Join us for a PANEL DISCUSSION AT THE PORTLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY ABOUT THE OBJECTS WE LIVE WITH, THE VALUE THEY HOLD, AND THE MEMORIES WE SHARE.

Over the past three years we have lived very closely with our objects. The pandemic has been a period of great loss and deepening awareness of what matters most but it has also been a time to review why objects matter at all. Some have opened boxes covered in dust to review memory materials while others have taken up scrapbooking and crafts. Others purchase while the family member in the next room purges. Everyone has been forced to review their surroundings while considering their own mortality.

SPEEDWELL contemporary's summer exhibition, Life's Odd Ephemera, features work by Roz Chast, Claire Messud, Diana Weymar, and Adriane Herman. Join artists and Bates College Professor of Anthropology Jen K. Hughes at the Portland Public Library to dive into what our relationships to objects mean and how they shape our lived experiences.

Register for the panel discussion here!

*please note, this event takes place at the Portland Public Library

Life’s Odd Ephemera, an exhibition featuring work by Roz Chast, Claire Messud, and Diana Weymar as well as an Emotional Value Auction by Adriane Herman is on view from july 14 to september 9, 2023.

Images: Roz Chast, Claire Messud, Adriane Herman, and Diana Weymar