Making wild, unpredictable art from stuff

Give them your cast-offs, your junk, your discards

Resisting Entropy II: 10 artists, 24 hours, go!
Kay Stephens
Thu, 03/21/2013 - 5:30pm
Lisa Diane listens to Bethany Engstrom's "Stand Pipe" installation at the original Resisting Entropy in 2010. (Photo by Kay Stephens)
This is what the artists will find waiting form them once they walk through the doors. (Courtesy Jared Cowan)
A closeup of David Allen's "Necropiscadachtyl" in 2010. (Photo by Kay Stephens)
Playing a game of "Jawbone" with Jared Cowan in 2010. (Photo by Kay Stephens)

Story Location:
162 Russell Avenue
Rockport, ME 04856
United States

    ROCKPORT — For 24 hours on March 22, 10 local artists will be confined at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art to create experimental art installations out of a giant pallet of discarded materials donated from tradesmen, carpenters, and fishermen, as well as items collected from machine and automobile junkyards.The next day, March 23, they'll catch a few afternoon zzzs, then come back to CMCA for the opening reception, from 5 to 7 p.m.

    Jared Cowan, artist and owner of Asymmetrick Arts in Rockland, first conceived of this one-creative-day event with friend, Alan Clark, in 2010. With the original eight participants further molding the shape of the project, they hosted "Resisting Entropy" at his gallery.

    Now revised in scope and with an extended roster of artists, the 2013 "Resisting Entropy II" group includes Cowan, David Allen, Johanna Cairns, Andy White, Bethany Engstrom, Andy Hamm, Siglinde Langholz, Jonathan Laurence, Eric Leppanen and Trelawney O’Brien.

    "Being at CMCA, we're thinking we can do even bigger installations with a wider array of materials to choose from," said Cowan. Materials donated include construction debris, auto parts, cast-off fishing gear, and even moose and deer bones. Once the doors open at noon Friday, each artist will dive into the process, garbage picking, sifting, layering and tinkering with items to build a unique art installation. They aren't supposed to come into the event with any pre-conceived ideas, but rather, will form a theme based on what they can pick and sort, working together to transform the pile into unique and unpredictable artworks.

    "This year, we've gotten everything from lobster trap wreckage to action figures, along with a lot of soft goods like cloth. It's a bit of everything. We tried to select artists of different mediums, so we have painters and photographers as well as installation artists and sculptors," said Cowan.

    The last "Resisting Entropy" event had crazy cool elements, such as the "Kitchen" installation made by Belfast artist, Eric Leppanen, which literally looked like some jury-rigged Mad Max type of kitchen, complete with a full bar. Another cool installation created by Cowan was "Jawbone," which ended up being a unique gameboard crafted out of animal bones without any thought of what the game's rules would be.

    The exhibition will run March 23 - April 7. For more information visit: Center for Maine Contemporary Art.

    Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com.

    Most Popular