Furin Project Symposium

The Furin Project Symposium is the culmination of APANO Catalyst artist Midori Hirose's year-long community & place-making art project. This event is FREE and open to the public.

Event: Furin Project Symposium

Date: Friday, May 5th, 2023

Time: 4pm - 8pm

Location: This event involves a short walking tour - maps will be provided! We are starting at the PCC Southeast Campus Learning Garden at 2305 SE 82nd Ave, and ending at APANO, 8188 SE Division Street, Portland, OR 97206

Event Background & Purpose

In collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and Mural Arts Institute in Philadelphia (MAI), Midori Hirose's Furin Project involves honoring the history and legacy of the Japanese American Farming community. This year-long community art and place-making project engage contemporary questions on how the longstanding local Orchards of SE 82nd Ave. and the surrounding area continue to serve as sites of community nourishment.

For this project, Midori researched the history and current landscape of the area, including but not limited to the Japanese American farming history of the area, the fruiting trees, and PCC's role as a community site. Her focus is the intersection of the current social landscape of the area in relation to food and resilience, farming, and green spaces. She has worked in collaboration with several organizations since the project’s inception: Ikoi No Kai; Kirkland Union Manor; Portland Fruit Tree Project; Montavilla Farmers Market; Ride Connection; and Portland Community College (PCC) SE, Rock Creek, Cascade, and Sylvania Campus —  GIS, Music and Sonic Arts, New Media Coding, Learning Garden, Community-Based Learning, English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Photography, and the Ceramics Department; McDaniel’s High School and a workshop study of pigment to clay applications with The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Portland Cultural Lifeways.

Midori Hirose’s Furin Project is a series of free ceramic bell-making workshops that invite the public to introduce interpretations of Furin, Japanese “wind bells,” which historically were hung from trees in Japan. The project was conceived with the goal of building community connections and engaging in discussions about Indigenous stewardship, past and present, and future of the SE Portland area. A collaborative sound mapping project is also in the works with PCC students and faculty in the Geographic Information System (GIS), Music and Sonic Arts, and New Media Coding departments. These sounds are in the process of being collected by ringing each bell as well as through a sound survey. Attached is a QR flyer with more information about the survey. The sounds will be exhibited as an interactive installation. 

An exhibition of these bells and sounds will be held at the Portland Community College (PCC) SE Art Gallery from April thru May 2023, with a Symposium on Friday, May 5, 2023, that will entail a tour of the PCC grounds, workshops, and potluck to follow at APANO.

** Face masks are required indoors at APANO.