The Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center will host a collaborative show featuring art quilts by Cathy Erickson and poetry by Margaret Chula entitled WHAT REMAINS: Art Quilts and Poetry on Japanese Americans in Internment Camps. The exhibit opens on January 14, 2007 with a public reception from 1pm-3pm. The artists will give a slide show and talk about their collaborative process during the reception. WHAT REMAINS will be on view until February 25, 2007.

WHAT REMAINS is the result of four years of collaboration between local artists Margaret Chula, an internationally known haiku poet, and Cathy Erickson, a prolific quilt artist. This series of quilts and poems represents the ten World War II internment camps, as well as a cross-section of internee life. "In the 1940's over 120,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned in internment camps. From the new born baby to the aging grandfather, all their lives were changed dramatically. Now only photos, stories, and rubble remain of that time. The art quilts and poetry in this series try to capture the spirit of what remains sixty years later" [Chula and Erickson, 2006].

During the opening reception the artists will give a slide show and talk about their creative process. "Each piece was made from the viewpoint of a different person who was interned in the camps such as a father, a young boy, a grandmother, or a young girl whose brother went off to war. Photographs, letters, and historical documents were used as background information in addition to visiting with people who took part in this piece of American History" [Erickson, 2006]. They will also discuss their theories and methodology for artistic collaboration. "Collaboration is like a mirror that shows each artist not just a mimicry of her work but reflects a subtlety that she was not able to see before. The words of poem allow the quilt artist to look deeper into the fabric of her creation to see the layers that were not visible before. For the poet, words take on texture, color, linear rhythm—rhythm of lines and shapes rather than iambs. The sum of the piece becomes more than itself" [Chula, 2006].

Please join us for a chance to meet the artists and hear their stories and inspirations surrounding the creation this exhibit.

WHAT REMAINS: Art Quilts & Poetry on Japanese Americans in Internment Camps
Exhibition dates: January 14 – February 25, 2007

Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center
121 NW Second Avenue
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 224-1458
www.oregonnikkei.org
onlc@oregonnikkei.org

Exhibit hours: Tues – Sat 11-3 and Sun 12-3
$3.00 donation, free to members of ONLC

Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center (ONLC) is a Japanese American history center that preserves and shares the history and culture of Japanese Americans in Oregon. A project of the Oregon Nikkei Endowment, ONLC creates and hosts exhibits, provides speakers for schools and community organizations, offers public programs, records videotaped oral histories, and preserves historic documents and artifacts.