What Are You Looking At?
Séan Alonzo Harris, Eric Pickersgill, and Ling-Wen Tsai
Nov. 19, 2026 - Jan. 9, 2027
Opening Reception: Thurs. Nov. 19, 5 - 7pm
Panel Discussion: Sat. Nov. 21, 5:30-6:30pm
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
FEATURED ARTISTS
This exhibition was originally conceived of by Portland-based sound practitioner and author of The Art of Being, Elizabeth Ross, as a pop-up pairing visual art from photographer Eric Pickersgill’s Removed series with a healing arts program incorporating slow looking, the power of pause, and somatic healing. We loved the idea at first sight, so much so, we felt it should be offered as a full exhibition, including the photography of roster photographer Sean Alonzo Harris. From that moment on, What Are You Looking At? organically blossomed into something even richer and more dimensional through the addition of Portland artist Ling-Wen Tsai and Portland based energy healer and author, Abby Johnston.
The resulting exhibition and ongoing program of free-to-the public events we’ve developed around it are a tangible expression of a lively collaborative energy that thrummed between us, centering around a contemplation of presence, absence, and embodied awareness. It asks us to consider what’s at stake in our increasingly distracted, device-addicted reality. What are the long term effects, individually and to the collective, of living in a dopamine-driven state of algorithmic capture? And, in the attention based economy we’ve been thrust into, where our focus has been commodified, are we undervaluing our own currency?
Pickersgill’s black and white photographs were created by asking people in more than a dozen countries to hold the pose of someone using a device, which was removed before shooting the photograph. What remained was posture, focus, and a hand shaped around something that isn’t there. Though together, physically, his subject’s attention is as absent from each other as the physical devices are from their hands. Harris’s work, selected from several of his black and white portraiture series exemplifies presence. His subject’s gaze meet the lens straight on and are remarkable for their intimacy and openness. The images seem to capture each subject’s unmasked essence as well as the energetic imprint of the moment of connection between artist and subject. That energy transfers to the viewer in the directness of the subject’s gaze, which registers as an appeal to connect in recognition of the “I” in each “other.”
Ling-Wen Tsai’s interactive installation sitting quietly…invites the audience to sit while wearing a noise-reduction headset, and contemplate a space defined by light within a void. By stripping away external stimuli, the installation offers a quiet retreat for reflection, shifting focus from the surrounding environment back onto the inner self. The mere fact of the object’s presence, in use or not, physically connects visual art with the healing arts in its embodiment of both.
Despite the gravitas and true sense of urgency of its theme, what this show is not is alarmist, fatalistic, or disempowering. What Are You Looking At? and the program in support are instead offered as an immersive container for hope, connection, and transformation. An opportunity to ponder the question playfully posed by the title, not only through reason, but through felt experience. The robust program, offered during the holidays, when friends and family gather, is our way of participating in the spirit of giving. In hopes that the gift of awareness will be paid forward in the offering of your own presence to those that matter most. Yourself included.
Preview the Exhibition
(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
