http://www.hilarypfeifer.com hilarypfeifer.com Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:33:17 +0000 http://www.hilarypfeifer.com en http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/epiphytes http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/epiphytes Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:33:17 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1171096 This piece is the first in a series of studies of epiphytes. It fits between the chin and the shoulder. This piece was incorporated into a dance performance for the 2011 Exhibition in Motion at the Bellevue Arts Museum. This event is part of the Society for North American Goldsmiths conference. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1171096/hpfeifer01_905.jpg" width="905" height="1251" width_o="1388" height_o="1920" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1171096/hpfeifer01_o.jpg" data-mid="5643249" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1171096/hpfeifer02_905.jpg" width="905" height="1362" width_o="1275" height_o="1920" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1171096/hpfeifer02_o.jpg" data-mid="5643250" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1171096/hpfeifer03_905.jpg" width="905" height="1198" width_o="1450" height_o="1920" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1171096/hpfeifer03_o.jpg" data-mid="5643253" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1171096/hpfeifer04_905.jpg" width="905" height="1362" width_o="1275" height_o="1920" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1171096/hpfeifer04_o.jpg" data-mid="5643255" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/Kharshouf http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/Kharshouf Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:11:54 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1053633 BFA Thesis Exhibition, Oregon College of Art and Craft, May 1999 Hoffman Gallery, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland, OR statement When meeting new people, we make assumptions about what they are like based on what is readily available: their clothing, hairstyle, mannerisms, scent or speech. But it is only when we start to unravel their stories and learn about their life experiences that we start to understand more about personality. I am fascinated with the idea that I carry hundreds of formative experiences within my body–experiences that can be recalled through a variety of ways as I grow older, calling my cognitive, physical, or sensory memory into action. I believe that personality is a complex collection of experiences, which are stored in the body as if it were a vessel. This installation of over 500 individual sculptures, is a self-portrait of what I think I would look like if I were seen as the hundreds of individual experiences I have had that played a significant role in the formation of my personality. Headphones hang to the rear of the installation space, playing a continuous loop of local composer Heather Perkins’ fourteen minute composition, commissioned especially for this installation. In the same way that I use found materials and objects to create my pieces, Heather uses original music and “sampled” and altered found sounds to create her music. I felt that the act of a single person wearing headphones while looking at such a large body of work mimics the one-on-one time it takes to really get to know another person. I titled this installation “Kharshouf,” for the original Arabic word meaning “artichoke.” I like this curious word, both silly and pleasing to my tongue. I feel that the artichoke is the perfect metaphor for my thesis, and for the way it feels to come to understand someone’s personality in general. There are multiple sensations involved when eating an artichoke. Its scent is warm and dense, and it has a taste that is both pleasant and bitter. It is a primal, sensual experience to pull off each hard, spiky petal, one by one, using teeth and lips to scrape off the soft meat at the base. The leaves become more succulent as you pluck deeper, revealing the youngest, tiniest ones, paper thin and limp, still bearing that one sharp tooth at the tip. Just beneath is the hairy “choke” that tickles your throat if eaten. And when you remove that one last line of defense to reveal the tender, meaty heart, it is an intimate and deeply satisfying experience. — I have continued to make this work over the past decade. These pieces are available at Velvet da Vinci Gallery and the Gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. This work was featured in American Craft Magazine in their February/March 2002 issue.<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/wall_905.jpg" width="905" height="1342" width_o="2048" height_o="3037" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/wall_o.jpg" data-mid="5060422" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/kharshouf.jpg" width="360" height="372" width_o="360" height_o="372" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/kharshouf_o.jpg" data-mid="5060416" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/kharshouf2.jpeg" width="210" height="320" width_o="210" height_o="320" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/kharshouf2_o.jpeg" data-mid="5060425" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/badday.jpeg" width="249" height="263" width_o="249" height_o="263" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/badday_o.jpeg" data-mid="5060436" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/effervescent_905.jpg" width="905" height="1571" width_o="1970" height_o="3421" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053633/effervescent_o.jpg" data-mid="5060431" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/Love-Tooth