Uprising - Rick Araluce and Steve Peters at Suyama Space

I braved the mushy mess on the streets tonight and headed to Belltown to catch the opening for Uprising at Suyama Space.  I've been keeping tabs on Rick Araluce ever since I became familiar with his amazing little dioramas.  Rick has an amazing ability to create realistic rooms in the smallest scale, but it was never the simple technical skill of his works that attracted it to me, it was the stories he would tell with these little scenes.  He crates drama in small spaces.  However, Suyama Space is not small, not in the least - so like many at the lively opening, I wanted to see what he would do with it - Rick told me he had never worked large like this before, not on a strictly art based project (he has worked in set design professionally).  In any case, he and Steve Peters came up with this trompe l'oeil idea of creating a network of pipes coming out of the floor, walls, ceiling, with the occasional open end harboring some mysterious sounds.   Steve did all the sound work himself.  Rick the fantastic job with making pvc pipes and who knows what other materials, look like iron works 100 years old.  Truly a visual delight.

Here's some photos from the evening - remember, there is no metal - these are all plastic pipes, painted by Rick.