Exhibit: Do You Subscribe to the Impossible? Portland’s Imps 1975-1985

The 1970s and 1980s are fondly remembered as a golden age in Portland. A time before the city was either too clean or too dirty, when not just coffee but bookstores abounded and housing was affordable – for artists as well as anyone else.

A new exhibit at Lewis & Clark College explores the history of an avant-garde group of artists and makers central to this moment in the city: The Impossibilists.

The Impossibilists were​ co-founded by Space​ Angel / Musicmaster​ (Tom Cassidy) and​ Animal Trust / Dr. Trust /​ Max Deadtoe Delaney​ (Mark Sargent) with​ other Imps Rider (Robert​ Lurie),​ Rhodda Mappo​ (Kay Hockett), Reynarda​ (Marti Barrett), Ijme​ (Peter Van Sloten), and​ Lipp (Alaina Lara).​ Although the particular​ roster of Imps changed​ issue to issue, their style and tone was cohesive, employing absurdist, disorienting, yet resonant elements of humor in the writing and artwork.

The Impossibilists produced more than 20 “manifestos” that were distributed to subscribers by mail. These publications were produced - like other DIY art and punk zines - by typing, drawing, and collaging together individual pages, then producing photocopies that would then be collated and stapled. This exhibit includes Impossibilists manifestos, broadsides, and event posters, as well as ephemera and related material from the archival collections of Katherine Dunn, Walt Curtis, and Douglas Spangle held at Lewis & Clark.

This exhibit is curated by Lewis & Clark College’s Associate Archivist Crystal Willer ’07 and students Thomas Schwiebert ’26 and Natalia Juliano ’28.