The Third Room within Portland's art ecology
By ASHLEY GIFFORD
Kalaija Mallery has been running a project space, named Third Room, in Northeast Portland since 2017. The location, above Cotton Cloud Natural Bedding, has been operating over the past eight years as an incubator of sorts for various art exhibitions, events, and music performances. One of the more recent events there was Expanding Expanded Cinema with Nicole Baker, DB Amorin, Christina Smiros, and Rachel Wolf.
It was intriguing in a way that all ‘artist-run alternative art spaces’ are; gritty, underground, and approachable. Equally intriguing is Third Room’s founder Kalaija Mallery, who cites herself affectionately as an ‘art person’ in her Instagram bio, equivocal as it is, she is just that. There have always been murmurs, rumblings if you will, that come out of Third Room, one might never quite know when the space hosts an event because they almost seem to happen so fast. They do promote these events, but they feel almost like a special secret. A lot of artist-run art spaces seem to have a type of feeling to them, in that these spaces operate in a way, specifically one that functions outside of purely showing art to sell it.
These types of art spaces are equally as important, and maybe even more so now because they provide an opportunity by having a space for artists to practice showing work, displaying it, talking about it, and having discourse with their viewers/community members. We all know that the opportunity to practice showing work slowly disappears for most artists’ after they leave academia. Third Room effectively holds and provides this space for artists and that allows viewers and relationships we have with art to be more playful, eliciting connections that aren’t purely taste driven.
At the beginning of March, Mallery moved to St. Louis to work at The Luminary. Despite this move out of Portland, Oregon, she assures that this isn’t an exit for her from Portland’s art ecology. And in fact, with this move, there is an opportunity for fostering new collaborations and connections between the two cities. She’ll still have a hand, or foot if you will, in ThirdRoom, with curatorial projects and upcoming programming, so that she can continue with the ethos and vision that she so carefully and consciously has created.
ThirdRoom, Image courtesy of ThirdRoom.
Committee member Todd Molinari’s solo exhibition Trickster Of the Dark God. Image courtesy of ThirdRoom.
Ashley Gifford: Could you tell us a bit about your art practice? How does this relate to your curatorial practice and running a collaborative art space?
Kalaija Mallery: Currently, I consider myself to be a "conceptual, research-based artist and community liaison"; my practice takes many forms, some of which have recently included painting clouds, researching cults, and writing about a love-ethic. But it wasn't always like this.
Kalaija Mallery at ThirdRoom. Image by Colin Cathey
My practice has shifted a lot since I started out as a photographer many years ago. I got my first film camera when I was 8 and fell in love with photography, first taking photos of natural environments and their inhabitants (I wanted to be a national geographic photographer!) towards a transition into fashion photography, fitting my friends and I as teenagers into the roles of models, stylists, art directors, and set designers. My understanding of photography became incredibly complicated by my move to art school back in 2012, when I started at PNCA. Once I got through the initial heartbreak of understanding my work to be problematic as an "art form" (fashion photography has a very complicated and not so nice history, and commercial work is considered to be "selling out"), I began making experimental photographs in the darkroom to talk about existentialism and ways of seeing and interpreting the world around us. All of this is to say that photography gave me a list of practical and conceptual skills that I still engage with today. From documenting photography to seeing things critically to engaging in collaborative practices, photography was my pathway.
AG: When did you start Third Room, and what was your catalyst for wanting to create an art space? Could you talk about the ideas and concepts that are presented in Third Room and how they differ from a traditional gallery space, in part for it being a 'not for profit art space.' Additionally, what are some of the benefits of having a 'not for profit art space'? What are some of the challenges?
KM: Because of my practical photography skills, I was accepted on scholarship into the New York Arts Practicum (founded and run by Michael Mandiberg) in 2017 to work with Chloë Bass, a socially engaged artist, and conceptual practitioner. This opened up my world to entirely new possibilities for art and making. Prior to that, I had very little knowledge about what art could truly do for communities, though I felt deeply personally connected to my experience at PNCA as being transformative and important for my art AND heart. I remember specifically a workshop that Chloë took me to that was hosted by Caroline Woolard (another artist I deeply admire) that focused on artistic embodiment practices-- something that is often thrown around regarding artwork but not as much understood as a collaborative practice within the arts. Between all those influences and incredible people I was exposed to and the capital-driven art market of NYC, I returned to Portland with a renewed sense of purpose and drive to create spaces that could hold similar value to Portland.
This shift in me coincided with a chance opportunity to take over my existing studio space, which was an enclave in the back of what once was "Project 205", after the gallery shut down and the curators decided to part ways. I never would've qualified for a lease if I wasn't already in there and something inside me just said do it. So I did! I was starting out in an MA program at PNCA (I wanted to get my PhD to teach social sciences at a college level), and wound up taking all my loans and dropping that program to focus on this project as it developed. I knew I wanted to create an artist-run gallery space that was collaborative without a set collective (so folks could come and go as they pleased), that was collectively funded (so that we did not have to rely on the commercial success or rich parents -- which none of us had), and that had an ethical guideline that allowed room for embodied, transformative practices through supporting artists' making and wellbeing.
