Photography Producer Portfolio Sampling

Paula Rebsom at Tilt Gallery

Paula Rebsom's show "Outskirts" opened at Tilt Gallery on Thursday, April 3rd. Paula Rebsom is a photographer and sculptor, recently graduated from the University of Oregon with a sculpture MFA.

Rebsom's photographs are installed almost sculpturally in her show at Tilt. There are two clear acrylic cases on either side of the tiny gallery (probably 150 square feet). Each case is five feet long and two feet high and each contains three color photographs. The "face wall" (straight ahead of you as you walk into the gallery) displays one large color photograph, 48" x 34", unframed. Apparently this was the centerpiece, but the two side walls provided more content than this one piece.

The photographs in the acrylic cases depict what appears to be a project wherein the artist has fabricated at least 40 identical miniature "houses" along a valley and up a gentle hillside in a rural area. The houses are of simple wood board with crude cut-outs for windows which are lovingly adorned with country floral curtains, tied back as if in a small cottage's windows. The curtains suggest, perhaps, a cozy environment inside, which is not the case in these empty, three-walled shells standing without floors on the grass, wind catching the curtains, which are hung inside the glass-less cut-outs.

The vastness of the countryside, the pale blue sky--a swath of sky is present in all six photos-- where these temporary houses sit and the repetition of the mini houses spread all over it, measle-like, recalls tract houses in suburban subdivisions, the cut-outs recalling a cookie cutter's remnants. But this is no bedroom community. The surprise element, even for the artist, is the prairie dog who comes to inspect his new subdivided habitat. He is not interested in this kind of above-ground living. However, he is consummately curious and provides an unexpected levity here. If this is a film directed by Rebsom, the film has moved from documentary to docu-comedy with perhaps a little docu-drama in the unanticipated element that is the prairie dog, who has brought others along.

The over-sized close-up image of one of the house's "interior" is on the face wall. The viewer has the perspective of being inside and seeing from within a little house. This photograph further confirms Rebsom's use of scale to posit the question of identification of self within one's environment.

The artist herself is present within the document of this project. She walks through, or towers over, the small impossible dwellings as if a giant sheriff...(more to come).

Rebsom works with a confidence and a comprehension of scale, composition, humor and gravity that is rarely seen in alternative Portland galleries. Her knowledge of the relationship between observer, creator(artist/photographer/sculptor), is present, relevant, and honest. There is a quality of presentation and performance that is exuberant and fresh. A strong sense of metaphor in the work threads the piece together successfully.