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One block over from dilapidated Washington Center, once an open-air fentanyl market, is an immersive art experience that people are paying up to 22 bucks a head to attend. FATHOM (520 SW 4th Ave., roboocto.com) is like an underwater, more DIY-feeling version of Hopscotch in the Central Eastside, or Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, N.M.
FATHOM is billed by artist collective Roboto Octopodo as an “illuminated portal that transports you into a familiar yet strange watery world.” An animatronic cloth whale that swims at the push of a button greets guests entering the former CVS. There’s an infinity room (even trippier with the free 3D glasses), a shipwreck with video art and dioramas in the portholes and, arguably best of all, a room called Quadrant 64 where visitors can use lasers to make beats and flashing lights.
After launching at the Portland Winter Light Festival in February, FATHOM is now building its “proof of concept” for investors so it can find a permanent home, artist Anne Jennings Paris says. Paris’ contribution to FATHOM? “I was curating a space that’s as if a sea captain, Charles Darwin-ish, got stranded underwater and built a scientific specimen space,” she says. “I’m trying to get a little more experimental.” Achieved.
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2024 here!