Plain Art (2008)

Filmed over two years, "Plain Art" tracks the story of one woman leading a group of architects down an uncertain but often surprising path. It is about people revisiting their idealistic notions of creativity and recapturing their own personal faith and spirituality. In 2005, Fargo-based abstract painter, Marjorie Schlossman, launched the Roberts Street Chaplet Project, inviting six local architects to design small, portable, non-denominational chapels that could be moved around the state. Inspired by the Rothko Chapel in Houston, the spaces would feature Marjorie's work and would function as public contemplation areas. "Plain Art" is an engrossing document of Marjorie Schlossman's effort to create sacred art with no religious association. The film intimately documents Marjorie's collaboration with the six different architects who were each given $25,000 and one year to design and build a chaplet. Director Mary Trunk was drawn to this chaplet project because of Marjorie's commitment to an ambitious project that had no blueprint and could possibly be misunderstood in the rural community she lives in. Mary was able to gain the trust of six architects who were given the unique opportunity to take on a project that had very few constraints. A project that asked them to think more like artists and less like engineers. "Plain Art" elucidates the unexpected insights of this unique collaboration between art and architecture.