Exhibition Statement from Carnation Contemporary

Wild Peninsula: Color and Sound in North Portland explores the strange interplay of nature, industry, preservation, disuse, and restoration in the edge-of-wild spaces in and around St. Johns, Portland.

Over years of near-daily walks taken in the neighborhood, where they are all long-term residents, textile artist Carolyn Hazel Drake, photographer Michael Brooks, and musician Eric Jordan have each found deep resonance in the specificity of the geography of the peninsula: the Baltimore Woods, Chimney Park, Smith & Bybee Wetlands, the Columbia Slough, the St Johns Prairie. This exhibition presents the impressions sampled from that natural and industrial palette in the form of woven tapestries, hand-appliqued textiles, and soundscapes.