July 02, 2004
Interview: Mark Kretzmeier
On 'Portland: A Photo-Mosaic Map Of Portland History'
Portion Of 'Portland' Photo-Mosaic
We don't normally cover Portland's arts or cultural scene, but in this case it was easy to make an exception. Last week, an email from The Organ Review of Arts included in its events listings one for an installation entitled, "Portland: A Photo Collage Map of Portland's Past and Present."
(Note: Material available at the site of this work refers to it not with the above title, but as: "Portland: A Photo-Mosaic Map of Portland History.")
As announced by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, this collage is part of that organization's Installation Art Series in the lobby of the Portland Building. Under that program, a small alcove there has been set aside for such installations since 1994.
In the RACC announcement, this particular piece is described as: "A giant 6' x 12' visual map/collage of Portland made up of hundreds of historical and contemporary photographs of locations around the city will fill the space." You can see that the elements of Portland's design, development, and history are what suddenly make this particular work relevant to us here.
Down in the lobby of the Portland Building, the artist's bio describes Mark Kretzmeier as "a 34-year-old native of Portland, Oregon" and "an artist and craftsman experienced in a broad range of artisitc application, particularly those that include the use of many small pieces to create one unified whole."
Off to the side of the installation alcove, the comment book for Kretzmeier's piece is full of appreciation. Commenters inquire about the availablility of the collage as posters, prints, or puzzles. Many indicate that the piece is more "engaging" than previous installations in that space. A few urge expansion of the territory the piece covers across the Willamette River into Southeast and Northeast, with one suggesting the involvement of the City's neighborhood associations. And more than a few express the hope that the piece will find a permanent and public home after it completes its run on July 16.
Until that time, the piece is accessible Monday through Friday from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, in the lobby of the Portland Building, located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue.
What follows is an email interview with Mark Kretzmeier, conducted over the course of this week. For readability, it is compiled into a progression that it more a logical than a strictly chronological one.
Portland Communique: What prompted a photo collage of Portland's past and present? Have you previously used local history in any of your work?
Mark Kretzmeier: I've been doing photo collages forever, and with just a couple of days left until the deadline for applications, I was still brainstorming how I could apply one to the Portland Building art installation series. Since it's in the Portland Building in the center of downtown Portland, I was also trying to think of a project that would be specific to the city. It was actually something my friend Carla said that inspired the idea to create a map of Portland out of pictures that were specific to each location.
Although I've heard a lot of random facts and anecdotes about Portland, I've never really delved into its history, much less created art based on it. I soon realized that as well as creating a fun piece of art, I would be basically taking a class on Portland.
Communique: What sources -- both photographic and textual -- went into putting this together? How did you select what went into the collage and what didn't?
Kretzmeier: My first step was to send a query to the Oregon Historical Society, wondering if they had any programs to collaborate with artists or organizations and requesting assistance in getting images and information for the map. They replied that no, they didn't have programs of that type and were kind enough to forward me their reproduction price sheet. I later estimated that after reproduction and public display fees, it would have cost me about $7,500 for the amount of pictures I eventually used, which was simply more than my budget could afford.
Next step was the library, which definitely had some good resources and information, but Powell's bookstore had ten times as many Portland-specific books.
I also printed and began distributing requests for information about specific sites, but after I recieved one reply out of hundred -- which simply referred me to the owner of the building -- I stopped that.
I purposely included elements of the map that don't interest me to try to keep it more objective.
Communique: Can you give some examples of which elements were the ones that drew your own personal attention (and perhaps why they did), and which are there in order to broaden the subject matter?
Kretzmeier: I was interested in showing Native American and geologic history of the area- and even showing future developments -- because I want to remind people that this isn't how it's always been or always will be -- that any given spot on the map is transient.
It was also important for me to really underline the disastrous state of the Willamette river. It's a crime that on a hot summer day, people aren't plunging into the Willamette as they have for thousands of years. And the polluters responsible need to be held accountable for this crime -- not, as they would have it, the taxpayers.
By far the biggest resource of images and information was the Internet - where I wandered hours through an endless labyrinth of Portland-specific websites (thank you, PdxHistory.com).
It was a big challenge not to get carried away on tangents and try to represent all of the fascinating aspects of the city that I was finding out about -- should I make an "underlay" color to show where the shanghaii tunnels used to be? Should I label all the stores with their respective brand names?
Communique: This raises a perhaps-interesting question, then. Given the attempt to broaden the material beyond only what personally interested you, what sorts of things did you consider tangential?
Kretzmeier: There's an infinite amount of information that could be represented on the map, but a finite amount of time and space to do it in. For example, I tried to find a map detailing where each of the 60 Benson Bubblers are, so that I could put a tiny picture of one at each location, but eventually I had to stop looking and move on to something else.
Each city block might have 100+ years of history behind it and sometimes a different building on each corner, so with only a 2.5" x 2.5" space for each block to work in, I had to decide which images and information to include or not. I think the only way to really show the depth and broadness of this subject will be to create a full scale model of the entire city and have actors play out the history of Portland in real time.
I soon realized this project will probably take a few years, not a few months, to really saturate it with as much information and images as will reasonably fit, and just tried to get the best "first coat" on as I could. There's actually some spectacular missing elements - TriMet and MAX aren't even represented! So I'm hoping people will write in the comment book some of the things they think should be included.
Communique: For what it's worth, we have a suggestion on that count -- in fact, it's represented somewhere on that PDX History website. From the 1910s until (ultimately) the 1930s or 40s, there were giant illuminated arches crisscrossing the intersections along SW Third Avenue. If they're on the collage anywhere, we didn't see them, and since it's our favorite "lost" piece of historical Portland design, that would be our suggestion.
Kretzmeier: It is in the background of a picture of the first stoplight, but that's definitely something that should be highlighted more.
Communique: But more broadly, the question of an "unfinished" piece leads to this: What happens next with this collage once its run at the Portland Building is completed?
Kretzmeier: Like the city itself, I think it should be added to and subtracted from; an ever-evolving piece of art -- entire blocks torn down and reinvented; new layers covering past layers that are covering even older, forgotten layers; more interesting people and stories about specific locations. Ultimately, I'd like to completely fill it in with hundreds more images and bits of information until one gets lost in it and finds something new every time.
I think it'd be a great addition to some public building in Portland. I'm certainly open to someone buying it or hanging it somewhere, but if such an offer doesn't come along, I may try to donate it to a building or organization.
Comments (1)
The One True b!X on 02 Jul 2004
Personally, I think that if the piece can't find a publicly-accessible home in a place like the Portland Building or City Hall, maybe it would work somewhere in Pioneer Courthouse Square.