www.iamernest.us ERNEST is Amanda Curreri, Welly Fletcher, Hannah Ireland, and George Pfau
Over the course of 2014-2015, ERNEST produced a group of multi-media artworks investigating an unoccupied jail site called Wapato in the St. John’s neighborhood of Portland. The project, Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility is comprised of a video, publication, a print edition (printed in collaboration with Pacific Northwest College of Arts' Watershed Press), and a participatory event called Wapato Roundtable. This work was made with the tremendous support of Portland’s c3:Initiative.
Demos (pronounced “day-moss”) conjures early Athenian concepts of both “village” and “People” (Δῆμος). Equally, demos can be read to connote more modern concepts of the “demo,” or mix-tape, as well as the shorthand vernacular for demolition. As a collaborative group intent on testing and enacting forms of democracy, demos refers to local participatory engagement, keeping methods experimental and provisional, while harnessing the power of generative de(con)struction.
Coyotes, ERNEST’s unlikely interlocutors at Wapato, burrow beneath the fenced perimeter of the jail to come and go as they please. Coyote, and an unrelenting sense of frustration, leads Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility in a transformation of the specifics of Wapato Jail into a platform for challenging conversation and collaboration. The video component acts as conjurer, the publication as a platform for voices ranging in depth and breadth, and the event component creates an opportunity to stimulate discussion around the issues it brings up for various members of the community.
Video, 16 minutes 21 seconds
Print made in collaboration with PNCA's Watershed Press depicting one of many holes around the jail's perimeter fence.
Video, installed at c3:initiative
ERNEST presenting the project at the St. Johns Community Center. The event included a panel discussion with Emanuel Price, Melissa Salazar, and Yaelle Amir and a community meal and conversation. The day will provide a platform for exploration, open conversation, and a broadened investigation of themes relating to the empty jail facility, both locally and nationally.
Photo by Bill Washburn of the Wapato jail site, before construction began
Demos publication created in collaboration with Container Corps
The publication is 31 pages long, and contains 5 original essays. Includes contributions from c3:initiative, Ace Lehner, Sarah Fontaine, Ernest Jerome DeFrance, Pete Brook, Dan Gilsdorf, and ERNEST.
Demos publication created in collaboration with Container Corps
The publication is 31 pages long, and contains 5 original essays. Includes contributions from c3:initiative, Ace Lehner, Sarah Fontaine, Ernest Jerome DeFrance, Pete Brook, Dan Gilsdorf, and ERNEST.
Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility, the Book was produced by ERNEST, c3:initiative, and Container Corps, in Portland Oregon.
The publication is 31 pages long, and contains 5 original essays. Includes contributions from c3:initiative, Ace Lehner, Sarah Fontaine, Ernest Jerome DeFrance, Pete Brook, Dan Gilsdorf, and ERNEST.
A section of ERNEST's Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility. The full length Demos video is approximately 16 minutes long, and combines HD and Spycam footage, with footage from Wapato’s own CCTV cameras. The original score was created in collaboration with Matt Kirkland.
A section of ERNEST's Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility. This clip leads into the climactic "stampede" scene, in which over 30 local volunteers joined ERNEST at the jail wearing hand-made coyote masks.
A section of ERNEST's Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility