PORT TOWNSEND — The big fish, it seems, spoke to people.
“Entree — Whole Stuffed Trout,” a sculpture in Northwind Art’s “Potluck Banquet” exhibition, won both the Jurors’ Choice and People’s Choice awards.
By the time “Potluck” closed this past week, the piece by Seattle art student Ali Whitmore was “winning by a country mile,” Northwind spokesperson Diane Urbani said.
The 4-foot-long papier-maché trout, which has a cascade of dried citrus fruit slices rising above it, was among 96 pieces of food-oriented art in the show at Northwind’s Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., Port Townsend.
“The sight of the trout stopped people in their tracks,” Urbani said.
“Potluck Banquet,” sponsored by Chimacum Corner Farmstand, Finnriver Farm & Cidery, Bonnie Ludlow and Windermere Real Estate of Port Townsend, featured a quilted cupcake, paintings of fresh produce, photographs of lettuce and fried eggs, sculpted resin buttered toast, glazed ceramic slices of pie, and many other odes to food and drink.
Whitmore, a 21-year-old student at Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University, made “Trout” for a final exam in a sculpture course. The artist, who uses they/them pronouns, had been majoring in theater, but the sculpture class was so inspiring that they changed their major to fine arts.
Not long after, Whitmore’s mother happened to visit Northwind Art’s gallery in Port Townsend, where she saw a flyer about the forthcoming “Potluck Banquet” show.
“We want your food art,” the flyer said.
Whitmore entered — and as soon as the show opened, learned they had won the $500 Jurors’ Choice honor. That was bookended by the People’s Choice award of $150.
“Trout” is a prime example of Whitmore’s style. They make surreal images, according to their artist statement, that point out the beauty, horror and absurdity inherent to everyday life.
“‘Stuffed Whole Trout’ was inspired by the unsettling allure of plastic-wrapped fish in grocery store displays,” Whitmore wrote in an email. “For me the imagery struck me as symbolic of the point where beauty and horror meet.”
“I wanted to re-create the feeling in my own language. The work explores preserving the raw immediacy of presence; more specifically, meeting the gaze of another being.
“The preserved citrus slices represent fragments of moments coming together, to form a singular complex experience, served, like the fish, as one shared dish,” they added.
“Potluck Banquet” was the eighth exhibition presented at Jeanette Best Gallery this year. On view now through Nov. 17 is “Sally’s World,” a one-woman show featuring large and small paintings and zines by artist, educator and musician Sally Jablonsky.
More information about Northwind Art gallery shows and art classes can be found on the nonprofit organization’s website, https://north windart.org.
Ali Whitmore’s “Entree — Stuffed Whole Trout” — just the head of the 4-foot sculpture is shown here — won the Jurors’ Choice and People’s Choice awards in the recent Northwind Art “Potluck Banquet” exhibition. (Diane Urbani/Northwind Art)
