Score | Portland State University

Score

Heather Watkins

A large amount of black rope-like cord is affixed to an atrium wall, arcing and looping in sequences of extended lengths

Photo courtesy of the artist

A view of the artwork looking slightly down into the atrium from above. A large amount of black rope-like cord arcs and loops along the wall, like scribbled lines

Photo by Mary McVein

View from one end of the atrium across the entire expanse. The artwork covers the wall to the right. The floor can be seen below.

Photo by Mary McVein

Close-up of the black cord against the white wall. The cord is bent and looped in all directions like a mass of scribbled lines.

Photo by Mary McVein

The artist is shown dyeing the rope-like cord black. Behind her on the floor is a mass of dyed black cord, and she is kneeling and pressing the wet dye out of a batch of cord using white paper

Dyeing the cord black. Photo courtesy of the artist

The artist is seen standing on a red ladder at right, installing a section of the artwork on the wall

The installation process. Photo courtesy of the artist

About the artwork

Heather Watkins
Score, 2013
Cotton cord, ink, metal supports
Located in Lincoln Hall, light well on north side of theater

Inspired by the movement, flow and trial of performance, Score creates a compelling zone of passage for students, faculty and public visitors at Lincoln Hall’s main performance entrance, functioning as a transitional cue for audience members moving in and out of the auditorium. Artist Heather Watkins explains, “The movement of the line and its specific arcing and twisting energy derives from the qualities of the cord when soaked and dried: lyrical; semi-rigid; awkward; honest. I manipulate and anchor the cord to achieve the greatest degree of dimensionality and fluidity, propping the cord on mounts so that the curves and coils of the material stand as visual/kinetic evidence of the process that has shaped them.”

Score evokes an organic choreography of drawing navigating an expansive space. There is a sense of arrested movement in each sculpture and a suggestion of potential connection or interaction among the clusters. Areas without cord (the negative spaces) are just as integral to the activation of the space as a whole as those with sculptural line: the lines extending across the brick columns to neighboring bays serve to connect one space to another visually.

About the artist

Heather Watkins (b. 1969) is a visual artist whose studio practice includes experimental forms of drawing and printmaking, book arts, installation and sculpture. She holds a master’s of fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and has served as a faculty member at Lewis & Clark College, the Art Institute of Boston, and Massachusetts College of Art. She is represented by PDX Contemporary Art. Her work is held in both private and public collections including the Portland Art Museum, the Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Portable Works Collection, the Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Collection, the Newberry Library in Chicago, and Rhode Island School of Design Artist’s Book Collection.

These works were acquired through Oregon's Percent for Art in Public Places Program, managed by the Oregon Arts Commission.

Banner image: Photo by Mary McVein.