Tori Abernathy Watch Your Step Industrial Polyvinyl on Sidewalk Winter 2011 curated by Recess Gallery from the IN(ter)DEPENDENCE exhibition
Statement Systemic regulations are usually applied in response to emergent properties within an organization; they follow. Humans respond to vibrations in their environment - it is the vibrancy that forces compulsion, or an affect. The city is a self-regulating macrosystem and, as such, will respond to emergent pathways within and between its parts. The language of the city is as readable, digestible, user-friendly as possible, but the volume is turned up high. A bright red stop sign alerts you at the end of the street, and it seems natural. The origin of that stop sign is hard to trace now. Did the stop sign precede the desire to halt at the intersection, or vice versa? We can make a decent guess, I bet. Like the majority of encountered stimuli, the visuality of the city’s operations have been made explicit and are therefore rendered passive and silent. While adopting the city’s own methodology, the artist can effect those emergent pathways, organically redrawn by members of the ecosystem. En masse, humans have the power to carve their own topography, and they do. Demarcating this possibility highlights the potential of individual human agency. Sometimes the shortest distance between to points is treacherous in its unruliness. With the cautionary message “watch your step” situated at the meeting place of the sidewalk and the footpath, the artist will variably affect the city’s pedestrian highways. These rifts in the directive structures of the system will stand as predictions for future development. Further, the text itself, when removed from context, is truly a warning for the actant. Take the artist’s direction with a grain of salt; she might not have your best interests in mind.
Description Watch Your Step is a series of colored vinyl lettering that reads “watch your step” placed around the city of Portland at crucial intersections of designated and emergent pedestrian paths. Photographic documentation of each location will capture the project’s ephemera for permanent public viewing.
Exhibition Description The IN(ter)DEPENDENCE exhibition points to the emergence, in and around Portland over the last 5 years, of small, independently operated, and self-funded cultural hubs. These creative centers have sprung from garages, sheds, old store fronts, unusual gallery situations, above creeks, and within vacant retail spaces. The cross section of these centers represented in IN(ter)DEPENDENCE have introduced exciting new levels of refinement, fresh inspiration, and consistency into the familiar DIY sensibility the Northwest is known for.
Each space or curator participating was asked to nominate an artist or collaborative group to represent them in them in the IN(ter)DEPENDENCE exhibition.