Jim Lommasson | Brittany Vega

What We Carried / Jim Lommasson
Jim Lommasson’s “What We Carried” photo and writing projects begin with a personal object that the participant carried with them on their long and difficult journey from their homelands to the U.S. Objects include a family photo, a bible, a Quran, a doll, dominoes, a teacup or a serving dish from family celebrations, to the clothes that they were wearing when they fled their homes.
Lommasson asks participants to allow him to photograph those few items that they were able to carry with them to the U.S. He asks the participants to write directly on the photograph about their object and why that particular item was so important that they chose it above everything else. Their stories speak of much more than “the object.” The stories are profound and speak to our common humanity. The luminous inner life of these ordinary things is a testament to the unspeakable anguish of a life left forever behind. Ordinary objects become sacred. The photo and writings become a new artifact.

Sky Exchange 2020 : Sharing perspectives across a city / Brittany Vega
The Sky Exchange is a public art project created by Portland artist Brittany Vega and made possible by Portland Textile Month. The project was first created in the summer of 2020 and launched as a city-wide show in October 2020.
As our social circles had grown smaller, the Sky Exchange aimed to engage viewers personally, provide a physical experience with artwork, and make that work available to be seen beyond an enclosed space. Wanting to regain sight of what we share in common, participants were called upon to submit images of the sky as they saw it at any given point in time. Vega then recreated the individual skies into painted and sewn flags, distributing them among the participants to be displayed outside their homes. Each received the sky of another; embracing a view not of their own. While viewers could serendipitously run into the flags as passerby, the show indefinitely exists virtually online for all to see. Over 30 submissions were received, resulting in dozens of painted flags flying around the Portland area; flying an ode to the perspective of another, an ode not to a nation, but to a shared place, a flag for the sky.

Viewing is by appointment only and please submit request from the form below;
https://forms.zohopublic.com/portlandtextilemonth/form/PLACEViewing/formperma/iKPtG32HlhVnKuK6XZ7oO1DYp8WoCevNUjUX3FlXmkU
Opening Reception (Oct 19) Registration
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/place-opening-reception-tickets-181505356407