Often featured in her own video work, she is a gadabout, not afraid to promote herself as an art celebrity. That's what it takes, that's what people want. And Vruwink is in tune with the idea that art's all about spectacle right now, a pointed blurring of the lines that contain art in definable categories. As EMP pulls potential audiences away from every other art institution in town, lots of attention is being paid to what it is exactly, beyond all the Gehry glitz and shiny newness. Our attention spans aren't long enough to endure the format that has served museums and galleries so well until now.
Art merely hanging on walls is no longer enough.
It will be. Fall finds Seattle's art scene in an unprecedented state of agitation. This season promises further entropy and an exciting, bumpy ride on through to the big 2001. Whether they're bailing out, storming out, or slipping quietly out, quite a number of the high rollers in the art game are leaving old posts for something new. The most prominent of these is Trevor Fairbrother, Seattle Art Museum's deputy director and curator of modern art, who's due to cast off from that mothership in December.