http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/Love-Tooth Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:06:57 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1053617 2000 exhibited in the NW Biennial, Tacoma Art Museum 2001 The gray areas of an issue have always interested me–the places where you cannot easily see “wrong” or “right,” but the myriad of factors in between that you must weigh and consider before making a final decision. My work in the past few years has been an exploration of these kinds of complexites that makes life so rich. “Love Tooth” is a piece I refer to as a “sculptural bouquet,” which is a format I have been exploring in the past year. I see these as an exercise in portraiture, looking back to my original installation and presentation of these sculptures, titled Kharshouf, which was a self-portrait. The bouquets take their forms from a bouquet of flowers, where there are multiples of several different units that make up the entire composition. This piece is a portrait of an emotion or proclivity. “Love Tooth” is a term which used to be applied to someone who has a tendency to fall in love easily, just as one might have a sweet tooth.<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053617/LoveToothDetail_905.jpeg" width="905" height="1385" width_o="1464" height_o="2241" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053617/LoveToothDetail_o.jpeg" data-mid="5060370" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053617/pfeiferlovetooth.jpg" width="200" height="185" width_o="200" height_o="185" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053617/pfeiferlovetooth_o.jpg" data-mid="5060371" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/PDX-Window-Project http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/PDX-Window-Project Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:03:37 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1053609 PDX Contemporary Art Gallery, 2001 Portland, Oregon Having lived in the Pacific Northwest nearly all of my life, spring seems to extend from January through June. As a gardener, a walker, and an allergy sufferer, I get through the first six months of the year by watching what plants are blooming, how the light changes, how the earth slowly moves into summer. I study plant and pollen forms, thinking about how people, like plants, have varying ways in which they manifest and express their sexuality. Some flaunt their potency, others protect it. For this installation in particular, I wanted to create a piece about how the months of rain move us into the lush time of the year. This is a bouquet for Portland, bringing optimism for the long season ahead. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053609/pdxwindow_905.jpg" width="905" height="1206" width_o="1200" height_o="1600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053609/pdxwindow_o.jpg" data-mid="5060334" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053609/pdxdetail_905.jpg" width="905" height="678" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053609/pdxdetail_o.jpg" data-mid="5060336" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/Model-Room http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/Model-Room Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:01:14 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1053592 Museum of Contemporary Craft (then Contemporary Crafts Gallery), December 2001- January 2002 A collaboration with F.U.P. of Portland, seller of Eames era production furniture. The “Model Room” series at the Museum of Contemporary Craft showed how one can live with art by pairing artists with furniture retailers in the Portland area.<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053592/cc1.jpg" width="540" height="720" width_o="540" height_o="720" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053592/cc1_o.jpg" data-mid="5060267" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053592/cc5.jpg" width="540" height="755" width_o="540" height_o="755" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053592/cc5_o.jpg" data-mid="5060272" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053592/cc3.jpg" width="537" height="719" width_o="537" height_o="719" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053592/cc3_o.jpg" data-mid="5060277" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/Rule-No-14-Don-t-Buy-Art-to-Match-your-Sofa http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/Rule-No-14-Don-t-Buy-Art-to-Match-your-Sofa Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:51:09 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1053555 mixed media, height: 6′ Play, curated by Jeff Jahn, Portland State University, Littman Gallery, 2002 Northwest Biennial, Tacoma Art Museum, 2004<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053555/13_sofa.jpg" width="652" height="864" width_o="652" height_o="864" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053555/13_sofa_o.jpg" data-mid="5060079" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053555/detail.gif" width="600" height="400" width_o="600" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053555/detail_o.gif" data-mid="5060097" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/Walking-Stick-for-someone-who-stays-indoors-mostly http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/Walking-Stick-for-someone-who-stays-indoors-mostly Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:47:12 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1053546 Exhibition