"A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin isn't a typical exhibition. Ursula Kroeber Le Guin wasn't a typical artist. Curated by her son, Theo Downes-Le Guin, the new show installed at Oregon Contemporaryis, by his definition, "nonobjective"-a sprawling love note unembarrassed by its devotion. Braiding her personal and creative worlds, the exhibition pulls together interactive installations, a working typewriter, and hand-drawn maps of Earthsea. And that's just scratching the surface."
"Born in Berkeley in 1929 to two anthropologists, Le Guin began her career publishing under an androgynous pseudonym in Playboy and ended it as one of American literature's most far-out visionaries. She resisted oft-assigned labels-genius, anarchist, even sci-fi writer-believing she hadn't earned the first two and had transcended the last. She wrote novels, poems, and translations; she made maps, built worlds, and doodled cats who could fly."
"For most of her life, Le Guin was also a Portlander. She wrote an entire story about the life of an oak tree out on Highway 18 near McMinnville. She supported the unionization efforts of Powell's Books employees in the '90s. She lived on NW Thurman for 58 years, and compiled a book documenting that street."
The presentation assembles personal artifacts, interactive installations, hand-drawn Earthsea maps, a working typewriter, murals, and a large portrait to foreground creative process and collaboration. Curated by her son, the show is described as nonobjective and emphasizes devotion through a broad roster of contributors and an accompanying Winter Texts volume collecting poetry, talks, essays, and illustrations. Le Guin's life is traced from her 1929 Berkeley birth to anthropologist parents, early publishing under an androgynous pseudonym in Playboy, and a career spanning novels, poems, translations, maps, and imaginative doodles. Her deep Portland roots and civic presence are highlighted.
Read at Portland Mercury
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