Choosing to Portage brings together five artists who operate with deep reverence for the embodied knowledge that is passed down through skilled making processes and culturally specific materials. From distinctly different cultural backgrounds, these five artists’ work manifest quite diversely in the gallery: from illustrations that represent family to live task-based performance, from photography of ephemeral monuments to material translations of pre-existing objects, to poetic documentation and sculptural records of socially engaged projects, and more. This exhibition highlights how these artists leverage making processes and materials specific to their own lives and cultural heritage to create complex and vital inquiries into the urgent topics of our time. The resulting artworks do not look inward at the identity of the artist, but rather investigate such issues as the absurdities of white masculinity, the erasure of indigenous cultures, police killings of Black men, the visibility of Iraqi culture in the US, the ravages of war, and the loneliness of grieving.

This exhibition uses the metaphor of the portage to emphasize cultural heritage as an active process. When traveling by boat, one may choose to portage—to carry one’s boat—to avoid an obstacle or to transfer from one body of water to the next. Just as a traveler must approach a portage, these artists produce their artwork with strategic decision-making, self-awareness of their skill (or lack thereof), and a commitment to the labor. It is a complex logistical and choreographic task to carry one’s boat and belongings over the land. These artists wield agency as they navigate the turbulent waters of contemporary identity. In doing so they forge paths for us to embrace the complexity of cultural heritage and embody our collective inheritance as simultaneously burden, responsibility, and empowerment.