LOVE LETTERS TO TURBULENCE
Love Letters to Turbulence is an evolving exhibition inviting you to both view and/or anonymously contribute stories of trauma, healing, and support.
As conversations around trauma, mental health, consent, and identity become increasingly visible in public life, many people still struggle to find ways of communicating these experiences beyond clinical language, social media narratives, or private conversations.
Launching at THIS_____Gallery in Vancouver from August 21–30, 2026, Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist Angela Fama's Love Letters to Turbulence responds to this gap through a durational participatory project exploring the affects and effects of trauma in and on a body over time.
Rooted in an autoethnographic perspective primarily relating to gender-based violence, the project focuses on what it feels like to live with trauma in its nonlinearity rather than the events that caused it. Through multiple entry points, audiences are invited to engage at their own comfort level, whether through viewing, writing, drawing, collage, participation, reflection, or simply being present.
The exhibition includes a large-scale autobiographical "manuscript," a suspended quilt, collaborative zines by seven contributing artists, artist-led workshops, and the public launch of a Digital Container that will collect anonymous reflections relating to trauma, healing, and support over the next three years.
Designed to shift and expand through community participation, Love Letters to Turbulence invites multiple narratives rather than a single story. Workshop participants may choose to anonymously contribute work to an evolving archive that will continue to grow as the project travels across Canada.
"There is no right way to engage with this work," says Fama. "People can participate at their own comfort level. You can do one word, a drawing, a story, a poem, or nothing at all."
By creating multiple ways of communicating beyond language alone, Love Letters to Turbulence aims to open more organic opportunities for communicating about trauma for survivors and, subsequently, supporters — moving away from silence, stigma, and fixed narratives.
ARTIST BIO
Angela Fama (she/they) is a Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist devoted to social practice and community-focused projects, interweaving lived and collective experiences relating to identity, trauma, death, and belonging. Her practice is grounded in transparency, accountability, and care, creating opportunities for participation, dialogue, and collective meaning-making.
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Joy Gyamfi, Kira Pratt, Leah Abramson, Lichen, M-A Murphy, Marieke Helmke, Randy Walton, Sonja Ahlers
DIGITAL CONTAINER
Expanding beyond gallery walls is the Digital Container, inviting and gathering anonymously contributed autobiographical narratives relating to trauma, healing and support. The Digital Container will launch publicly and universally alongside this launch (Aug 21 2026), continuing to collect narratives throughout the travelling exhibition’s duration of three years. After which, with respect to impermanence, the contributed digital narratives will be removed, effectively disappearing.
PRE-LAUNCH PRIVATE LINK
Private username: guest
Private passcode: LLTT
WORKSHOPS
Three separate sign-up workshops and one drop-in workshop are being offered where you are invited to both view the Love Letters to Turbulence project and creatively explore your response.
The sign-up workshops are small groups (6 max + facilitators)
You're invited to engage at your own comfort level
You choose how you wish to engage, or not, at your own pace
Angela Fama and Patricia Ruiz will co-facilitate the sign-up workshops
Angela Fama and Sonja Ahlers will co-facilitate the drop-in workshop
Creative materials will be provided, similar to those utilized in the original works, including: paper, ink, graphite, scissors, glue, vintage typewriters, a stapler, and photocopies of both the 'manuscript' and previously contributed zines
Viewers/participants are invited to either keep or anonymously contribute what they may create through a workshop to the project
If your work is donated, it will then become an anonymous part of the Love Letters to Turbulence project, co-creating and changing the work in relation
After these launch event’s workshops, Fama will continue to facilitate related workshops throughout the travelling exhibition’s duration. Once the durational exhibition closes, with respect to legacy and rebirth, a hard-copy and digital artist book will be co-created, combining the ‘manuscript’, contributed ‘zines, and donated workshop works collected across Canada.
MORE INFO / SIGN UP HERE
ACCESSIBILITY
Love Letters to Turbulence aims to offer and co-create collaborative, safe(r)/safe-enough, respectful spaces that are intersectional and inclusive. Participation is optional at every stage, and audiences are invited to engage at their own comfort level.
Accessibility features include:
Scent-free space
Reduced noise environment
Consent-based participation
No-pressure pacing
Low-sensory exhibition days
Ear buds and masks available upon request
Quiet/rest area available during workshops
Creative materials provided for all workshops
Please note that the gallery entrance includes five stairs with a railing, and washrooms are located on the upper floor via additional stairs.
EXHIBITION INFORMATION
Love Letters to Turbulence
August 21–30, 2026
THIS_____ Gallery
108 E Broadway (alley)
Vancouver, BC
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.
Events
Opening Reception & Digital Container Launch
Saturday, August 22, 1–4pm
Closing Event & Final Changed-Through-Process Showing
Sunday, August 30, 1–4pm
Artist Talk Angela Fama and Sonja Ahlers
Sunday, August 30, 1–2pm
Outdoor Public Workshop Angela Fama and Sonja Ahlers
Sunday, August 30, 2–3:30pm
Sign-up Workshops
Saturday, August 22, 5:30–7:30pm
Friday, August 28, 6:30–8:30pm
Saturday, August 29, 5:30–7:30pm
Admission is free.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Love Letters to Turbulence is launched from the unceded, traditional, and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
