Charms
Matthew Offenbacher
October 20 – November 17, 2024
I-5 Colonnade Park, Seattle
Reception:
Sunday, October 20, 10am – Noon
Aluminum foil, mylar, metal foil tape, glitter, chocolate bar wrappers, holographic and dichroic polyester film on cardboard, 36 x 24"
These paintings are protection charms. People have asked if I’m worried about leaving them out in a park where they might get damaged or go missing. I don’t really mind. I mean, I don’t want you to go and take them, but being vulnerable in public is part of their work.
They might look dull or dazzling depending on the weather, the time of day and how you move around them. Their rainbow effect comes from thin embossed sheets reflecting light at different angles to create interference patterns. The desire for shiny, glittery things seems to be a core human desire, and it often conflicts with other desires such as the desire to treat others justly.
Under the I-5 freeway, it’s hard to not think about the displacement of people and dispossession of land that Seattle was founded on and continues today. Many of our structures protect some people by making other people less safe. May we have the strength and wisdom to reject our investments in harmful structures that provide an illusion of safety and build new forms of safety for and with each other.
I-5 Colonnade Park
1701 Lakeview Blvd E, Seattle, 98102
Open: 4am – 11:30pm, 7 days a week
About the park: I-5 Colonnade Park is a city park underneath Interstate 5 between the Capitol Hill and Eastlake neighborhoods. The park features stairways and paths, a dog run, a mountain bike skills course constructed by the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, and a permanent public artwork by John Roloff from 2006.
Accessibility: Access is via gravel park paths which are fairly well-kept, but steep in places. The most accessible entrance to the section of the park with the paintings is along the western edge, on a path that begins where E Blaine St. meets Franklin Ave. E. There is often street parking nearby. While the hill from this direction is less steep than the one from the main Lakeview Blvd. entrance, there is still a short steep uphill path as you enter the park.
◦˚ .・゜・✫・゜・。.･ﾟﾟ･｡ ✫ ｡⋆ ☂˚ ☽･ﾟ⁺ ◦
About the artist: Matthew Offenbacher is a long-time Seattle artist and community organizer. Offenbacher’s work has been called “freakishly egoless”, vulnerable, funny and queer. This is his first solo exhibition since 2019.