Exploring chaos through art

When Joan Green found a plethora of paper in the recycling bin at the South Whidbey Community Center, she knew it was destined for a second life.

So she reached out to Melissa Koch, a fellow artist who also focuses on using repurposed materials in her work, and asked her if she wanted to collaborate.

The result is “Ordered Chaos,” a large installation piece that is currently on display in the Bayview Cash Store Hub Art Gallery as part of “Rags, Rubbish and Refuse,” an annual art show organized and sponsored by Goosefoot Community Fund. Now in its fifth year, the exhibit showcases the work of 21 artists.

Green and Koch’s piece is a combination of long, white strips of recycled paper wrapped around a beam suspended from the ceiling of the gallery. The red line on the floor warns observers to keep their distance from the art. A sound like a wave breaks over the room from a speaker nestled in the folds of the paper – it’s the noise the paper makes when it rustles. Completing the installation is an old computer monitor that displays a video of the artists, who are dressed in white painter’s coveralls and blue masks.

Koch said the unusual outfit is a nod to the people who clean up environmental catastrophes, such as the recent train crash in Ohio that sent out toxic chemicals.

“We wanted to make that reference so that people are conscious of how we need to take care of the planet,” Koch said.

At 5 p.m. on April 5, the two artists from Langley will speak about “Ordered Chaos,” which they consider to be a performance piece.

“I am hoping that someone notices this material and they say, ‘Wait a minute, that’s mine,’” Green said with a laugh.

The installation is their first-ever partnership together.

“We always talked about working together because we have this common interest of repurposing material and caring for the planet,” Koch said. “So that’s a connecting link right there, our hearts are in the same place.”

“Especially after the pandemic, everyone’s kind of isolated and on their own,” Green said. “This is a way to be together, collaborate and just spark imaginations.”

Inspiration doesn’t just come from the recycling bin. Over the years, both artists have had several friends gift materials to them.

“Just in our own households, there’s so much that we have left over as waste … I don’t want it going into the environment and I’m always looking for ways to repurpose it into art,” Koch said.

They are even considering repurposing “Ordered Chaos” after the show.

“Do we paint it, do we weave it, how do we transform it?” Koch said. “That’s always a really fascinating thing to do as well, because it requires letting go of your attachment and your preciousness, that feeling of wanting to keep it in its form.”

Green has a second piece in the exhibit, which is called “The Celebration” and consists of jars of colorful beads and fabric wrapped around wire and stuffing.

The art in the room varies greatly. Wires form a tree within a bicycle wheel. Someone’s wedding photo is comically altered with cut-out images of slabs of raw meat. Perhaps winning the prize for best name, “Scrap Judgment” is a collage of fabric and paper designed by five friends.

Laura Stangel Schmidt’s two pieces, “Interior Monologue” and “Kindred Spirits,” both make use of additional textiles left over from other projects.

“It’ll be just kind of some random things that have been stitched together and cut off because they were extraneous for something else,” she said. “But then on their own, they just kind of have their own design sense and they can take on a whole new life.”

“Interior Monologue” is an art quilt interspersed with brown paper bags. “Kindred Spirits” consists of damaged garments from fashion designer Eileen Fisher that have been ripped, dyed, painted and stitched into small scrolls.

“A lot of my work is kind of spontaneous and improvisational,” Stangel Schmidt said. “I don’t usually typically have a design in mind when I start.”

For every piece on display, 25% of any sales goes to a nonprofit organization of the artist’s choosing. “Rags, Rubbish and Refuse” runs until April 16 and is in conjunction with Whidbey Earth and Ocean Month. For more information, visit goosefoot.org.

“Scrap Judgment,” a collage by Lisa Mitchell, Luanne Seymour, Hannah Hunter, Steve Ready and Laura Stangel Schmidt.

“Twist Top” by John Norris and “CHEMO-AMAZONE” by Fine Gelfand.

“The Celebration” is a colorful work by Joan Green.

Photos by David Welton Laura Stangel Schmidt with “Interior Monologue,” an art quilt interspersed with brown paper bags.

Photo by David Welton Joan Green, left, and Melissa Koch interact with “Ordered Chaos,” their large art installation currently on display at the Bayview Cash Store.