For The Bornholm Project, Timea Tihanyi spent a week in September pedaling around that scenic Danish island. But she wasnt on vacation. Rather, the Hungarian-born physician, today a Seattle artist, rendered 800 pounds of clay into delicate white porcelain stick assemblageswhich look something like coralcontained within squat obelisks. She then pedaled one of those box-fronted cargo delivery bikes around Bornholm, placing 79 of the vessels near mileposts and other bike-path markers. Theyre not meant to last. Bornholm is located in the stormy middle of the Baltic Sea, and Tihanyi expects the delicate stick structures [will] be destroyed over time being left outside exposed to weather and traffic. Unceasing high winds, wild animals, trafficanything could easily smash each to little pieces. Back home in the gallery, theres a sample of Tihanyis porcelain sticks; and her journey is mapped out in three-by-five photos on the wall, arranged like a board game you can trace with your finger. She writes, This is a mapping project in which I place markers at places where Im looking, where Im thinking that you should be looking and observing, too. Its like Google Earth gone real! All one needs to do is to follow the trail. (Also on view: Vs. The Matador, a lame spoof of SAM’s current money-maker.) BRIAN MILLER
Thu., Dec. 2, 5-8 p.m.; Wednesdays-Saturdays, 12-5 p.m.; Thu., Dec. 16, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Starts: Dec. 2. Continues through Dec. 23, 2010
