Stick Bladder has been commissioned by the Center on Contemporary Art from the collaborative team JET CONSTRUCTION. The exhibition's official opening will take place on July 25, 7-11 p.m. at CoCA. Those attending will meet the artists (Peter Anderson, Mark Anderson, and Cameron Schoepp), explore an environment designed to excite all the senses, and listen to ambient sounds created by local musicians.

Stick Bladder will transform the 5000 square-foot CoCA gallery into a sensual garden of steel, aluminum, rubber, mud, recorded sound, and surging polyurethane bags filled with hot and cold flowing liquid. Infrared recording media and new digital-imaging technologies will record and play back the viewer?s non-visual, physical reaction to this incredible environment.

The project is one of a series of explorations by JET CONSTRUCTION producing a tactile and stimulating encounter of space. According to Jet Construction member Peter Anderson, "This installation is meant not only to be seen, but to be experienced on a full sensory level. One of our aims for the installation is to show how spatial concepts and new technology can be integrated into architectural design for the purpose of enhancing and intensifying human experience."

Says Elizabeth Shepherd, CoCA?s Acting Director, "Audiences of all ages will enjoy Stick Bladder: adults will come away with a sense of how cutting-edge technologies open up architectural possibilities for the new millennium, while children and youth will delight in the funhouse atmosphere and the spooky, simultaneous infrared playback of their journey through the space."

JET CONSTRUCTION is a team of three artists and multi-disciplinary collaborators who have been building site-specific installation projects and performance works since 1982. Sculptor Cameron Schoepp and architects Mark and Peter Anderson all share extensive experience in projects which integrate art, architecture and the construction industry. Mark Anderson is an architect and building contractor in Seattle. He received his Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University in 1986. In addition to building his own projects, he has worked on and supervised building and sculpture installation projects for architects and artists in Japan, Germany, and the United States. Peter Anderson is an architect and building contractor living in Seattle. He holds degrees from Pacific Lutheran University, College International de Cannes, and Harvard University. He also studied under Otto Piene at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cameron Schoepp is a sculptor living in Fort Worth, Texas. He is represented by the Foster Goldstrom Gallery in New York and is currently head of the Sculpture Department at the University of Dallas.

CoCA, a not-for-profit organization, serves Seattle as a forum for the advancement and understanding of contemporary art. CoCA provides opportunities for the art audience in the Pacific Northwest to view new and experimental artwork in exhibitions that show the work of international, national, and local artists. CoCA is committed to promoting cultural inquiry, commissioning new work and providing exposure for emerging artists.