly m ea nt to e ng ag e a hu m an a ud ie nc e. T he p la ce m en t of th e pi ec es lo os el y im pl ie s an im ag e of a re cl in in g w om an a cr os s th e st at e, al lu di ng to th e in te rc on ne ct ed s ys te m w e ar e a pa rt o f, an d pl ac in g th e hu m an b od y at th e m er cy o f t he a ni m al s. SK : W hy s al t?    M J: I’v e al w ay s be en d ra w n to e le m en ta l m at er ia ls , a nd s al t i s as c om pl ex m et ap ho ri ca lly a s it is e ss en tia l t o th e fu nc tio n of h um an a nd a ni m al b od ie s. I s ta rt ed w or ki ng w ith li ve st oc k sa lt- lic ks w he n I w as li vi ng in B ro ok ly n, N ew Y or k, in a h ug e, ru st ic s tu di o. It h ad m as si ve ir on -f ra m ed a rc he d w in - do w s an d si xt ee n- fo ot c ei lin gs , a nd w as s uc h a pi ct ur e- pe rf ec t c ru m bl in g be au ty th at a g oo d pa rt o f m y in co m e ca m e fr om re nt in g it as a lo ca tio n fo r fa sh io n sh oo ts . I o ft en h ad to p ro te ct m y w or k fr om b ec om in g ba ck gr ou nd pr op s, a nd m ak in g ar tw or k th er e so m et im es fe lt lik e a pe rf or m an ce o f be in g a sc ul pt or , l ik e I w as a c ha ra ct er in a s et . C ar vi ng th e sa lt bl oc ks w as th e eq ui va le nt o f l ea ni ng in to a c lic hé m us ic c ra nk ed u p, z ip pe d in to m y co ve ra lls w ith c hi se ls a nd h am m er s an d sa lt fly in g ev er yw he re , l ab or - in g ov er a s er ie s of g or ge ou s br ea st s.  In 2 01 0, I to ok s ev er al o f t he b re as ts to a fr ie nd ’s c at tle ra nc h in N ew M ex ic o an d m ad e a vi de o ca lle d Sa lty . Bo th W or th Y ou r S al t ( 20 20 ) a nd S al ty a re e ss en tia lly W es te rn s, a sp ir in g to d es cr ib e bi g, im po rt an t r el at io ns hi ps w ith s pa re g es tu re s an d an e xc es s of ti m e.  I al so e nj oy ed th e gr an di os e hu m or e m be dd ed in la vi sh in g al l t hi s w or k on s om et hi ng th en g iv in g it ov er to a ni m al s. T he re ’s a p ro xy s ac ri fic e ha pp en in g th at I th in k of a s an a cq ui es ce nc e to n at ur e.   SK : T ha t’s in te re st in g th at y ou fr am e it th at w ay . A ft er th e an im al in te r- ac tio ns w ith th e ca rv ed s al t s cu lp tu re s yo u ca st th em in g la ss , c ap tu ri ng th e be au tif ul d ec ay a nd s ur re nd er to th e el em en ts . T he s cu lp tu re s ar e so c en tr al to th e pr oj ec t o ve ra ll, b ut th ey a re n’ t t he p ri m ar y fo cu s of th e vi de o. W hy is th at ? M J: As m uc h as I lo ve d ca rv in g th em a nd a s cr uc ia l a s th ey a re , t he y’ re n ot re al ly th e su bj ec t o f t he p ro je ct . I d id n’ t w an t p eo pl e to w al k aw ay o nc e th ey “ go t” th e se tu p. M y ho pe w as th at th e vi ew er w ou ld b e dr aw n in b y th e be au ty o f t he n at ur al w or ld , a nd a v ie w in to th e pr iv at e liv es o f a ni m al s. Th e ca st g la ss s cu lp tu re s w er en ’t pl an ne d bu t a t a c er ta in p oi nt w he n I w as ch ec ki ng th e ca m er as in N eh al em , I w as ta ke n ab ac k by h ow b ea ut ifu l t he ha nd o ffe ri ng th e pl um h ad b ec om e as it e ro de d.  