Town and Country Crier, Buster Simpson
Slip Gallery, 2301 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98121; Hours: Thurs 12-6pm, Fri 12-7pm, Sat 12-6pm, Sun 12-7pm; First Thursday 3/6 until 8pm.
At the entrance is a photo of “purge” written in chalk and seemingly hanging in midair.
Nearby is a glass bell with bronze clappers. “Town and Country Crier” is embodied in these works, purge referring to cleaning toxins out of water, and the bell suggesting an announcement is coming. But if you actually ring this bell it will shatter. That takes our imaginations to where we are today. Emergency bells that can’t be heard.
Purge is one theme of Buster Simpson’s work. Many of his actions over the years have focused on detoxifying rivers. In this small exhibition one room has a documentation of a major action repeated in many places: he arranges square pieces of limestone in the abstract shape of a frog on the floor. In boxes arranged in a pile we see photographs of some of the places he has placed the limestone frog. The frog is what Simpson refers to as an indicator species, it can indicate the health of an ecosystem. The limestone actually absorbs toxins and cleans the water where it is placed. ( He mentioned that it was a special limestone found only in Texas, which I found amusing).
Another reference to toxins, in this case deadly, is a rusted oil barrel with a reference to the smallpox ridden rags that were passed on to Indians.
In this room there is also a complex and amusing multimedia piece referring to changing coastlines and climate change with a giant depth measure as well as a crucified haloed “figure” made from branches holding dipsticks. Across the front is a large level with monopoly pieces inside. Simpson’s specialty is multiple overlaid references to what he cares deeply about laced with humor.
Another room of the exhibition presents his long work with trees, much of it in the same neighborhood as the gallery and where he lived soon after his arrival in Seattle. Here we see some documentation of various projects, such as planting trees on First Avenue and protecting them with iron bed posts salvaged from SROs. In the center of the gallery is a blackened stump with its bed post protection. It seemed like a sad reference to fire and its destructive capabilities, much on our mind at the moment.
A handwritten document from the First Avenue Project identifies the larger issue at stake: working from and with community rather than top down through government mandates. The archival documents fill a wall.
They reveal Simpson’s roots in conceptual art, artists who didn’t believe in making objects for sale-instead they make gestures or draw plans for anyone to execute. Simpson stands out because he continues to work with the real world and physical things, but always in a subversive way.
But Simpson also works often with large committees and successfully completes projects such as the Brightwater Treatment Plan (with many other artists) and the waterfront “Anthropocene Migration Stage” on the beach near Yesler. Simpson conceived it as a place to sit temporarily until the sea level requires it to migrate away from the waters.
As we leave the gallery three bags filled with sand say “Searise Trumps Denial.”
~Susan Platt, PhD
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