Flaming Lips Installation

I spent time at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) on Thursday, making photographs with local activist (and candidate for mayor in 2020) Teressa Raiford. She and a group of teenagers have created Black History collages, and some will be used for banners they will carry in the parade on Martin Luther King Day next month. 

After I made the photographs, Teressa and I visited the "Big Mouth" installation created by Wayne Coyne and members of Flaming Lips. Visitors to the installation crawl into a large silvery "mouth" and lie on a pink foam bed surrounded by hanging strips of reflective plastic, while above them a light show creates the illusion of flying upwards and floating in dark space while flashing lights of many colors seem to propell them through space and time. Teressa and I lay there for about half an hour, mesmerized by the lights, the music, and the sense of floating upwards and away. It was a marvelous escape. It's free and still on display, for those in Portland who may want to have this experience.

This is a self-portrait. The two figures reflected in the mirror at the center of the image are Teressa and me.