Keith is the founder and curator of the ArtStar Project and the Li'l Red Shack Gallery, 1020 First Ave S, 621-7807. The gallery is showing It's Just Like the Movies, a group show by local artists about post-9/11 impressions. Through Feb 3, 2002.
How do you think the war is going? "How do I think the war is going? Nowhere! The past has shown us over and over, and we still continue the same cycle. The cycles just seem to be picking up speed. In actuality, the war sucks. I don't see any positive outcome from a violent action or reaction."
Is it just me, or is Pioneer Square art in some kind of time-warp bubble? As with your Construction/Destruction show last spring that was in response to the earthquake/riot week, this show is in direct response to recent events. Are you trying to burst that bubble? "I never thought about it like that. It's not [so much] about bursting bubbles as it is about expanding them. We can get so wrapped up in our little world, or one that someone else has made for us. When that happens we close up, and most of the time we never even know it. Our bubble ends up just being big enough for us. We forget we are all part of a whole, and when we forget that, that's when it all starts to fray and come apart.... As for the current show, and Destruction/Construction, I feel it's incredibly important that when major events happen in a community, local or the world, we need to be able to express how we feel, and feel safe in doing so. Hopefully, that's what ArtStar Project is doing, and will continue to do."
Tell me about your video piece--how did it come about? How did it end up, do you think? "In the last couple of years I've been recording everyday situations for long durations around Safeco Field. From sports fans walking to the ballpark, people waiting in line for the Christmas expo, the motorcycle show, and all the young kids going to Insane Clown Posse and Jane's Addiction, to the construction workers building the stadium, to the snipers across the street that I saw from my window during the playoff game a month after September 11. When I saw [the snipers], it really gave me a little jolt--a very unfamiliar event, something I normally don't see. The snipers are a physical apparition of the energy that already exists around us, [one that] is present, but not in a physical form."
