"Chortkanikh" by Michael Alm, mixed media sculpture, 2010. Image by Erik Hecht

ECOTONE
Michael Alm, Joey Bates, Mary Elise Bolam, Jody Joldersma and Jess Ress
Jan. 13th- Feb. 4th, 2011 at Ghost Gallery

Ghost: Tell us about how you all met, and when you decided to work together as a group (have you done shows together in the past?)

Jess and Michael: Michael and I met around 2009 through mutual friends who suggested we needed to know each other. Michael’s project at the time was very similar to a project I had worked on in New Jersey before coming to Seattle. We thought since we had such mirroring work that it would be fun to create a joint exhibition. We had talked about the idea of a show together with Jody for maybe a year, before settling on the Ecotone project at Ghost Gallery (including Mary Elise and Joey as well). Michael had shown with Jody before at Vermillion in 2010, and I had hosted an exhibition that included Mary Elise and Michael in 2010.

Ghost: What was the deciding factor behind the theme of “Ecotone?” Has this idea been a prevailing interest as a group, or did you decide upon the theme after coming together for a group exhibit at Ghost?

Jess: I think the theme sort of co-evolved with the group. It came up during the time we were getting the group together when we were discussing our projects. We realized the concept of environmental boundary regions was a good metaphor for our art and was a thread that tied us all together. We are all urban artists working in the city, but we all look to nature for inspiration, and that comes out strongly in our work.

Ghost: How has working on Ecotone affected your daily perceptions of the cityscape? For example, have you noticed yourself paying closer attention to smaller details regarding this “nature vs urban” overlap?

Jess: The nature vs. urban theme has been fascinating me for years, ever since I moved from my hometown to the small (for NJ) city of New Brunswick. My eyes were opened to life I had taken for granted in my parents wooded backyard. It was amazing to see how the same plants could thrive in the cracks of the sidewalk that I had known from hillsides of soil and trees. Since then I have been peering into cracks in the concrete and seeing what I find there.

Michael: What interests me the most about the term Ecotone is the fact that two ecosystems can exist in tandem for a certain limited area, as you move further away from the first the more dominant the second becomes. Eventually one dies off completely and the other exists on its own. Living in a city on the edge of abundant nature, this idea has forced me to think about how we transition to the nature around us and at what point do we exist on our own and at what point does the forest around us exist on its own. I find the thought of existing without the influence of our surrounding ecosystems a scary prospect.

Ghost: Name one of your favorite artists and why/how they influence your work.

Jess: It’s impossible to pick just one favorite artist! Two people who I am excited about while working on this show are New York based artists Portia Munson and Fred Tomaselli. They both work with patterns of repetition and collage and look at life in relation to their immediate environment and also in relation to a larger cosmic scene. I really admire their ability to put personal experiences into the art in a way that makes the audience feel like it could be part of their history too. These people have no idea, but they push me to be a better artist.

Michael: One of my all time favorite artists is Olafur Eliasson. I saw “The Weather Project” at the Tate Modern in 2003 and have never been more impacted by a piece of art in my life. I have a hard time putting into words the beauty, simplicity, and power that piece has. I can only dream of affecting my audience in that way. And in my mind that is the key to Eliasson’s work, he has this ability to impress and inspire his audience through jarringly simple exercises. After discovering his work I have become very conscious of my audience and always am striving to impact them in a way that they bring a bit of that artwork home with them.

Ghost: Anything else you’d like the viewing audience to think about as they view the Ecotone exhibit?

Jess and Michael: I hope that viewers understand that they themselves are living in a world rich with ecotones, and that they should look for those moments where unexpected organisms from other ecosystems sneak their way into their daily lives.

"Look Without Seeing" by Jess Rees, feathers, glass, wood, 2010