Art Preview: Salvage

Any kid who visits the beach in the Northwest has their imagination stirred up by the sometimes-massive pieces of driftwood laying around. What could these logs and sticks and stumps become? A tree fort? Or maybe a statue?

Alison Stigora has a few ideas about how this driftwood can be repurposed. The Seattle-based artist often uses found and natural objects to evoke awareness of human scale within the expanse of the natural and constructed world. In Salvage, a new exhibition at MadArt Seattle, Stigora has amassed reclaimed driftwood and is pairing it with light and sound compositions to build a monumental and immersive installation.

Collected and donated by the Army Corps of Engineers, the driftwood previously occupied our waterways as dangerous debris. Now, wooden pieces are being used by Stigora to pose a question: How can we embrace areas of resistance and positively see them as a space for transformation?

Stigora’s creation looks like a floor-to-ceiling curving wave of driftwood. Many of the pieces are logs the size of whole trees. Along with the driftwood construction, patrons will see a soft, translucent sculpture aglow with sunrise colors and hear special audio compositions by Seattle composer Rachael Fasano.

Patrons can experience the open studio portion of Salvage through September 30. You can see the work in progress Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5pm. The full exhibition opens on October 4 and runs through November 23.