in Motion, Society of North American Goldsmiths Conference, San Francisco, CA, 2003 also exhibited in Northwest Biennial, Tacoma Art Museum, 2004. The setting I envision Walking Stick for Someone Who Stays Indoors, Mostly is in the corner of an urban-dweller’s apartment. The owner spent enough of their childhood exploring the mountains that they still have a memory of what grows there, but now lives a busy life in the city. He is so out of touch with nature that he might even believe that this stick grew this way, cut straight from the tree with these strange flowers intact. Someday, he plans to hike in the forest again, but for now, this stick is his only connection with nature. I created this stick for the “Exhibition in Motion” for the Society of North American Goldsmiths’ annual conference. This invitational event showcases several dozen members’ work in a fashion-show-type atmosphere. It’s one of my favorite parts of the conference–many of the pieces are quite elaborate and stunning, others simple and hilarious. Since I am one of the few members whose work is not wearable, (let alone metal!), I decided to do a walking stick. Velvet da Vinci organized this particular conference, and coordinated with the Art Institute’s fashion design department to have them make original outfits to accompany early drawings of the pieces the artists intended to create. These photographs are of the spectacular outfit made for my walking stick.<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/walkingstick72_905.jpg" width="905" height="1382" width_o="1000" height_o="1528" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/walkingstick72_o.jpg" data-mid="5060019" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/bigstick.jpg" width="372" height="1908" width_o="372" height_o="1908" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/bigstick_o.jpg" data-mid="5060022" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/bigstickclose_905.jpg" width="905" height="1556" width_o="1216" height_o="2091" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/bigstickclose_o.jpg" data-mid="5060026" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/front_back_walkstick.jpg" width="560" height="420" width_o="560" height_o="420" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/front_back_walkstick_o.jpg" data-mid="5109922" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/P1010030_905.JPG" width="905" height="1206" width_o="1200" height_o="1600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053546/P1010030_o.JPG" data-mid="5131655" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/Cumulate http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/Cumulate Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:35:18 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1053509 Indianapolis Art Center, 2003 Velvet da Vinci Gallery, 2004 Oregon College of Art and Craft, 2004 Each of the sixteen clouds in this installation is named for a mood. They “floated” in from the entrance of the Indianapolis Art Center, leading the viewer back into the gallery space. It was a treat to be able to work with this beautiful building, designed by architect Michael Graves in the late 90’s. “Cumulate” is about the moods that move in and out of my psyche, like big cumulus clouds in a summer sky. An inspiration for this show was the emotional chemistry of the human brain. It fascinates me how my brain can tell us we feel sad one day, and then have the capability to feel completely elated the next. Clouds are an apt metaphor for emotions because both can take on so many different forms, and change so quickly. They may be thick or thin, have well defined edges or be very diffuse, appear hairlike, cellular, towering, or in sheets, and be associated with fair weather or precipitation. Clouds have always been an important icon for me, perhaps because I have spent most of my life living in Oregon. In my sculptural work, I do not literally render plant, animal, or everyday objects, but specific references can be discovered there: one might look like an ear, another a flower bud, a toy, a bug, or a piece of fruit. Each person might see something completely different in the very same sculpture, just as one might in a cloud. I decided to integrate my visual abstractions with the childhood game where one figures out what shapes they see in the real cumulus clouds. In addition to three gallery spaces, the Indianapolis Art Center hosts a library and over six different art studios that teach classes for all age groups. I have always loved the fact that my work is accessible to viewers of all ages and wanted to use this opportunity to engage the many children who also use that building. A small table with colorful postcards invited the kids to tell me what shapes they saw in my clouds. I promised to mail them a color postcard of my work in return. