Still from Paul Clay's Parking Lot Dance

Tonight, Place's White gallery presents Paul Clay's Parking Lot Dance, Shit Balloons by John Dougherty and The High Improbability of Death: A Celebration of Suicide with the ever quixotic Michael Reinsch. Should be an interesting evening with three of Portland's most promising provocateurs.

According to the PR: Paul Clay's "Parking Lot Dance" is a 4 minute, surround-projected, 4-channel video loop. Filling a strip mall parking lot, thousands of duplicated dancers march, shoot guns, wave flags and writhe to a dark dance club beat. The video is a dream sequence and a response to our over-the-top, self-infatuated American shopping culture. One part ceremony, one part protest, one part broadway chorus line - the parking lot is reimagined as a surreal video canvas for digitally generated choreography."

John Dougherty's "Shit Balloons" is an installation that utilizes waste materials and celebratory aesthetics to seduce viewers with tricks and humor. Also, there will be brownies.

"For "The High Improbability of Death: A Celebration of Suicide," Reinsch will place a noose around his neck, read an epic suicide note poem, and attach helium balloons to the end of the rope in order to lift himself into the air. Reinsch will engage in an act of performance art in which risks are mitigated. This is not a suicide attempt."

A wake is a celebration of death and Reinsch likens this to a one man wake where he is in no danger.


"Parking Lot Dance" - Paul Clay
"Shit Balloons" - John Dougherty
"The High Improbability of Death: A Celebration of Suicide" - Michael Reinsch
Opening: February 22 6-9PM
Place PDX (ENTER ON MOVIE THEATER SIDE AFTER 8PM)
700 SW 5th Ave 3rd Floor