Patricia Vázquez Gómez
ja' / buuts' / t'aan (Water / Smoke / Word)
An immersive five-channel video and sound installation. Multiple screens are positioned to envelope viewers in layered visual and sonic tapestry. The work explores the young collaborators’ relationship with maayat’aan (Maya Peninsular/Yucatec Mayan), the Indigenous language of their families' origin in the Yucatán region of Mexico. Filmed primarily in the Yucatán municipalities of Maní and Dzan. Spring 2025. Photos Courtesy of PICA
Autumn Knight
NOTHING: all at once
This exhibition transformed PICA’s warehouse into a dynamic, constantly shifting environment. At its center was a 12-foot by 12-foot platform that could raise and lower, functioning as a sculptural centerpiece, gathering site, and performance stage. Across the space, large and small-scale sculptural works moved or evolved throughout the exhibition’s three-month run. Video elements were integrated throughout the installation, including documentation of performances that took place within the exhibition and earlier works from the artist’s archive. Knight’s drawings and objects from each performance were also displayed, while lighting and sound elements changed regularly — creating a space in perpetual transformation, shaped by both the artist and visitors over time. Lighting design by Tuce Yasak. Fall 2024. Photos courtesy of PICA.
Policing Justice
A group exhibition at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) that examined Portland’s policing practices and their links to long-standing local and national histories of systemic oppression. Shaped by the perspectives of artists based in Portland as well as those observing and documenting from elsewhere, the show frames local police violence within a broader context. It takes the extended 2020 racial justice protests in Portland—which lasted longer there than in any other U.S. city and saw over 6,000 documented instances of police force—as a point of departure for exploring entrenched patterns of injustice. Spanning media including installation, immersive video, photography, and sculpture, Policing Justice transforms PICA’s warehouse into a multilayered environment. The exhibition features work by artists and collectives including Portland activist group Don’t Shoot PDX, the investigative arts collective Forensic Architecture, and internationally acclaimed artist Alfredo Jaar. Commissioned installations by local creators and archival multimedia displays stand alongside notable works on loan by artists such as Carrie Mae Weems and Sandy Rodriguez, connecting Portland’s recent experiences to a national narrative. Spring 2024. Photos Courtesy of PICA.
Will Rawls
[siccer]
[siccer] featured a large-scale, four-channel video installation stretching over 100 feet in width. 14-independent channels of immersive sound coordinated with projected footage spanning the length of the warehouse. Custom milled frames were suspended from the ceiling to interrupt and dismantle the projected image. A related live performance took place in an adjacent room during the exhibition’s run. The performance and installation were closely connected, both rooted in Rawls’s choreographic approach to visual structure and movement. The project required precise spatial planning, custom rigging, and extensive coordination between video, sound, and sculptural components to transform the warehouse into a cohesive, immersive environment. Fall 2023. Photos Courtesy of PICA
Remebering to Remember: Experiments in Sound
Remembering to Remember: Experiments in Sound was a multifaceted exhibition and public program featuring over 15 international, national, and local artists. The exhibition transformed PICA’s warehouse into an immersive environment centered on sound-based practices. The installation included five video works—four presented as large-scale projections and one on a monitor—each exploring the intersection of sound and moving image. A central feature was an 18-channel sound installation, where visitors were enveloped in a ring of speakers, creating a fully immersive auditory experience. Additionally, a custom-built sound synthesizer station was available for public interaction, complemented by workshops that demonstrated its capabilities. A large stage constructed in the center of the warehouse hosted six live performances throughout the exhibition's run, integrating the spatial and sonic elements of the installation. The exhibition also encompassed a month-long series of artist residencies, community workshops, and public engagements, emphasizing the collaborative and exploratory nature of sound art.
sidony o'neal
ENCHIRIDION: aisle, spline, resort
This show was a was a technically complex yet stripped down exhibition composed of materially varying elements. It included a floor-based video installation incorporated into a large-format printed metal (dibond) sheets tiled together to make complete images and a hallway-like passage formed by laser-cut Tyvek panels. The show also incorporated a series of small cast-metal sculptures displayed on custom steel mounts affixed to a repurposed pool ladder as well as a hand-drawn mural of a scarab beetle. There was live moss maintained throughout the exhibition, precisely shaped steel tables with etched plexiglass panels, ceramics, and, or course, a drawing of self-leveling slime...