A thought-provoking art exhibition at Portland's Virtua Gallery is asking visitors to consider whether Earth might be developing a new form of religion. Artist 011668 has created "The First International Church of Toyota," a multisensory installation that challenges viewers to examine contemporary spirituality through an unexpected lens. The exhibition features both video art and what the artist calls a "future relic" – an oversized Toyota emblem carved from stone, designed to look like an artifact that might someday be stored in the backrooms of natural history museums.
The artist 011668 specializes in interdisciplinary work that explores themes of spirituality, mythology, and cosmogony in our digital era. By positioning the Toyota brand as a potential cornerstone of American spiritual life, they directly confront the industrial forces that shape contemporary society and place them within what they describe as a modern pantheon. The video component of the exhibition runs for less than 10 minutes, yet within that brief timeframe, 011668 manages to completely reimagine a modern creation myth. The piece conceptualizes society's dependence on finite natural resources through the distinctive visual languages of Japanese mecha drama and classic film noir.
The exhibition came about through the vision of Matt Henderson, who serves as both Virtua Gallery's founder and one of its resident artists. Henderson originally invited 011668 to participate in a pop-up event, but once he experienced their work firsthand, he became completely captivated by their artistic vision. "I knew I'd bring them from Los Angeles to Portland as soon as I could," Henderson explained. When the right opportunity presented itself, he quickly transformed Virtua Gallery's hidden backroom event space into an immersive environment where 011668's work could achieve its full impact. Like most of Lloyd Center's repurposed storefronts, Virtua Gallery has a storeroom tucked away behind its main retail floor plan.
"The First International Church of Toyota" playfully explores the concept of a post-humanist society where machines – specifically Toyota vehicles – manage to outlive humanity by thousands of years. According to the narrative presented in the video portion, each individual vehicle survives for an impressive 2,000 years. Viewers experience the story of life on Earth from the unique perspective of this surviving mechanical species, with the entire history told through Toyota's corporate lens. The narrative journey begins with primordial soup and concludes with the company's founding in the period following World War I.
The exhibition includes several memorable highlights that showcase the artist's creative approach to reimagining spiritual and corporate symbolism. Video segments draw deliberate comparisons between the Toyota emblem and the concept of the Holy Trinity in Christian theology. The work features a methodical breakdown of how dinosaurs essentially sacrificed themselves to fuel what the artist describes as our collective subconscious. There's also a direct plea for disrupting traditional commercial spaces, along with a poetic reflection on what humanity's final days of earthly habitation might look like.
The artistic approach blends rigorous academic theory with elements of surreal hyperreality, creating a perspective that gazes backward through time to examine our present moment. The result is what can best be described as a satirically grim prediction of an all-too-realistic future scenario. Despite its dark undertones, critics and visitors alike agree that the exhibition offers an experience well worth having for anyone interested in contemporary art's engagement with corporate culture and spirituality.
Visitors can experience "The First International Church of Toyota" by 011668 at Virtua Gallery, located at 1027 Lloyd Center on the second floor's west side. The gallery maintains an active presence on social media at instagram.com/virtua_gal. Current operating hours are Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with additional viewings available by appointment through September 30. The gallery requests a suggested donation of $10-15, but maintains a policy that no one will be turned away due to lack of funds.
