Free and open to the public.
Join us for a special presentation by artist-in-residence, Spencer Garland, and his project Albina Dream Survey (ADS). ADS is an interdisciplinary artistic project that seeks to create an archive of Black folks’ dreams and aspirations. ADS follows the Dream Collector, the dashing “Liminal Criminal,” and his quest to preserve the fantasies of Black people from the nightmarish forces that seek to destroy them. Combining Garland’s love for Saturday morning squigglevision cartoons, creepypasta, Japanese developed Playstation One video games, the photography of Gabriel Moses, a deep love of Black child creativity, and affinity for textiles, the Albina Dream Survey blends the physical with the metaphysical.
Made in collaboration with Garland, PAM CUT, and students at Martin Luther King Elementary School, Black children’s art is reinterpreted into an afro-surrealist fashion cartoon rendered in 3D animation, graphic design, and a collaborative art installation, the Dream Collector’s Bedroom. If you have a dream worth sharing, please call the Dream Collector’s hotline at (971) 266-0341 to share it anonymously.
Participants are encouraged to show up in their favorite pajamas as they sit back and watch the dreams come to life that Spencer Garland has created with the students.
This project is brought to life by Garland, Devyn Sinclair, and LѦKE ! Special thanks to Ellen Van Dusen of Dusen Dusen for supporting ADS with a generous clothing sponsorship.
Bio
Spencer Garland is the founder of BRENDA ARTS, an interdisciplinary media studio that collaborates with POC youth as an integral part of our productions. Originating as a BIPOC after as an after-school arts program that turned into a boutique media company, Garland’s work spans film, video games, education, design, and animation. He heavily emphasizes uplifting students who look like him and prides himself on giving them the tools to explore the fullness of personhood rarely offered to marginalized communities. He aims to tell Black stories that have never been told through animation while showing the process of making the project in real time with my students. Their feedback and questions drive his own personal curiosity.