G la ss h as th e pe rf ec t m et - ap ho ri c as so ci at io ns o f f ra gi lit y, a llo w in g m e th e ch an ce to c om m em or at e th e “u se d” a rt ifa ct s as o de s to h um an v ul ne ra bi lit y. SK : S al t i s ev er p re se nt , e ve n w he n it’ s in vi si bl e. It ’s th e ph ys ic al e le m en t fo un d in a ll of th e el em en ts h er e: h um an s, th e w ild lif e pr ot ag on is ts , a nd th e la nd sc ap e w e al l i nh ab it. C an w e ge t r ea lly g ra nu la r (h a! ) ab ou t t hi s ch oi ce o f m at er ia l? I’ m c ur io us a bo ut th e “m in im al is m ” of th es e ut ili ta r- ia n w hi te b lo ck s be in g tr an sf or m ed in to b ea ut ifu l, cu rv ac eo us fo rm s th at in vi te in te ra ct io n. P la ci ng th es e bo dy p ar ts in th e un ta m ed e nv ir on m en t, M al ia J en se n, N ea re r N at ur e, 2 01 9. In st al la tio n m ap a nd p ro je ct in fo rm at io n ca rd Sara Krajewski Conditions 45 an d su bj ec tin g th em to th e se ns ua lit y of li ck in g, to uc hi ng , a nd co ns um pt io n by w ild a ni m al s su gg es ts a fe m in is t s ub ve rs io n of a n ar t hi st or ic al la nd sc ap e tr ad iti on th at ’s b ee n w hi te -m al e do m in at ed . D o yo u th in k of th is p ie ce a s a fe m in is t w or k? M J: G et g ra nu la r! P er ha ps it ’s a n in he re nt ly fe m in is t a ct io n, w ie ld in g he av y ha m m er s an d ch is el s, c ar vi ng s en su al fe m al e bo dy p ar ts o ut of s ol id w hi te b lo ck s an d gi vi ng th em o ve r t o “i nn oc en t” w ild a ni m al s. I w as n’ t c on sc io us ly s et ti ng o ut to p ro du ce a  fe m in is t w or k bu t m y in te nt io n of e le va ti ng c or po re al k no w le dg e an d re st or in g au th or it y to th e po w er o f i nt ui ti on fi ts s ol id ly w it hi n th at fr am ew or k. H um or a ls o ha s it s ow n su bv er si ve ne ss a nd y ou c ou ld s ay th er e’ s an A rt e Po ve ra a sp ec t to th e fe ed s to re m at er ia ls a s w el l a s an e le m en t o f s la ps ti ck a t p la y. Em pl oy in g  sa lt  a s a se lf- de pr ec at in g co m ic d ev ic e (d ee r l ic ks b re as t, el k ti ck le s fo ot , b ea r b ite s ha nd , e tc .) a nd u si ng tr ai l c am er as a ls o un de r- m in es s om e ar t w or ld e lit is m , a nd e xp an ds th e co nv er sa ti on s I g et to h av e ar ou nd th e pr oj ec t.  I l ov ed b ei ng a sk ed b y hu nt er s an d fis he rm an w ha t ki nd o f c am s I w as u si ng , o r b ei ng p ol ite ly in fo rm ed th at th ey re al ly li ke d th e vi de o bu t w er e ju st u si ng it a s a sc ou ti ng to ol . O bv io us ly I di d no t re ve al m y ca m er a lo ca ti on s! SK : L et ’s ta lk m or e ab ou t t he v id eo e di tin g an d pa ci ng th at is r ea lly ce nt ra l t o W or th Y ou r Sa lt. It a pp ea rs s po nt an eo us , a s if it’ s liv e su rv ei l- la nc e fo ot ag e, b ut y ou ’v e m ad e a te ch ni ca lly c om pl ex p ie ce c om po se d fr om m an y th ou sa nd s of s ho rt c lip s ca pt ur ed b y m ot io n- ac tiv at ed c am - er as . C an y ou s ha re th e pr oc es s of c on st ru ct in g it an d w ha t f or m al a nd ae st he tic d ec is io ns y ou w er e m ak in g?   