Portland is considered the number one tattooed city in the US, unfortunately the Portland Art Museum missed the mark with an exhibit specifically designed around our fair city’s uniqueness. This exhibit could have been so much more, but it wasn’t because of the zero budget and perhaps lack of trustee cooperation, kept it from being something that could have gotten the national and international buzz. In fact I believe that a themed exhibit of this type could have been done in a local space, such as Olympic Mills. Curator, Chris Haberman, would probably have done a much better job in incorporating the art and culture of the tattoo. As it was, I was hoping to walk into a room with a lot of photos and illustrations on tattoo, maybe some videos and music would have been appropriate, too. What I found were three kiosks with information about different cultural tattooing each placed in the appropriate themed gallery. In the lowest level was a looped projection of different photos of individuals and their marks. This location was a hallway that was small, with one eight foot seating bench. The venue could not accommodate the crowds who wanted to see the projected tattoos. There was supposed to be an interactive device that would project tattoos on people–it didn’t work the day I visited.
I think my huge gripe with PAM is that there are a few monied people who control who sees what. Outreach has begun because of a new museum director, but it is not enough.
I would love to see the museum packed with all sorts of people who are enjoying what they came to see and then looking at other exhibits. This tattoo exhibit is a perfect example. The newspapers and local youth press wrote extensively about the exhibit. This could be the first time some people were interested enough to venture across town to stop by for an eyeful of the expressive line art. Unfortunately, I am not sure the folks at the museum realized that this particular exhibit could be the vehicle to lure more people into the museum and get new members.
With this pinch-penny exhibit, it just does not do it, at least for me. An event this weekend is planned at the museum with guests and fashion show. It will probably draw a crowd, but it could have been a lot better.
Pity.