At the time, while still in grad school, I had become obsessed with Homi K. Bhabha's writings on Third Space Theory, the notion of a space of social value that is between work and home, between binaries of identity, a space where the messiness of flux is actually really beautiful and liberatory. Thus, the gallery's first name "ThirdSpace" was born. Shortly after our first opening, I had the wall to my studio enclave torn down to open up the space and collaborated with Aleatory Books to include a critical texts bookshelf offered at sliding scale prices. During this time I changed the name to "Third Room", because it felt much more like a room than a space-- I wanted the name to reflect something comfortable being an exhibition space AND everything else. So far, this name and practice has stuck.
I also knew that I really did not want to create a space that was based on taste. I wanted to allow room for artists to engage in a way that prioritized their ideas, innovations, and exploratory practices. I know from personal experience that this does not always create work that sells. Since I could not fund a full-blown residency program, I wanted to instead open up a physical space that could insert the value I see in these projects that prioritize coming together around ideas about culture and the expression of that. If you look at our programming, it may not always be clearly linked to cultural studies in the way I wanted to teach in a classroom--but it all speaks to something larger. This is why I have tried to engage works through crossover programmings, such as artist talks, readings, and discussion groups, to pull those things out from more ambiguous works and shows.
In terms of artist wellbeing, we know that perhaps even more than the show itself (which often only gets viewed on opening night), the documentation of the work in a space is what can really help propel the work forward into other realms. This is why I personally provided free professional documentation of all shows that we hosted, even if I did not curate them myself. For many shows, especially those who featured artists from out-of-area, I worked to pair them with an arts writer in order to insert the work into a historical canon beyond images.
The Artificial Obvious with Karah Lain and Ryan Riss. Image courtesy of ThirdRoom.
Ambiguity of Land by Patrick Durka. Image courtesy of ThirdRoom.
AG: Could you discuss some of your favorite exhibitions and events that you've hosted in Third Room over the past several years? How were they relevant to your programming and/or curatorial practice?
KM: It is so hard to choose a favorite exhibition because they really are all so different. I have a soft spot for the artists I bring from out of town because they usually risk the most to come here and entrust us with their time, money, and work. I called these "tiny residencies" because I was able to house them at my apartment (7 blocks down from the gallery), share my resources at the college (such as fine art/book printing, photography and design) and give them ample time in the space to make and set up work. My first "tiny residency" in the space was with Brooklyn-based artist Christopher Willauer, a friend I met from the practicum in 2017. I was able to scrape together the funds to fly him out for a week and we explored the Pacific Northwest landscape together and talked about love. Christopher's work is incredibly poetic, personal, and ambiguously queer (though I'd say less so if you know the canonical works of Felix-Gonzolez Torres or Roni Horn, which the show certainly referenced). For whatever reason, Christopher struggled to get opportunities in New York, possibly because of the city's obsession with the commercial or the public. Keeping Time With the Tide gave Christopher a chance to exhibit work he made here and while on residency in Iceland, that he previously had not shown, and to get solid documentation of the works to send out for applications on more opportunities.
Sari Not Sari, a group show curated by Pamela K. Santos. Image courtesy of ThirdRoom.
AG: So what’s next for Third Room?
KM: Well, I very recently relocated to St. Louis, MO to work for a project that I consider to be a "grown up" version of Third Room -- The Luminary. This is an exciting opportunity to engage in art viewing and making under a strong ethical practice, but this time with the resources of an established non-profit organization. I am excited to learn more about this world and get a better sense of their operations and grant processes. Becoming a non-profit would likely be the next step for Third Room in order to have it grow, if that is what the folks who are caring for it desire, but for now there is something really beautiful in our DIY practice.
The biggest thing that has come from running Third Room is reifying the fact that we really don't need much more than space and each other. Sure, the rent is difficult to fund and we struggle with basic needs like painting supplies and new light bulbs, but somehow we all come together on that. I really need to note here that this year would not have been possible without the support of our longstanding board members, artists Patrick Durka and Todd Molinari. Also, since partnering with Eliza Harper at FreeSchool PDX, we have created a symbiotic partnership that contributes to the rent and the ethical and social space of the project. It's really amazing when the little things add up or in and of themselves become bigger things. This project has always been a real labor of love, and that is what sets us apart from other galleries in town, if you ask me. We are cool without needing to be cool, we are diverse through self-creation, and we make it a space where people come and the first thing they say is "it feels good to be here". That has always been important, and it will never go away.
XOXO
I LOVE YOU THIRD ROOM <3
P.S. Stay tuned for future exhibitions