Avantika Bawa works on her installation piece in the vacant bottom floor of the Columbian building. Bawa said she’s enjoyed talking to walkers-by inquiring about what’s going on. “It’s like working in a fishbowl," she said. / Photo by Anni Becker

As of late afternoon on Memorial Day, Harrison Higgs’ art installation in the window of the Koplan’s building didn’t have a name.
“But, it will by Friday,” Higgs said. “It’s evolving, so I can’t tell you everything about it yet. I can tell you it’s a lot about labor at the moment.”

In the month of June, seven downtown Vancouver buildings are hosting the work of 19 artists in 18 storefront windows. The project, called Windows into Art, opens for the First Friday Artwalk on June 4.

A wave of pedestrians —participants from the Washington Democratic and Republican state conventions included — can pick up a flyer and walking map and tour the finished projects.

The exhibition, which runs through July 5, is an example that the artistic experience is not just viewing a final product. The core of the art comes from the process. In Higgs’s case, the process started simple.

“It starts with a small idea. I think in the end it’ll be subtle in effect, which will come in the detail of the piece,” Higgs said as he worked along side fellow artist Blake Shell. Shell’s installation is based on words and statements collected from others on the Internet regarding the Web. For example, “There are no great love songs about email.” Shell said it is the first time she has done work of only text.

Not all ideas that go into Windows into Art are small. Avantika Bawa, a visual arts teacher at Clark College (soon to be at WSU-Vancouver) and recent Vancouver transplant from Atlanta, Georgia, turned the vacant, gravel-filled bottom floor of the Columbian building, 415 W. 6th St., into a message that is as problematic as it is beautiful.

“What do you think it means?” she asked in return of the ”obvious” question, “What’s with all the green lines?”

“Money,” I responded. I was right.

Bawa said she took in the history and architecture of the building now owned by Bank of America as a starting point.
“When I work, the process is dictated by the history of the space,” she said. I really do think this building is beautiful, but it’s also problematic [because of financial woes, the reason it’s in the bank’s hands now.”

Bawa said the green stripes and bands also tie together the dullness of the vacant spot with the structured green around it — Esther Short Park — and furthermore, the natural green of the Northwest.

“Everything should make sense, but nothing does, and that’s what the installation is trying to do,” she said.

Windows into Art is the brainchild of K.C. Madsen. Madsen is also one of the participating artists.

“The idea is to provide a space for the kind of art that is not usually shown in Vancovuer galleries,” Madsen said. “We want to engage people in the dialogue of contemporary art.”

Drew Parsons helped planning and construction where needed for the exhibition. He said exhibition is a great way of making the public aware that things are happening in Vancouver.

“It’s really about promoting an atmosphere in Vancouver that’s not much seen, but should be,” Parson said.

Other participating artests are: Jeannette Altman, Janice Arnold, Christina Broussard-Pearson, Jennifer Corio, Erin Dengerink, Dave Frei, Anne John, Yoshihiro Kitai, Carson Legree, Will Luers, Mikhail Oparin, kathi rick, Crystal Schenk, Senseney Stokes and Gregory Zschomler.

Flyers and walking maps can be picked up at the Vancouver Downtown Association office, any of the downtown galleries and several other places around town. For more information, visit windowsintoart.org.