an installation and improvisation by Elizabeth Conner and A. Jacob Galle
To welcome the month of April on Vashon, Elizabeth Conner, VALISE member, and
Jacob Galle, an artist who farms in a small town in Maine, will collaborate with several of VALISE’s neighbors in downtown Vashon, to create an installation that begins in the VALISE Gallery and may spill into the street. The precise results of this week-long effort will be a surprise to all, including the artists and the generous businesses loaning items from their inventories, and sharing stories about what they do and create for a living. Galle and Conner have communicated cross-country since January, trading ideas and images that may also appear in the gallery and streetscape.
Please join us to be surprised by the resulting artwork at VALISE Gallery, on First Friday: April 2, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The work will be on display every Saturday during the month of April, from 11 am-5 pm, and by appointment.
Conner has collaborated for over 20 years with communities and design professionals to make public art that honors places, people and history. Working with local fabricators allows her to employ a wide variety of methods and materials to create objects and spaces that are meaningful and functional. Her studio work includes sculpture, drawing, photography and dance. She is interested in how things work and stories hidden in textbooks and back rooms.
Galle, an artist-nomad for many years, recently returned to his home state of Maine to continue farming his folks’ land. His work is primarily performance-based video, inspired by years of personal experience working the land and his respect for the actions of manual labor. His work is humorous and thoughtful; simple tasks become repetitive, sweaty, long and laborious, meditative, ironic, and at times unnecessary.
Galle and Conner share a sense of a humor and a desire to be surprised. Together, they have improvised performances that invite audiences to join them in exploring how people interact with architectural space. In 2005, they collaborated on a performance installation, “Improvisations for Two or More,” at Seattle’s On the Boards (12 Minutes Max).
For additional information, please contact:
VALISE Artist Member
Elizabeth Conner at 206.310.0251