Networks of (Be)longing

October 16–December 6, 2020

Adjacencies, dissonances, and dynamics of power circulate within networks, shifting pathways and modes of operation. Philosopher, sociologist, and anthropologist Bruno Latour’s Reassembling the Social (2005) acknowledges that evolving networks constitute and even foster human relations; but rather than assuming homogeneity, he proposes a “tracing of associations,” enabling heterogenous elements of sociality to be “assembled anew.” This speculative tracing of relationalities—the recognition of networks, their multitudinous ways of being, and their world-building capabilities—comprises the premise of this exhibition. 

//What is maintained within their strands of relation and intersection? And what is at stake when networks nourish artistic ways of being and longing—(be)longing?//  

Networks of (Be)longing queries the relational traces structuring and embedded within artistic networks. The installations, publication, and videos of Canaries collective, Rami George, Tabitha Nikolai, and Mengda Zhang disclose structures of care, communality, labor-relations, and familial ties bound by tensions and desires. Acknowledging their potential to be “assembled anew,” the exhibition highlights artistic research and experiences that reckon with modes of operation through a (non)structure of four overlapping “channels”: functioning within, bypassing, decoding, and reprogramming. 

Unfolding across physical and virtual sites, Networks of (Be)longing creates a network all its own. The exhibition includes a group show at the Center for Contemporary Art and Culture (CCAC) with a new commission by Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) Artist-in-Residence, Rami George. Networks of (Be)longing also features a satellite solo presentation at the Paragon Arts Gallery at Portland Community College, Cascade Campus by Rami George, entitled and one day will tell you so many stories, on view September 25-November 29, 2020. Remote viewing access to the works in the group exhibition at CCAC, accessible written and audio captions, labels, the programs series, and an accompanying curatorial essay are available via the PNCA Online Galleries. 

Networks of (Be)longing is presented by the Center for Contemporary Art & Culture, PNCA, in collaboration with Paragon Arts Gallery, and supported by Converge 45. The exhibition is organized by Laurel V. McLaughlin, independent curator, with support from Mack McFarland, Assistant Professor at PNCA and Director of Converge 45, and Elizabeth Bilyeu, Director of the Paragon Arts Gallery.  

Adjacent to Networks of (Be)longing is an online exhibition, (see also:) variable performances of a well-designed site index, curated by CCAC Curatorial Fellow and MFA Critical Studies candidate, Kyle Cohlmia. The exhibition activates networks through a series of video and performance works that proliferate from the concept of the site index, in which connective links circumscribe viewers within boundaries, but also retain the potential to click beyond them.