I recall the day Vanessa Renwick called to tell me the news. “They’re tearing down the House of Sound building…” rang out the voice on the other end. “I have to go down there and save that sign!” With six weeks to go before her commissioned show at New American Art Union, she had found a subject calling out to be documented.
Renwick’s new installation paints an endearing portrait of the House of Sound building. This complex housed a barber shop, funk shop and record store during the 1970s and was the heart of Portland’s black community. The building had been vacant for years and was in severe disrepair, situated on N. Williams, an area undergoing massive economic redevelopment. After the building failed to sell for its $1 million asking price, it was leveled and now stands as a vacant lot.
The installation is simple: the salvaged sign, a video and a turntable on which one can play old R & B records. Renwick’s video, a twenty minute film of two barren lots, somehow manages to maintain the viewer’s attention, while an audio collage plays former employees’ fondest recollections. The video is shot on stark black-and-white film stock, reflecting the race politics embroiled in its subject. Curiously, we never see images of the interviewees: they are no longer a part of the community and are not present in its visual documentation.
Renwick has seen Portland change dramatically since she moved here in 1989. And it’s not just North Portland. It seems as if every area of the city is being developed at same time. The Pearl District, once filled with artist studios has long out-priced working artists. Alberta Street and Mississippi Avenue, once African American neighborhoods, are now lined with almost entirely white-owned businesses. Even areas such as South Waterfront, an abandoned train yard but a few years ago, and Lower Burnside are becoming sites for new condominiums.
Is the development a bad thing? Who is to say? Much of Portland’s urban renewal is due to PDC initiatives and the city’s urban growth boundary. It only makes sense that as more people move to the city, it should build up rather than out.
But what about the black people? Where did they go? Where do they shop? Certainly not at the high-end restaurants, coffee shops and boutiques that now inhabit N. Williams.
If it’s one weakness to this installation it’s possibly the limitations in hosting the show at New American Art Union. Nearly the entire audience which packed the opening of House of Sound was Caucasian. If the piece is about reconciliation, there is clearly still more work to do.
Ultimately, what can be learned from House of Sound? Renwick’s piece doesn’t offer many answers. Instead, it provides a space for contemplation and remembrance. The House of Sound lot sits vacant, its future hanging. And at a time when North Portland is changing so rapidly, maybe a breather is just what we need.
New American Art Union
922 SE Ankeny Street
Thursday- Sunday 12-6PM
2 Comments
1 vanessa wrote:
The interviewees are still very much a part of the community. After the show closes, one side of The House of Sound sign will end up at Charles Bedford’s Going Street Market. Charles worked at the House of Sound for many, many years. His market is just 10 blocks north of where the House of Sound used to be. If you want to see community, go into The Going Street Market at any time. I chose to show just the empty lots to emphasize the loss. The interviewees voices are so alive and rich to me through the audio…I never saw this as a talking heads piece.
Thanks for the thoughts on my piece.
2 marc moscato wrote:
no prob, thanks for putting on a great show! and thanks for making portland think!