High-tech, low-tech, even edible art

You can smell, taste, sit on, virtually fly through and, of course, look closely at the works of art at this year's Bumbershoot. There are some strong works on view: Some are funny, some disturbing, some gorgeous, and a lot are woven into this year's theme of "High Tech vs. Home Ec."

Two exhibitions explore this relationship between new media and hand-made objects. Curated by Michael Van Horn, the exhibition "Pixel Dolls, Meat-Space and Everything All at Once," throws you into cyberspace, with various online and real-world projects devoted to the exploration of "Second Life," a virtual world created in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Lab. "Second Life" is both a game and an amazingly absorbing alternate life; more than 500,000 people participate in this online world, buying property and creating different spaces and experiences for anyone to explore. For this exhibition, Van Horn rented an island in "Second Life" and invited different artists and "Second Life" participants to create objects and environments.

"Guides" will be on hand to maneuver through the projects — you can watch the characters walk, jump and fly through the environments on large screens, which sounds passive but is actually pretty exciting — or, if you're tech-savvy enough, you can sit down and manipulate the computer yourself.

Try to wrap your head around the concept of "Second Life" before taking a look at the "real world" artworks on view in the front of the exhibition. These objects were created by artists as responses to their experiences with "Second Life." The idea is fascinating: extracting and constructing real ("First Life") objects out of a virtual world that itself has been almost entirely constructed by its users. The resulting real-life objects are spotty in quality, but it's worth taking the time to see how the artists took on this challenge.

The exhibition "Softly Threatening: Artwork of the Modern Domestic," curated by Yoko Ott, also explores the do-it-yourself phenomenon, but with a more traditional, craft-oriented view. The exhibition hangs together well, conceptually, and more than a few pieces stand out as stunners. Mandy Greer's "Small but Mighty Wandering Pearl" could send you into visual overload with the amount of knotting, beading, and braiding involved in the elegant and disturbing installation.

While visually unassuming, Toi Sennhauser's work, called "Family Portrait," must be savored. Sennhauser has created a flavor of candy for each of her family members. You are invited to try the different flavors — not all of them pleasing — and contemplate the complex nature of familial relationships.

Inside the exhibition, around Seattle Center, and in various cities around the world, the guerrilla knitting group Knitta has made the urban environment just a little bit cuddlier by wrapping knit sleeves around things like sign poles, trees and door handles. If you see some brightly colored knitting inexplicably cozying up some urban object, like the poles by the monorail, then you're seeing one of Knitta's "tags."

Related events


The Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., Seattle, has created a space for discourse and hands-on activities.

Bluebottle, a Capitol Hill gallery/store at 415 E. Pine St., offers affordable, funky works by artists and craftspeople.

The Mayor's Arts Awards will be presented at noon today, Northwest Court at Seattle Center.

A separate exhibition titled "End of Summer" shows off the teamwork of three photographers — William Anthony, Bradley Hanson and Ryan Schierling — who were commissioned to capture the essence of last year's Bumbershoot. The lighting and composition are exquisite in each individual image, but it's the grouping of the shots that makes this take on Bumbershoot unique. In an effort that the artists say was almost harder than taking the shots themselves, they carefully edited their images and formed triptychs composed of one image from each artist. These groupings suggest the multiplicity of perspectives, moods and moments that take place during this sprawling, unruly event. Don't miss these gorgeous photographs.

Bumbeshoot exhibits


"Pixel Dolls, Meat-Space, and Everything All at Once," group show curated by Michael Van Horn.

"Softly Threatening: Artwork of the Modern Domestic," group show curated by Yoko Ott.

"Experimental Housing Project" installation by SuttonBeresCuller.

"End of Summer: Three Views of Bumbershoot," photographs by William Anthony, Bradley Hanson and Ryan Schierling.

Today through Monday, Northwest Rooms, Seattle Center.

Another cooperative effort, the enormous installation by SuttonBeresCuller, would be hard to miss. The artistic group has scattered 10 suburban and domestic structures across the International Fountain Lawn. According to John Sutton and Ben Beres, two of the three artists in this collaborative, the group was faced with the challenge of creating a site-specific work for a huge space in three days' time to be on view only for the three days of Bumbershoot. They were asking themselves questions like, "How do we build something in three days?" and "How do we move in?" Their clever answer took these problems and made them part of the art — they have built or installed pre-fab houses, sections of apartments and trailer homes, showcasing the idea of how we construct living spaces.

This play between mobility and stability and the interactive nature of the installation works especially well for Bumbershoot. The same people who come day after day and set up camp at different musical stages will be able to explore SuttonBeresCuller's suburban cul de sac, even going inside some of the living spaces to make themselves at home. You might catch the artists having a barbecue outside their trailer, but the real performance element of this installation will be how Bumbershoot visitors move around and into it.

Anyone visiting during the three days of the festival should make a point of sampling this year's visual-arts offerings. You can go today from 12:30 to 7 p.m., for free, to see this gathering of funky, thoughtful, handsome art — some of which you can put in your mouth — it doesn't get much better than that.