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053509/cumulate2_905.jpg" width="905" height="678" width_o="1920" height_o="1440" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053509/cumulate2_o.jpg" data-mid="5059815" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053509/cumulate1_905.jpg" width="905" height="1204" width_o="1443" height_o="1920" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053509/cumulate1_o.jpg" data-mid="5059820" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053509/cumulate4_905.jpg" width="905" height="678" width_o="1920" height_o="1440" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053509/cumulate4_o.jpg" data-mid="5059826" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/Vertical-Garden http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/Vertical-Garden Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:30:25 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1053485 Vertical Garden Portland Building, Portland, OR., 2004 This installation was initially created for the Portland Building Installation space in 2004. The intent was to create “a sanctuary in the heart of the city,” with a 4’x 8’ plot or portrait of thousands of natural forms, accompanied by a computer generated natural soundscape. The soundscape plays on cd players flanking the installation. Viewers listen on headphones, which isolates them in their experience with this manmade natural environment. The term Vertical Garden refers to a type of horticulture practiced by city dwellers who don’t have a plot of land to grow their vegetables. The term involves such practices as using trellises to encourage plants to fit into a small urban space like an apartment deck or porch. The sculptural installation was created by Hilary Pfeifer, and the audio soundscape was recorded by Heather Perkins.<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053485/12_verticalgarden_905.jpg" width="905" height="678" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053485/12_verticalgarden_o.jpg" data-mid="5059644" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053485/11_VerticalGardendetail_905.jpg" width="905" height="1389" width_o="977" height_o="1500" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053485/11_VerticalGardendetail_o.jpg" data-mid="5059647" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053485/installVG_905.jpg" width="905" height="646" width_o="2048" height_o="1462" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053485/installVG_o.jpg" data-mid="5059651" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053485/DSC_0109_905.JPG" width="905" height="605" width_o="2048" height_o="1370" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053485/DSC_0109_o.JPG" data-mid="5059672" border="0" align="left"/> This installation was written about in the Portland Tribune. Collection of Lee Unkrich http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/sWarm http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/following/hilarypfeifer.com/sWarm Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:20:25 +0000 hilarypfeifer.com 1053405 Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, 2006 Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR, 2007 Statement: Every year the Lovebugs swarm. It’s their mating process–traveling in a giant mass of writhing pheromones. In recent decades, as their native habitat in the forests has been depleted, the Lovebugs have migrated toward the roadways to act out their seasonal ritual. They are drawn to the scent of automobile exhaust fumes, which chemically replicates the odor produced by the female insect to attract their male counterparts and alert them of their fertility. Quite often, individuals in a swarm are randomly looping, spiraling, or corkscrewing around in a dizzying search for their mates, rather than following a linear flightplan. People swarm too. In bars, parks, highways, gyms, malls. We often gather together and watch each other, observing our mating rites which include clothing, gesture, demeanor. We flirt, looking into each other’s eyes for the kinesthetic cues that it’s okay to do so. And for the cues that we should keep on going. Or the cues that it’s time to stop. We use electronic aids as well–cell phones, the internet, text messages–all of which often bring our swarming and mating routines further into the public domain. Language is a big part of courtship, and it is from this place that I chose the title for this installation. When George Gershwin wrote ’s Wonderful, he was taking note of the way that humans often elide the spoken word, letting some parts drop away and others merge. When we are speaking affectionately to lovers, our language is softer and more melodic than usual. Words loop from thought to thought, much like the lofty flight pattern of a giddy bug. This project was featured in the Boston Globe, the Oregonian by DK Row, and in 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse by Garth Johnson. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/10_sWarmFuller_905.jpg" width="905" height="1206" width_o="1200" height_o="1600" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/10_sWarmFuller_o.jpg" data-mid="5059273" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/-sWarmFuller2_905.jpg" width="905" height="678" width_o="1600" height_o="1200" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/-sWarmFuller2_o.jpg" data-mid="5059276" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/349219217106_0_ALB.jpg" width="336" height="448" width_o="336" height_o="448" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/349219217106_0_ALB_o.jpg" data-mid="5059281" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/lovebugs.jpg" width="600" height="402" width_o="600" height_o="402" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/lovebugs_o.jpg" data-mid="5059287" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/lovebugsGSP.jpg" width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/lovebugsGSP_o.jpg" data-mid="5059288" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/LovebugsatLogan.jpg" width="504" height="672" width_o="504" height_o="672" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/82546/1053405/LovebugsatLogan_o.jpg" data-mid="5059292" border="0" align="left"/> Above images include an installation of lovebugs in a private home, and the Fuller museum's Logan Airport kiosk, which used a portion of the Lovebugs from the 2006 show.