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RACC Press Releases

The Office Assistant,
a temporary installation/performance
October 10-November 4, 2005

Zen Parry, Oct 10

The Regional Arts & Culture Council presents the installation, The Office Assistant, by Portland artist Zen Parry, in the Portland Building lobby installation Space, October 10-November 4, 2005. The Portland Building, located at 1120 SW 5 th Avenue, is open to the public from 7am - 6pm, Monday through Friday. Check out the artist's blog for daily news on the installation/performance.

For the duration of the installation, Parry will arrive each day at the space and sit and crochet a large quilt. Over the course of one month, viewers will see tangible progress as a result of her commitment to work a 40-hour week. Ultimately, the quilt will cover the walls and floor space and finally wrap around the artist. On some days she might phone in ‘sick’, which will leave the work sitting, waiting for her return while on other days she may be called ‘away’ to attend to another duty, only to return again and pick up and continue the work at hand. The blanket itself represents the comfort that people take from having a job as a form of identity and security, through knowing where they must be, and what they will be doing each day. The artist’s goal is to provide a comparison between the corporate world and the art world. As she has stated, “Artists strive to create an entire environment as a work of art in this space. In this installation, I strive to create an environment as the art of work."

Zen Parry, Oct. 26 Visited by Alan Alexander, City of Portland employee

Background
Australian born artist, Zen Parry, earned her undergraduate degree in cartography from RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) in Melbourne, Australia, followed by a two-year program in sculpture in Italy. She earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from San Jose State University in 1992, and a joint Masters in Business Administration and International Business from the Tilberg Business School in The Netherlands and Purdue University in 2000. Her ongoing research focuses on identifying sites for a Spiritual Maps project include Cambodia and South East Asia, along the Pacific Rim, India, Nepal, Tibet, Korea, China, Eastern Europe and Ireland. She has exhibited her ceramic work at the Contemporary Craft Museum and Gallery (CCMG) and in museums/galleries in Australia, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Indonesia and Italy. From September 30-November 14, 2006, she will have an installation at CCMG in Portland.

Sponsored by the Regional Arts & Culture Council since 1994, the Installation Art Series at the Portland Building invites the general public to re-examine its expectations and definitions of art, encourage dialogue about the role of art in public spaces, and provide artists with alternative exhibition space for their work. Artists featured through June 2005 will be: Zen Parry, October 10-November 4; Jenine Alexander, November 14-December 9; Marlene Alt, January 17-February 10, 2006; Geri Ondrizek,February 20-March 17; Ethan Hamm & Annie Brissenden, March 27-April 21; Mike Barber, Linda Austen, Carla Mann, Margretta Hanson, Cydney Wilkes, May 1-26; and Tim Young, June 5-30.

Zen at Portland City Hall with Final Quilt (Photo: Jim Clark)

Through vision, leadership and service the Regional Arts & Culture Council works to integrate arts and culture in all aspects of community life.
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mbauer@racc.org