Slide Crawl No.3

Gretchen Bennett, Flatchestedmama, and Kristen Ramirez discuss how their work relates to The Urban Landscape.

Crawl Space puts on “Slide Crawl No. 3”, in which three of Seattle’s most intriguing artists, Gretchen Bennett, Flatchestedmama, and Kristen Ramirez, discuss “The Urban Landscape” and how they incorporate the city into their work, or—perhaps more tellingly—how their work becomes part of our city. Bennett’s image of a beautiful (and dead) deer (part of last year’s solo show at Howard House) can still be seen stuck to telephone poles and newspaper boxes around town. As part of her solo show at 4Culture, Ramirez (Let Your Hair Down, pictured) cut a gorgeous, blue letterpress map of Seattle into postcards, printed with the question, “What do you know about Seattle?” At her subsequent Crawl Space exhibit, the returned cards were assembled into a wall-sized map, illustrating both the physical and psychological contours of our city. Messages included the mnemonic device for Seattle’s downtown streets: “Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Pressure” as well as more poetic scrawlings: “There are seven hills in Seattle, just like in Rome.” Flatchestedmama (aka Amy-Ellen Trefsger) is herself an installation, seen this summer marooned on a suburban boat in kitschy cruise wear, and on a real-but-staged date at the opening of the SuttonBeresCuller’s Three Dragon Restaurant at the Lawrimore Project. Creating innovative, site-specific, thought-provoking work, Bennett, Flatchestedmama, and Ramirez seem to be in all the right places. Come hear them tell how they got there, and what their view looks like. Each artist will give a 15-20 minute slide talk, with beer and snacks provided for a suggested donation. ADRIANA GRANT