Oscar Tuazon and Eli Hansen, brothers from the Pacific Northwest, have worked as artists independently and jointly for years. Their collaborations revolve around do-it-yourself architectural concepts. Recently they erected a partially built cabin in the wilderness on remote Kodiak Island, Alaska. Then they constructed Kodiak, an architectural fragment that mirrors and in many ways completes the original shelter, more than 1,400 miles away, in one of the Third Floor galleries at SAM Downtown.
White paint, the most recognizable of architectural elements, is used to bridge the gap between gallery and snow. A log, placed horizontally, splits through the space, acting almost as a beam, but without anything to support. It's a fallen tree, caught mid-fall between Kodiak and the exhibition space. The artists have described their installation as a view of Kodiak through the eyes of a city—a way to experience two places at the same time. "The project is in two places, so really you can only ever experience it as a mental image, in your mind," they explained in a recent interview. "Kodiak is about imagination."
Oscar Tuazon and Eli Hansen's work inaugurates the SAM Next series, a new contemporary art program at the Seattle Art Museum spotlighting local, national and international emerging artists.
–Michael Darling, Jon & Mary Shirley Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art