The Cooley Gallery, Reed College, and Ditch Projects (Springfield) present the exhibition Tender, part of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s 2024 Time-Based Art Festival.

Tender is the nature of this dyadic exhibition comprised of newly commissioned installations and stochastic works by longtime educators and colleagues Sarah Gilbert and Pato Hebert. 

For the artists, Tender is a healing endeavor. Both Gilbert and Hebert are in the process of negotiating their recovery from debilitating illness, injury, and the tragic loss of loved ones. Reading, listening, and touch are as essential to the exhibition as visual observation. Tender provides an opportunity for the artists to recount and transform their experiences—some caused or exacerbated by the pandemic—offering them with a desire for shared healing.  

Hannah Arendt described her experience of philosophical thought as “. . . a palpating tenderness toward the things of the world.” The wild beauty of the installation springs from the artists’ emotional attunement, and their embrace of the natural world within their work. Gilbert and Hebert ritualize and play with the vulnerability that has reshaped their lives.