The One who Dwells in This House emerges from the text of the Mishna (Middot 2:2), which details the highly prescribed choreography for bringing offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem. This passage reads like a manual for a collective grief ritual that moves beyond the shiva house (house of mourning) to include the grief of having harmed a loved one, of marginalization or isolation, or loss of a friendship, or losing one’s way. The text reads: All who entered the Temple Mount entered by the right and went round … save for one to whom something had happened… "Why do you go round to the left? " "Because I am a mourner, " "May He who dwells in this house comfort you." The One Who Dwells in This House is a visual commentary on what it means to grieve, to be marginalized, vulnerable, and to return, whether to a familiar landscape or a different one altogether. Following the massacre of October 7, the Portland Jewish community suffered fissures, as did so many other Diaspora communities. 'Art/Lab: Innovating Jewish Arts and Culture' has served as an incubator for artists, conversations, the creation of work and public encounters that radically counter these divides.
