ARTIST

Mike Rathbun is based in Portland, OR, and has exhibited nationally. Some venues include Suyama Space, The Boise Art Museum in Boise, Socrates Sculpture Park, Franconia Sculpture Park, and Minneapolis Institute of Art. Mike has been recognized and funded by such organizations as The National endowment for the Arts, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Bush Foundation, the Virginia Groot Foundation, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and the Regional Arts and Culture Council. More information about Mike can be found at mikerathbun.com

OVERVIEW

“The very posture of search, the slow movement with the head down, seems to draw people. ‘What did you lose?’ they ask. ‘Nothing.’ ‘Then what do you search for?’ And this is an embarrassing question. We search for something that will seem like truth to us; we search for understanding; we search for that principle which keys us deeply into the pattern of all life; we search for the relations of things, one to another.”

-John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez

I think with my hands. I build contexts that provide the parts of a narrative that the participant will construct from their own experience. My artistic intent is to present, re-present and represent ideas, spaces, objects, or possibilities that have been rendered invisible by the everydayness of life. The process is not linear or logical. I hope to make a hyperbolic context that by its created nature, compels us to experience with our eyes open, so that we might, at a moment of emotional swell, look to the side and see a path that leads to our own particular longing.

-Mike Rathbun

TEXT TO ACCOMPANY

Meaning in objects is transferable. It can be imbued collectively or by the individual. It may be built-in or detected. Meaning may also be completely consumed, leaving the object empty. Loss of meaning may also occur through leakage, as with time. A portion may be recovered through a process of effective nostalgia.

-Russell Rathbun