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Rubus Discolor Project is pleased to announce its second billboard installation, in a new location, starting at 2710 N. Interstate Avenue. These billboards feature the work of two photographers, Sadie Wechsler and Prin Rodriguez. FYI, you must travel south on N. Interstate to view them!

There will be an in-person billboard gathering later in the month - details to follow!

On View: February 2 - March 2, 2026.

Hours: Daytime

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Sadie Wechsler’s Walnut Flowers For Study (just before Beam & Anchor) is paired with Prin Rodriguez's Tarwi (at N. Knott and N. Interstate Ave).

Walnut Flowers For Study (2023)

This photograph was made on a site in the industrialized floodplain of the Columbia River. A parcel between heavy industrial lots was carved out, a lake reclaimed, most introduced species removed, and plants ancestral to the area established. Herons, ducks, children, and ample signs of beavers fill the space, as do loud crashes and engine noise. The size and age of this tree date it to a time before industry developed the area, but after Europeans brought seeds not found in the West.

Tarwi (2023) I took this photograph in the highlands of the community of Choquepata, in the city of Cusco. I was visiting the home of Alain and Jennifer, seed guardians and researchers. After a long conversation, we went for a walk through their vegetable garden. The sky was clear, and the tarwi, a legume native to the Andes, was in bloom.

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Sadie Wechsler (Seattle, WA) is a Portland, OR-based artist engaged with how land asserts its agency, often in peripheral places. She utilizes her background as an arborist and her upbringing in the Pacific Northwest to tell the stories of home, highlighting the wild spaces that inhabit the cracks, slopes, and roadsides of the region. Her work has been shown and collected nationally and internationally. She received her BA from Bard College and an MFA from Yale School of Art.

Prin Rodriguez (Pativilca, Perú) is a Peruvian photographer whose work is linked to the representation of identity and family legacy, seeking experimental and sensory narratives. Through her artistic practice, she explores individual memory and its connection to collective memory to bring us closer to other ways of sharing and preserving knowledge. Rodriguez is a co-founder of the collective Pariacaca. She has been awarded by the Prince Claus Fund, World Press Photo, and the VII Mentor Program, among others. Her work has been published on various photography platforms and in magazines worldwide.

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Funded in part by a 2026 Portland Arts Project Grant and the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

Ana Lía Orézzoli's Tocache paired with Sarah Meadows' Night Tulips 001 for the first edition of RDP's Billboard Project.

RDP presents a Billboard Project

Ana Lía Orézzoli Sarah Meadows

Rubus Discolor Project is pleased to announce its first billboard installation at the Northwest corner of N. Rosa Parks Way and N. Interstate Avenue. The billboards feature the work of two photographers, Ana Lía Orézzoli and Sarah Meadows.

On View: June 30 - August 24, 2025. Hours: 24 hours a day (illuminated at night).

***Join us for an “opening” on Saturday, July 12 at 10am.

Meet in front of the old Rubus Discolor Project house at 1738 N. Colfax St. The house will be open, so that visitors can view the decay of the final RDP show, Chicxulub which closed in June 2023. At 10:30am we will walk to view the billboards (five blocks).***

Ana Lía Orézzoli’s image Tocache (on the left) is paired with Sarah Meadows’ Night Tulips 001 (on the right).

Tocache I took this photograph in 2014, during my first and only visit to Tocache, a small town in the Peruvian forest. It was very early in the morning, and in the darkness of the palm fields, a horse appeared, lit by the headlights of a car. The scene felt hypnotic—like an apparition. At the time, I was going through a period of personal uncertainty, I was about to leave my home to move to a different country. This unexpected encounter felt like a revelation but in that moment, all I could do was hold on to it.

Night Tulips 001 I get spring fever; the flowers make me cry. I like them best at night, groping in the dark with a blinding flash. When the photograph is taken I can’t see what’s happening—it’s both too dark and too bright. The night air can’t be preserved, but something visual is frozen in time.

Ana Lía Orézzoli (Trujillo, Perú 1981) is a visual artist and educator. She’s guided by intuition as a form of knowledge to explore themes related to everyday life, memory, vulnerability, and imagination. She moves through the intimate in search of what is fragile and necessary. As a photographer, she investigates the narrative possibilities of photobooks and independent publishing. Her work has been exhibited in cities such as Florence, New York, Buenos Aires, and Lima.

She lives and works in Lima, Perú, very close to the sea.

Sarah Meadows is a visual artist and educator based in Oregon. She received her MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016 and her BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2008. She also holds a BA from The Evergreen State College and studied at The Glasgow School of Art. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally at Melanie Flood Projects (Portland), Filter Photo (Chicago), and ClampArt (NYC). Her work is published by the Institute for Interspecies Art & Relations, One Day Projects, and Publication Studio.

Expect the billboard project to be an occasional activity of Rubus Discolor Project. Stay tuned for a closing party in August.

Chicxulub.

Installation images ©Nina Johnson.

Chicxulub

Akshay Mahajan Ana Lía Orézzoli Brittany V Wilder C.C. Dania Hany Eva Frazier Frank Biringer Hana Sackler Jason Fulford Jennifer Timmer Trail Krisztián Éder Margherita Villani Paisley Valentine Walsh Sophie Wright Valentino Bellini

Rubus Discolor Project is pleased to present Chicxulub, a final group exhibition curated by co-director, Leslie Hickey. The show runs from April 30 - June 4 and is open on Sundays from 1 - 4 pm and by appointment.

