Fife soars with ‘Big Trouble’
Seattle artist Scott Fife loves rolling up his sleeves and creating classically styled figurative sculpture made from hunks of heavy cardboard, a bucket of glue and power tools.
He’s been doing it for almost 30 years – and he’s good at it.
His monumental trope l’oeil heads constructed of archival cardboard are truly astonishing.
Opening next week at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture is “Big Trouble: Scott Fife’s Idaho Project,” an exhibition of 28 sculptural portraits influenced by actual historical figures.
One hundred years ago this month, Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg was murdered in his home during a particularly violent period of labor unrest in the Coeur d’Alene mining district.
This exhibition borrows its title from Anthony Lukas’ book “Big Trouble,” an extensive study of the legal drama that unfolded following the 1905 assassination of the union-busting governor.
The narrative focus of “The Idaho Project” swirls around the 1907 trial of labor leaders accused of plotting the governor’s murder.
“This is a special public art project because it extends itself into history,” said Fife from his studio near Seattle’s waterfront. “A lot of people who have no interest in art can look at this and become interested in the historic event itself.”
The sensational, summer-long trial attracted scores of media and become a complex intersection of politics, organized labor and celebrity.
To memorialize the event, Fife fashioned realistic, Roman portrait-style busts of public figures associated with the trial including defense attorney Clarence Darrow, President Theodore Roosevelt and “Gibson Girl” Ethel Barrymore.
“A good part of the United States were focused on the trial that summer,” said Fife. Including, it seems, actress Barrymore.
“All the newspaper people were there,” said Fife. “Every day they would report on what Barrymore was wearing in the courtroom. She was the all-American beauty overseeing this whole thing. She was on stage as much as whomever was in the box being tried.”
Fife will talk more about his artistic interpretation of these historical personalities during his gallery talk next Thursday at noon in museum.
A native of Moscow, Idaho, Fife has a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Idaho and a bachelor’s degree from the Minneapolis School of Art and Design.
His work has been shown in galleries across the United States and in Europe. In the early 1980s, he worked in Berlin with internationally known assemblage artists the late Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, formerly of Hope, Idaho.
AIDS quilt at WSU
Three panels from “The Names Project: AIDS Memorial Quilt” are on display in Washington State University’s Compton Union Gallery through Dec. 16.
“As the AIDS epidemic continues claiming lives around the world and here in the United States,” said Gail Siegel of Campus Involvement, “the AIDS Memorial Quilt with its message of remembrance, awareness and hope, continues to grow.”
As a part of the largest ongoing community arts project in the world, three of the more than 44,000 colorful panels are hanging in the gallery on WSU’s Pullman campus.
The exhibit is presented by WSU Campus Involvement, the GLBA Program and the Visual, Performing and Literary Arts Committee.
The free gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the first floor in the Compton Union Building.
Other galleries
•”The Garden,” an exhibit of floral paintings by Felisa Carranza, opens Friday with an artist’s reception from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Parlor Gallery, 245 E. 13th Ave.
“Inspired by the red poppies in her garden, Carranza’s art reflects her desire to extend and capture a timeless effect and impression of the flowers through her paintings,” said curator Gloria Waggoner.
Call 455-6661 with additional questions.
•Three local painters – Angelica Hardin, oil and acrylic; Renee Rigsby, watercolors; and Jo Breitsprecher, oil on glass – are the featured artists at The Empyrean, S. 154 Madison St., through Jan. 7. Meet the artists at an open house on Friday from 2 to 9 p.m.