Letters to Earth, a new mapped-projection work surrounding visitors to Venice VR Expanded 2021 in the Portland Art Museum's Fields Ballroom, poses the question, "What devotions does the Earth ask of us as its most powerful inhabitants?" Drawing upon personal travels and archives, as well as contributions from colleagues around the world, this new work takes on the task of "re-enchanting" the world we too often take for granted. Performers from around the world acting as "correspondents" responded to a prompt asking them to make an embodied offering for the earth through gesture, movement and ritual. Many performers contributed by entering the collaboration through the Liminal Performance Space, a digital performance installation, from locations as far flung as Mexico City, Tokyo, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Other performances were recorded live in Portland, or around the state. Through the magic of creative coding and projection mapping these diverse "letters" have been transformed, washing the walls of the ballroom with a dreamlike vision of the miracle that our Earth truly is. Our performance correspondents include: Yunuen Rhi and Claudia Franco, Mexico; Juju and Lisa Kusanagi, Tokyo, Japan; Sahra Brahim, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Marcello Natarelli, Italy; Sophia Wright Emigh and Jaleesa Johnston, Portland; Chan Moly Sam, Cambodian Community of White Center, Wash.; Mariko Ohno, Kabuki Theater of Tacoma, Wash.; Judy Chan, Chinese Opera R & D Association, Tacoma, Wash.; Justin Charles Hoover, Chinese Historical Society of America; Sarah Turner, Portland, Ore.

Video: Letters From Earth-from Venice VR