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FIELD TRIP: LEAD PENCIL STUDIO’S Retail/Commercial

Seattle’s Lead Pencil Studio has a new installation, Retail/Commercial, tucked into a corner retail space in Rainier Square. It feels familiar; it’s also disturbingly unfamiliar. But that’s the idea. Zach and I visited the installation—our second attempt—last Friday. Zach described the experience as: “Disorienting. That’s really the best word for it.” And he meant it in the best possible way.

Retail/Commercial transforms an aging, eighties-era retail environment into a wonderfully creepy spatial inquiry. The artists have created a kind of retail space that’s stripped of any recognizable goods, letting us look at the guts of the thing—or, at least, the guts of an imagined version of a retail space.

Aside from an attendant toward the back, we were the only two visitors there. We picked our way quietly through. I for one felt both squirmy and amused. What’s there: empty shelves, plenty of clear plastic racks, stacks of cardboard boxes tucked away in plain sight, a fake security camera, mannequins, a Ross shopping cart, soft music coming from different areas of the installation. What’s not there: shoppers and the things they buy.

After leaving the installation, we walked through the underground walkway that connects Rainier Square and Union Square. We passed several empty former stores with bare shelving units, the odd piece of display furniture, chairs loosely stacked. Retail/commercial indeed.

Retail/Commercial is open from 1 to 6 PM Fridays and Saturdays through March 14. Find it on the ground floor of Rainier Square at Fourth and Union in downtown Seattle.

-Adrian Lucia