M J: Th e fir st a nd m os t i m po rt an t d ec is io n I m ad e w as to b ui ld th e vi de o in to a g ri d. S et tin g th e fo ot ag e in to q ua dr an ts in vo ke s th e ub iq ui ty of s ur ve ill an ce b ut a ls o ke ep s th e pi ec e m ov in g. Y ou r e ye s fli ck er o ve r i t, fin di ng s m al l a ct io ns a nd s ub tle c on ne ct io ns , m ak in g ev en th e sl ow pa rt s co m pe lli ng .  Re ga rd in g th e co ns tr uc tio n of it , t he re w as a b as ic m at h pr ob le m o f br ai di ng to ge th er fo ot ag e fr om tw o or th re e ca m er as a t a ll si x lo ca tio ns , ei gh te en c am er as to ta l w ith v er y di ffe re nt a m ou nt s of fo ot ag e. T he fi rs t gr ou p of c am er as , s et o n th e Br an cu si -e sq ue h ea d lo ca tio n, w as o nl y tw en ty m in ut es o ut si de o f P or tla nd a nd b eg an re co rd in g  ea rl y in 2 01 9. S om e of th e ot he r c am er as , t he A sh la nd a nd Jo se ph c am er as fo r e xa m pl e, w er e in st al le d la te r i n th e su m m er a nd su bs eq ue nt ly c ap tu re d le ss fo ot ag e. C om bi ni ng a ll of it re qu ir ed a s ys te m th at w as s om ew ha t m ec ha ni ca l, en ab lin g us to b ui ld th e se qu en ce s w ith ou t a ct ua lly w at ch in g al l t he c lip s. T he p as sa ge o f t im e w as th e or ga ni zi ng p ri nc ip le , k ee pi ng e ve ry th in g se qu en tia l a nd a llo w in g th e ch an gi ng s ea so ns a nd s hi ft in g lig ht o ve r a fu ll ye ar to b ec om e a fe lt ex pe ri en ce fo r t he v ie w er . D iv id in g th e sc re en in to fo ur s eq ue nc es a ls o cr e- at ed th e op po rt un ity to s ho w fo ur ti m es a s m uc h fo ot ag e at o nc e; th us th e si x- ho ur v id eo is a ct ua lly tw en ty -f ou r h ou rs o f f oo ta ge . T he fr am es c ha ng e at s lig ht ly s ta gg er ed in te rv al s, a llo w in g th e cl ip s to p la y ou t c on se cu tiv el y, ov er la pp in g lik e a ro un d, a s tr uc tu re th at I th in k su pp or ts th e m es m er iz in g an d co ns ol in g eff ec t o f t he w or k by re m ov in g th e el em en t o f s us pe ns e.   SK : W ho d id y ou w or k w ith to s or t, ed it, a nd a ss is t w ith th e pr oj ec t?   M J: H av in g fin an ci al s up po rt th at e na bl ed m e to h ir e pe op le w as ab so lu te ly c ru ci al , a nd e na bl ed m e to g et b eh in d m y co nv ic tio n th at a rt M al ia J en se n in h er B ro ok ly n, N ew Y or k st ud io , 2 01 0. (P ho to : J oh n M ug ge nb or g) M al ia J en se n in h er B ro ok ly n, N ew Y or k st ud io , 2 01 0. (P ho to : J oh n M ug ge nb or g) Sara Krajewski Conditions 47 is p ar t o f a n ec on om ic e ng in e. T iff H ar ke r c am e on a s pr oj ec t m an ag er a nd w e as se m bl ed a s m al l c re w o f a ss is ta nt e di to rs , b ut I w or ke d m os t c lo se ly w ith e di to r B en M er ce r. A fe w k ey fr ie nd s he lp ed m e ch ec k th e ca m er as in th e fu rt he r- flu ng lo ca tio ns , b ut m os t o f t he ti m e it w as a s ol o ad ve nt ur e, co lle ct in g th e (S D ) m em or y ca rd s, la pp in g th e st at e pe ri od ic al ly a nd u si ng th e tim e to sc ou t l oc at io ns a nd b us in es se s t ha t m ig ht b e w ill in g to sh ow th e ro ug h cu t. Th er e is a s oc ia l d im en si on b ui lt in to th e pr oj ec t