You never know what you might find on a visit to the architectural treasure trove that is Construction Junction. But many people don't know that a distinctively urban loft exists above the gobbledygook of doors and windows, mantels and moldings in Pittsburgh's most imaginative recycling center in Point Breeze.

The Pillow Project will perform "Volume I -- Characters" this weekend at Construction Junction.
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The Pillow Project

What: "Volume I -- Characters."
Where: Construction Junction, Point Breeze.
When: Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. until midnight.
Admission: $5 donation suggested at the door. For information, write to pearlannporter @pillowproject.org.

Pearlann Porter was surprised herself at the raw industrial kind of space that she encountered at the top of a steep staircase. "I fell in love with it," she says simply in her husky, straight-to-the-point voice. "It felt like home."

Home for her company, The Pillow Project. Porter and her small army of volunteers erased two inches of dust, "almost like fur," from the floor before they got the space "off the ground." She knew that the loft, with its high ceilings and unending banks of windows, could be "4,000 square feet of anything."

Porter made it into The Swank Easy in 2006, a razzamatazz kind of a nightclub with bar and band ... and dancers, of course. But she was still in a traveling mode and deserted it for the ultimate in garages, the Hunt Armory, and "Striped," dedicated to the garage rock band, The White Stripes.

Now Porter is back for her latest Pillow project -- this time for good, she says. Construction Junction and The Pillow Project have formed a partnership to make the space "fully functional for all types of art" -- dance, galleries, theatrical performances. All The Pillow Project had to do was create a fire exit and install a bathroom and "we can be here at any hour of the day."

The Swank Easy bar and neon sign are back in place. Behind a black curtain, observers can sneak a peek at Construction Junction's massive inventory below. Artwork is already dotting the corners and a wayward street sign proclaims Pillow Avenue. Then there's the giant chalkboard that Porter created for improvisation -- a brilliant touch. It's doubling as a storyboard for her latest work.

Inspired, Porter is thinking "reuse, recycle, take something and make it new." She says, "That means figuring out what The Pillow Project is, how do we all relate together."

The "we" means people like resident artist Moze, photographer Maria Rago, videographer Jessi Sedon and graphic designer Ryan Hose. It's The Pillow Project in action, seeing how Porter and friends could "take all these abilities and create a work that is legitimate multimedia."

The result will be "The Pillow Project: by volume," a series of pieces that will run periodically through December. "I want to involve all of these [disciplines] rather than have a show that contains all of it," she declares. "We started as just a dance company, but we realized that we had all of these other things going on. It was only a matter of time before we became an umbrella group, a melting pot. It leaves more possibilities open."

The group regularly meets to discuss those possibilities. "We're infecting each other," Porter quips. "[That's] because we all work so differently. But it's just making us stronger -- We want to do work unique to just us."

So she asked herself, "What can I do here that I can't do anywhere else? It has to feel like this place. It has to breathe like this place. It has to taste like this place."

"By volume" will occur in, well, volumes. The first, "Characters," will present specific ideas: 20 character studies of the dancers that Moze will paint, Porter's "Miscellaneosity, a conversation between percussionist PJ Roduta and two of the dancers, performance art in pockets of the room, raw video footage. "Characters" will run continuously between 7 p.m. and midnight. With its "spontaneous semi-improvisational element," each hourlong segment will change, so onlookers can come and go as they please.

In subsequent volumes, tentatively set for September, October and December, some of Moze's character studies may turn into a dance or the raw video will be translated into art work. Porter asserts that they will "turn the company inside out."

In the end it will be about trust, both for herself and the others. But then, Porter likes the thrill, just as she likes to put her hands up on the roller coaster. It's all about enjoying the ride.

First Published: June 7, 2007, 12:30 a.m.