Portland Institute for Contemporary Art is thrilled to announce its inclusion in one of five new trios of researchers, artists, and arts organizations selected for the Triangle Program, an initiative of the Simons Foundation. The awardees will develop new artworks in performance, sound, sculpture, participatory and multisensory formats, all inspired by the expansive theme of “symmetry.” This year’s program is part of the foundation’s Infinite Sums initiative, which celebrates math’s beauty and place in culture.

This award supports a forthcoming exhibition by artist and researcher Meech Boakye in collaboration with mathematician Kyle Ormsby, which will be on view at PICA in 2027.

Boakye's and Orsmby's participatory installation translates structures from topology and combinatorics into embodied experience. The exhibition centers on a monumental hanging mobile informed by the associahedron, a geometric model of associativity composed of translucent, light-responsive elements that shift with movement, performance, and changing illumination. Throughout the space, audiences engage in collaborative, stamp-based drawing systems derived from braid diagrams and meander combinatorics, assembling complex forms through repeated local actions.

Symmetry functions throughout the project as both a mathematical principle and a social proposition. Community engagement includes outdoor walking tours framing the city as a drawing system, light, and movement performances activating the mobile, food-based gatherings and workshops.

Our sincere thanks to the Simons Foundation and the "Infinite Sums" initiative for their support of this project. Stay tuned for more about the 2027 exhibition at PICA!