Ghost Ship
In January of 2022, while installing my show “A Soft Landing”, I had time to become familiar with Building Five. The Covid pandemic was not entirely over and there was no heat there at the time, so I had the space mostly to myself for the month. Both the visual and physical qualities of the room, with its huge open spaces and tall walls, are extraordinary. I was fascinated by the light that came in from the clerestory windows. The forms in shadows created on the walls seemed to come alive with the possibilities of what once was. There were layers of mystery dirt on the old cement floor. The walls, laced with defunct scaffolding, conduit pipes and metal brackets had outlived their usefulness long ago.
When I saw Cristy Nyboer’s show Forgotten Lake, in May of 2022, I was inspired to continue a conversation about Building Five’s transformations. The place where Building Five stands is on unceded lands of the Multnomah, Wasco, Kathlamet, Cowlitz, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other Indigenous peoples. The area was originally wetland. The wetland was dredged to create Guild’s Lake for the Oregon’s Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. Then subsequently filled in to create industrial land. The building was a foundry into the1970’s. The building was abandoned when the foundry and repair work was no longer profitable
I wondered about the people who labored in the foundry. Work that started during the war effort in the 1940’s and into the 1970’s if their spirits ever lingered here or passed through occasionally. This installation, “Ghost Ship” acknowledges the spirit of these folks and the work they took on, repairing the metal machinery of ships plying the oceans of the world. -Julie Rall
I will be adding to the pattern on the floor for the duration of the residency.
Julie Rall
Work in progress in the studio for Julie Rall’s Ghost Ship Installation