Artist Hilary Pfeifer presents The Beauty of Life Installation at the Portland Building, 10/14 – 11/12

Inspired by the wallpaper and fabric patterns of Arts and Crafts designer William Morris, Hilary Pfeifer’s The Beauty of Life installation at the Portland Building features hundreds of exquisitely sculpted leaf, flower, fruit and bird forms, all interconnected by a dominant vine form crafted from painted wire. The tableau forms a three-dimensional wallpaper pattern that spans the entire exhibit space. Pieces at the center of the installation appear harmonious, but the flora and fauna become wilder, more unusual and unpredictable as the eye follows the interlaced vines toward the edge of the space. Pfeifer’s individually hand-crafted pieces are made from reclaimed materials—wood, ornate picture frames, rulers, decorative fruit, toys, cooking utensils, etc., that are skillfully combined so that no one found-object is easily recognizable.

“Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or beautiful.”
—William Morris

In homage to this Morris concept, Pfeifer’s finished pieces exist not only as sculpture, but also double as brooches, tie-tacks, and neckpieces, each of which is signed and numbered on the back and will be made available through the artist’s website. A visit to the Pfeifer’s blog chronicles the creation of this complex project and shows the finished pieces: www.hilarypfeifer.blogspot.com.

About the Artist: Hilary Pfeifer’s artwork explores how humans attempt to control nature and how nature finds a way to adapt or reassert itself—such as the grass that grows in the cracks of a sidewalk or the mildew that forms on a wall behind a couch. She expresses these struggles through craft-influenced sculpture and installation where her anthropomorphized organics live somewhere between humor and curiosity. Visit the artist’s website at: www.hilarypfeifer.com
Viewing Hours & Location: 7 am to 6 pm, Monday – Friday. The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland.

For more information on the Portland Building Installation Series and a website that provides images, proposals and statements of all the installations featured since 1994, go to www.racc.org/installationspace.