Kinda. Sorta. Technically, anyway.

As you might have heard, Portland artist MK Guth was recently knighted into the 2008 Whitney Biennial—perhaps the most important and publicly dissected show of contemporary art in the US. There are few artists alive who wouldn’t kill to be in the Biennial (a highly subjective overview of “what’s hot” in American art these days), and even fewer who can refrain from shit-talking and second-guessing the exhibition at the very first opportunity. The Biennials are always a mix of the established old guard, the artworld rockstars du jour, and (relatively) emerging artists like Guth, who are given an enormous platform on which to shine. Guth is the only Portland artist selected for this year’s Biennial; you have to go back to 2004, when Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July participated, to find the last PDXer in the big show.

And now, as the headline, promised, you can be part of the Biennial, too. The Whitney Museum might not recognize your participation, and Chelsea galleries might not be ringing you off the hook, but you have indeed been invited to contribute.

Guth’s Biennial project, called Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping is an “interactive braid sculpture that asks the question, ‘What is worth protecting.’” Guth is asking people to write their answers to that question on a piece of fabric (not any old piece of fabric—show up tomorrow and she’ll give you one), and she’ll braid the answers into a long, Rapunzel-like rope of hair, which will be unveiled at the Whitney Museum of American Art on March 6, 2006.

Tomorrow, December 15, from 11 am-7 pm, Guth will be at the Portland Center Stage/Armory Building (128 NW 11th), working on her project. Portland is the first of five cities where she’ll be gathering people’s ideas about protection, and she will have a much, much better day if people turn out to contribute. Plus, she’s a really cool person, so that’s a nice bonus.

Of course, none of that compares to the thrill of calling your old college roommate and telling him that you’ll be in the Whitney Biennial.