Photos by West Smith

Cannonball Arts, Seattle’s newest and biggest contemporary arts center, had its opening night on Friday in downtown Seattle. The building that was once a massive Bed Bath & Beyond, where I personally bought the worst kitchen knife of my life, has now been transformed into something far sharper: a hub for art, conversation, and community.

Brent Watanabe's 'VR Monster Truck' virtual-reality ride. WEST SMITH

I’ll admit I had my hesitations going in. It looked very “Instagrammable” from the promo images I saw, and I was worried that instead of getting the boundary-pushing arts center I believe Seattle deserves, we’d end up with a sequel to the Seattle Selfie Museum. 

I’m happy to report that despite how photogenic the museum and its pieces are (and yes, there is an entire exhibit called Mirror, Mirror dedicated to selfies and a selfie competition), much of the art is deep and challenging.

"We've All Had Too Much Sorrow" (right) is a permanent neon sculpture by Ben Zamora.

Every time I talked to someone looking at a piece, I was surprised by how far they were looking into it. “There is a hunger for art and creativity. I think people’s minds are screaming out for it,” a woman told me while looking at a monster baby in a field of flowers.

These figures live in Virginia Park, Cannonball's indoor sculpture garden.

Jumping to the first easy joke I could think of, I responded, “It makes me question my decision not to have kids. What does it make you think about?”

“It makes me think of the juxtaposition that is nature: beautiful and disturbing,” she responded. “The disturbing becomes captivating, which holds more beauty.” 

I immediately felt small-brained for my joke. But this thoughtfulness toward the exhibit reinforced the idea that Seattle is hungry for art, and perhaps not just any kind of art, but out-there real-deal weird art.

 

Visitors are invited to interact with several of the space's installations. 

And for the most part, Friday’s opening seemed to be satisfying people’s weird-art hunger.

'For a Good Time' by Vanishing Seattle, one of Cannonball's bathroom installations, encourages graffiti. 
Another bathroom features Lite-Brite artwork on the walls.

The Bathrooms as Environments exhibit featured 24 bathroom stalls renovated to be “micro-art installations that reimagine what a trip to the bathroom could be.” The dive-bar-bathroom replica was my favorite, followed by the Lite-Brite stall.

The Politics of Vulnerability: The Tender Brutalities of Being Scene is curated by Luciano Ratto and includes artwork by Sierra Ayers, Rachel Crane, and Victoria Luna.

Cannonball’s “non-traditional arts experiences” had me constantly questioning what was art in the exhibit and what was not. At one point I opened a doorway to what I thought was going to lead to another bathroom art piece, but instead, it led me to the old Bed Bath & Beyond employee bathrooms. Which, now that I think about it, may have actually been an installation. I mean, who am I to tell you what art is?

A model poses at the gallery's live figure drawing station.
The path that stretches through Cannonball's indoor sculpture garden (aka Virginia Park) is called the Garden of Letters and Confessions.

Cannonball Arts is a work in progress that promises to keep bringing in new artists and new ideas, and I’m excited to see how it evolves. As the guy next to me in the video installation section said to me, “All art is bullshit. All art is dead. Long live art.”

Cannonball Arts opens to the public August 20 and will be open weekly, Wednesday–Sunday (gallery and venue hours vary based on programming; check their calendar for the most up-to-date information.)