Approximately 66 million years ago, a large asteroid 6.21 miles (10 km) in diameter crashed into the Yucatán Peninsula, leaving a giant crater near the modern-day town of Chicxulub, Mexico. The aftermath of the impact changed the trajectory of life on Earth forever. This event ended the reign of the dinosaurs in a cataclysm that erupted in forest fires, earthquakes, and a deluge of dust and ash that blocked the sun, creating a sudden drop in surface temperature that persisted for a decade or longer.

While tragic for what was then the natural order, the seeds of renewal were sown by the asteroid itself. Recent scientific inquiry has indicated that the asteroid induced a “vast subsurface hydrothermal system that became an oasis for the recovery of life.”* In ultimate destruction, renewal. In endings, new beginnings. In darkness, a tiny pinprick of light.

On a much smaller scale, we at Rubus Discolor Project are approaching our own extinction event. After four years and seven shows, we have sold the house, and in the coming months it will be deconstructed, taken apart piece by piece, window by window, and brick by brick. Following the rules of urban succession, an apartment complex will take its place. The end of the current phase of RDP is bittersweet as most meaningful change is.

For this last show, fourteen photographers contributed images that symbolize Chicxulub. Brooklyn-based C.C., our fifteenth artist, shared an unpublished zine titled, It Was Good, in which they rewrote the first chapter of Genesis redacting any mention of God, so that the world creates itself. Along the walls of the house, wheat pasted photographs are interspersed with the atheistic creation myth. A neglected aquarium with a single floating fish, a volcano mid-eruption, a file cabinet bearing the words “disaster plan in here”. Lying flat on a table are Chicxulub-inspired gouache paintings by artist and curator, Leslie Hickey. Photographs have arrived from near and far: The USA, Peru, Norway, England, Germany, Spain, Italy, Egypt, India, and somewhere along the Mediterranean. All are wheat pasted to the walls of the house and will remain there for as long as the house stands.

On View: April 30 - June 4, 2023. Sundays 1 - 4 pm Also by appointment.

1738 N. Colfax St. Portland, OR 97217 [email protected]

Can’t make it on Sunday afternoons? Let’s find another time!

Included with Sarah Rushford's "What is the word for the day after tomorrow." showcard.

What is the word for the day after tomorrow. - Sarah Rushford

Installation images ©Nina Johnson.

Still from What is the word for the day after tomorrow. of Amy Bay. Image © Sarah Rushford.

What is the word for the day after tomorrow.

Sarah Rushford

March 19 - April 9, 2023. Open Sundays and by appointment.

*A conceptual reading and writing workshop lead by the artist will take place on Sunday, April 2nd at 5pm.*

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In her video work, What is the word for the day after tomorrow. the narrated text is Rushford’s lyric essay about caretaking, perception, knowing the self, and knowing others. The piece depicts twenty-two distinct women concentrating on voicing what they hear through a wireless headphone. Elements of each of the participant's individuality are revealed through their contribution to this game of listening-while-speaking. Brief moments of candidness break the work's illusion, revealing its construction. Audio passages are followed by video segments with an alternating pattern forming the rhythm of the work. Objects corollary to the intricate text are placed throughout Rubus Discolor Project.

This lyrical piece embraces and defies the assumed roles of writer, reader, listener, and speaker.

What is it called when you talk about something you know nothing about? What is it called when you talk something into existence? What is it called when you say something without thinking? What is it called when you say something... What is it called when you say one thing, but you mean something else? What is the word for the day after tomorrow? What's the word for the fear of long words? What's the word for a symbol? What's the word for simple?

– Excerpt from What is the word for the day after tomorrow.

Approximate run time: 30 minutes.

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four houses - Jenn Sova

Four Houses

Jenn Sova

February 12 - March 12, 2023 Open Hours: Sundays from 2 - 4pm. And by appointment.

insideout, a performance by Jenn Sova, Hannah Krafcik, and Emily Jones will take place on Sunday, February 26th at 5pm.

A conversation between the artist and Leslie Hickey (co-founder of Rubus Discolor Project) will take place at 1pm on March 12.

1738 N. Colfax St.

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In Four Houses, Jenn Sova resurrects three lost family homes in the space of Rubus Discolor Project. Through installation, the artist recalls her Grandmother’s home in Czechoslovakia, a country that no longer exists, her Mother’s childhood home lost in a fire, and her own childhood home which, through an act of bureaucratic renaming, cannot be found on any map.

Using her memories as reference, Sova constructs sculptural works to rebuild pieces of her past while collaborating directly with the walls, floors, and corners of the house. Employing materials found on the property and beyond to connect with its history, each room becomes a link to a different generation. In the living room, a small house made of bricks and cinder blocks recalls the simplified elements of a child’s drawing. A crowd of plaster glove-shaped hands occupies the kitchen, inhibiting movement while reaching for something, though for what remains unclear. A snapshot on the wall pulled from a family photo album brings to light a common question: is this memory or its proxy?

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