LOVE LETTERS TO TURBULENCE
Aug 21–30, 2026
THIS_____ Gallery
108 E Broadway (alley entrance)
Vancouver, BC
Opening Reception
Sat Aug 22, 1–4pm
Love Letters to Turbulence is a durational participatory project that explores the affects and effects of trauma in and on a being and body over time. This project traverses what it feels like to live with trauma, rather than the specific events that cause it, inviting the reimagining of ideas of identity through reconsidering how we hold and share autobiographical narratives.
The exhibition includes a non-linear autoethnographic “manuscript,” collaborative zines by contributing artists Joy Gyamfi, Kira Pratt, Leah Abramson, Lichen, M-A Murphy, Marieke Helmke and Sonja Ahlers, artist-led workshops, and launch of the online Digital Container (co-created with web designer Randy Walton), which will invite, collect, and share anonymously contributed autobiographical narratives relating to trauma, support, and healing.
As a durational and site-responsive project, Love Letters to Turbulence evolves through community participation. Donated workshop works and online contributions become part of the exhibition, allowing the project to expand and create space for many voices. Moving away from silence, stigma, and fixed narratives, Love Letters to Turbulence offers opportunity to explore, witness, and communicate the affects and effects of trauma - inwardly and outwardly - for survivors and supporters.
You are invited to engage at your own comfort level: view the work, participate in a workshop, contribute online, and/or simply observe. Love Letters to Turbulence aims to provide an inclusive and safe(r)-enough space. Agency and choice are central to this work, choosing not to participate is equally meaningful.
You are encouraged to experience the exhibition more than once, as it will continue to shift throughout its presentation at THIS Gallery.
All events are free.
Opening Reception + Digital Container Launch
Sat Aug 22, 12–4pm
Closing Reception
Sun Aug 30, 12–4pm
Artist Talk
with Angela Fama + Sonja Ahlers
Sun Aug 30, 1–2pm
Outdoor Public Drop-in Workshop
with Angela Fama + Sonja Ahlers
Sun Aug 30, 2–3:30pm
Sign-up Workshops
With Angela Fama + Patricia Ruiz
Sat Aug 22, 5:30–7:30pm
Fri Aug 28, 6:30–8:30pm
Sat Aug 29, 5:30–7:30pm
For more info and/or to sign up CLICK HERE
Gallery Hours
Friday, August 21, 12–6pm (Low-Sensory Day)
Saturday, August 22, 12–5pm
Sunday, August 23, 12–4pm
Friday, August 28, 12–6pm (Low-Sensory Day)
Saturday, August 29, 12–5pm
Sunday, August 30, 12–4pm
All other days and times by appointment.
Love Letters to Turbulence is launched on the unceded, traditional and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ First Nations.
