Out of the Drawers: Everything I Love, I Have Taken
Everything I love,
I have taken-
plucked flowers from the rose bush
in my childhood garden
pulled plants out by their roots,
from soils that mothered them
my own pup from her mother
and brothers
and into my home
where she too
Lives apart
As a child I was pulled into the ocean
By refusing to stay where
I could stand-
But she
Welcomed me,
she,
with salty kisses,
rocked me gently
In the folds of her dress
but I fought against her
drew myself back
onto this land that I have stained
When I see her now,
she no longer remembers me
and I am left somewhere between
The End,
And a beginning
Everything I love, I have taken seeks to explore the experience of being young and feeling like the world is ending—of wanting to prepare and make plans for a future, but feeling uncertain of the viability of this future. This exhibition also strives to acknowledge our individual role in an ongoing legacy of destruction, and inquire what agency and responsibilities we have to change present systems of power.
Curated by Ilsa Jones. Selected photographs by Lauren Johnson, Lisa Bauso, Robert Gervais, Yuyang Zhang, Sandee Mcgee, Tyler Green, Jessica Hays, Jerry Slough, C. Meier, Beth Kerschen, Jessica Daugherty, Zach Bent
In order to provide more visibility for artists participating in our 2021 Pacific Northwest Drawers exhibition, we have turned our Library wall into a Drawers exhibition space. Exhibitions typically rotate every other month and feature prints by multiple artists at a time.