t ha t e ch oe d th e ov er al l v is io n of N ea re r N at ur e a s a re co ns tr uc tio n of a n ea rt hb ou nd , ta ct ile n et w or k. SK : A ni m al s ha ve lo ng b ee n a su bj ec t o f y ou r w or k bu t y ou r ap pr oa ch yo u’ ve h ad to th is p ie ce fe el s di ff er en t t o m e be ca us e th e an im al s ha ve a un iq ue a ge nc y w ith in it . T he y ar en ’t be in g tr an sf or m ed o r tr an sl at ed in to s cu lp tu re ; t he y’ re c au gh t i n th e ac t o f j us t b ei ng . C an y ou ta lk m or e ab ou t t he s im pl e bu t p ow er fu l a ct o f o bs er va tio n th at th is p ie ce fo st er s an d ho w y ou a rr iv ed a t t hi s ce nt ra l p ill ar o f t he w or k? M J: W he n I s ta rt ed w ri tin g th e pr op os al fo r t hi s pr oj ec t i n la te 2 01 8, it w as co m pe lle d by a d es pe ra te d ri ve to s lip s om et hi ng b ro ad ly lo vi ng th ro ug h a do or th at w as c lo si ng . O ne c om m en t I o ft en h ea rd fr om y ou ng p eo pl e w as th at th ei r f av or ite p ar ts w er e w he n a va ri et y of a ni m al s oc cu pi ed th e sc re en at th e sa m e tim e. I lik ed th os e m om en ts to o, a nd I th in k it’ s be ca us e w e’ ve b ec om e so a cc us to m ed to d is co rd th at s ee in g a sq ui rr el a nd a d ee r on th e sa m e pa tc h of g ro un d fe el s w on dr ou s. S lo w in g do w n en ou gh to te as e ou t t he n ua nc es a nd fi nd c on ne ct io ns re qu ir es a n in cr ed ib le e ffo rt . D iff er en t i nt er es ts a re n ot m ut ua lly e xc lu si ve , a nd th er e ar e so m an y th in gs th at s ho ul d an d ca n br in g us to ge th er .  SK : A bs ol ut el y! W he n w e cr ea te d th e on lin e ex hi bi tio n on th e Po rt la nd A rt M us eu m ’s w eb si te , y ou h ad h op ed to m ak e th e vi de o a ba lm to s oo th e ou r a nx ie tie s ab ou t s o m an y th in gs : t he p an de m ic , p ol iti cs , m as s pr ot es ts . Co ul d yo u el ab or at e on w ha t i t m ea nt fo r y ou to m ak e th e w or k ac ce ss ib le on th e ve ry s am e di gi ta l p la tf or m s th at c an b e so d is tr ac tin g an d al ie na tin g? M J:  W he n w e fir st b eg an ta lk in g ab ou t s ha ri ng th e vi de o, th e fo cu s w as on th e m ou nt in g an xi et y an d dr ea d ar ou nd C O V ID -1 9. Ir on ic al ly , t he w ho le N ea re r N at ur e p ro je ct b eg an a s a dr aw n- ou t m et ap ho r f or in es ca pa bl e in te rc on ne ct ed ne ss , a nd th en s ud de nl y ev er yt hi ng w as u po n us . T he re w as ju st n o pl ac e to tu rn th at w as n’ t a n em ot io na l h az ar d. P eo pl e w er e sh ut in do or s w ith th ei r f am ili es , o r a lo ne , f ac in g fe ar s an d m as si ve u nc er ta in tie s, an d al th ou gh th is p ro je ct m ig ht h av e be en a d ro p in th e bu ck et , i t f el t l ik e so m et hi ng I co ul d co nt ri bu te . SK : N at ur e an d ar t c an b e po w er fu l t oo ls fo r he al in g in b ot h bi g an d sm al l w ay s. D o yo u se e N ea re r N at ur e w or ki ng in th is w ay fo r vi ew er s? M J: I c er ta in ly h op e it do es . W e’ re s o us ed to th e co ns ta nt a nx ie ty o f t hi nk - in g “W ha t a w fu l t hi ng is a bo ut to h ap pe n ne xt ?” T he re ’s a fi