HOLDING ME,
HOLDING YOU
Jan. 10 - Feb. 01, 2026
Carnation Contemporary
Portland, OR
Carnation Contemporary
Portland, OR
Holding Me, Holding You is an immersive installation featuring abstract projection-mapped animation and sound compositions that open paths to new futures through ecology, relational aesthetics, and the phenomenological.
Visitors are ushered into the darkness by small light works before discovering the full-room installation that is the show's focal point. There, they will navigate the space, each other, and, if they remain still for long enough, perhaps the sequestered locales within their own inner landscape.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
“I fear something I often see in my own amnesiac country, the acceptance of what should be unacceptable, the mistaking for inevitable or eternal those destructive things that are neither. That is, I fear forgetting,” says Rebecca Solnit while discussing the value of a deep time approach to current events. She continues, “I’ve become a lover of slowness, patience, endurance, and long-term vision, because these things seem like crucial equipment for changing the world or even understanding it.”
Slowness is not just a method; it is a core strategy of my
practice; a deliberate act of healing from and resisting a culture that often reduces the value of human life to what one produces, while prioritizing rapid consumption and immediate outcomes.
A great lesson in endurance can be found in lichens. With some species growing at as little as one millimeter per year, lichens act as essential reservoirs of nutrients, significantly enriching forest ecosystems. What’s more, they
“blur the definition of what it means to be an individual, as a lichen is not one being, but two: a fungus and an alga… Some pairs are so specialized that they cannot live apart from one another.”
Such joining of two organisms may seem far-fetched, but it could not be closer to home. Recent biological research has revived a 1967 theory long overlooked: that multicellular life began not with a single-celled organism dividing, but with the union of two. In 2012, a team of biologists further developed this perspective in their essay, “A Symbiotic View of Life: We Have Never Been Individuals.” Their conclusion is striking — “We are all lichens.”
Slowness and stillness, facilitated here by perceptual experience, invite reflection and connection and create space to imagine ways in which we will remake our world.
“In a world of scarcity, interconnection and mutual aid become critical for survival. So say the lichens.”
Visitors are ushered into the darkness by small light works before discovering the full-room installation that is the show's focal point. There, they will navigate the space, each other, and, if they remain still for long enough, perhaps the sequestered locales within their own inner landscape.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
“I fear something I often see in my own amnesiac country, the acceptance of what should be unacceptable, the mistaking for inevitable or eternal those destructive things that are neither. That is, I fear forgetting,” says Rebecca Solnit while discussing the value of a deep time approach to current events. She continues, “I’ve become a lover of slowness, patience, endurance, and long-term vision, because these things seem like crucial equipment for changing the world or even understanding it.”
Slowness is not just a method; it is a core strategy of my
practice; a deliberate act of healing from and resisting a culture that often reduces the value of human life to what one produces, while prioritizing rapid consumption and immediate outcomes.
A great lesson in endurance can be found in lichens. With some species growing at as little as one millimeter per year, lichens act as essential reservoirs of nutrients, significantly enriching forest ecosystems. What’s more, they
“blur the definition of what it means to be an individual, as a lichen is not one being, but two: a fungus and an alga… Some pairs are so specialized that they cannot live apart from one another.”
Such joining of two organisms may seem far-fetched, but it could not be closer to home. Recent biological research has revived a 1967 theory long overlooked: that multicellular life began not with a single-celled organism dividing, but with the union of two. In 2012, a team of biologists further developed this perspective in their essay, “A Symbiotic View of Life: We Have Never Been Individuals.” Their conclusion is striking — “We are all lichens.”
Slowness and stillness, facilitated here by perceptual experience, invite reflection and connection and create space to imagine ways in which we will remake our world.
“In a world of scarcity, interconnection and mutual aid become critical for survival. So say the lichens.”
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Sat., Jan. 24th
7:00-8:00 p
A conversation with Dr. Grant Vetter:
From Rhizomatic to Lichen Politics: Habitation as a form of Revolutionary-Becoming in the work of Pamela Hadley.
Streaming live on Instagram: @carnationcontemporary
7:00-8:00 p
A conversation with Dr. Grant Vetter:
From Rhizomatic to Lichen Politics: Habitation as a form of Revolutionary-Becoming in the work of Pamela Hadley.
Streaming live on Instagram: @carnationcontemporary
Sat., Jan. 24th
8:30 - 11:30 p
Dance party! & Benefit for PIRC: Immediately following the discussion with Dr. Vetter, join us and bring a friend for some fun and community at Disjecta, right next door to Carnation. We will be raising funds through donations, refreshment sales, and a raffle - all to benefit the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition. The exhibition will remain open for viewing during the party. Suggested donation of $20, but no one will be turned away.
8:30 - 11:30 p
Dance party! & Benefit for PIRC: Immediately following the discussion with Dr. Vetter, join us and bring a friend for some fun and community at Disjecta, right next door to Carnation. We will be raising funds through donations, refreshment sales, and a raffle - all to benefit the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition. The exhibition will remain open for viewing during the party. Suggested donation of $20, but no one will be turned away.
Please bring your ID if you plan to drink.
Sun., Jan. 25th
*5 - 6:30 p
Sonar Session An opportunity to share strategies for grief, resilience, and solidarity. Bring an excerpt from a reading that is helping you through this time, especially if it inspires strength and action. We will gather in the exhibition, in the dark, and take turns reading to each other. If you prefer, someone can read it for you. Or, play a section from a podcast that you find particularly meaningful.
*5 - 6:30 p
Sonar Session An opportunity to share strategies for grief, resilience, and solidarity. Bring an excerpt from a reading that is helping you through this time, especially if it inspires strength and action. We will gather in the exhibition, in the dark, and take turns reading to each other. If you prefer, someone can read it for you. Or, play a section from a podcast that you find particularly meaningful.
*changed from 6-7:30
ABOUT DR. GRANT VETTER
With over twenty-five years of experience in the arts, Dr. Grant Vetter has exhibited his work with or served as a curator for an extensive array of colleges and arts institutions in the US, Europe, and East Asia. Dr. Vetter has been an instructor at institutions such as the Pacific Northwest College of the Arts, Arizona State University, Sci-ARCH, and the California African American Museum. He completed his Post-Doc in the International Curators Program at the NODE Center for Curatorial Studies in Berlin and he holds degrees from the European Graduate School, the University of California, Irvine, the Critical Theory Institute, and the Art Center College of Design and is the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards. He writes reviews of art exhibitions and is the author of The Architecture of Control (Zero Books), which proposed a new lexicon for understanding relations of power/knowledge in the twenty-first century, and Spaceboy & The Supercognate, co-authored with Justin Bower, which examines the fate of humanity in the age of artificial intelligence. He is currently represented by Durden + Ray in Los Angeles. grantvetter.info | @grant.vetter
The exhibition and all events are ADA accessible by entering through Oregon Contemporary.