Installation & Art Curation

I collaborated with Amy Beardemphl to curate artwork for REI’s WeWork space on Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA. This WeWork space is special because it is in the location of the original REI store and it’s special to me because I’m from Seattle, this neighborhood is rich in queer history, AND my mom worked at this store in the 90s! Amy and I decided to curate this space hyper-locally and show our team at REI what community-based local curation can look like, in hopes that some of this strategy can be applied at future REI store locations.

I built the installation above with thrashed skateboard decks donated by another REI employee. One of the decks is a 35th North shop deck, which is cool because 35th North is right around the corner from the WeWork Space. The climbing holds are used, and beyond their ability to be used safely on a real climbing wall. All of these materials could otherwise end up in the dump, but we turned them into art. It’s aligned with REI’s company values of sustainability in that all of the materials used are up-cycled.