By Hannah Erickson
As work on a memorial at the historic Chinese section of Lone Fir Cemetery continues, funding has been approved for two art projects at the site.
The projects are very different: One focuses on the eastern entryway to the memorial, while the other enhances a round altar at the pavilion on the western side. One is proposed by an established art studio whose public art projects have become iconic landmarks, while the other comes from two artists emerging into the Portland art scene.
Both projects, however, share an aim of honoring the people who were once buried at the southwest corner of Lone Fir Cemetery in a spot labeled “Block 14” on cemetery maps. Research shows that more than 3,000 people of Chinese ancestry were buried at Lone Fir from the 1880s to the early 1900s, until Multnomah County took ownership of the cemetery and began pushing to have the Chinese section cleared of graves.
The funding for these art projects comes from Metro’s Percent for Art program, which requires that any public construction project include one percent of its budget for public art.
In keeping with recommended practices, Metro put out a call for an art advisor to lead the recruitment of artists. Artist and urban designer Suenn Ho was selected from the field of candidates. In July 2024, Metro opened applications for art proposals based on Ho’s recommendations and guidance.
Metro convened an art advisory committee to help select the artists. The committee is made up of Ho, Metro project staff, historian Dr. Jennifer Fang, lead memorial designer Mike Yun of Knot Studio and memorial architect Thea Von Geldern of Allied Works.
The committee evaluated all applications based on a set of established criteria. Artists were evaluated based on artistic qualifications and project approach; understanding and familiarity with Chinese and Chinese American history and culture; experience working with historic, archeological or cemetery topics; representation from the Portland metropolitan region or meaningful connecting to the site; and whether the team offered an opportunity for an emerging artist or apprentice.
Additionally, projects needed to meet the unusual logistical and legal challenges of constructing art in a cemetery, as well as stay within the allotted budget.
In late 2024, Metro announced an intent to award $180,000 to Lead Pencil Studio to create art at the site. Additionally, the selection committee recommended that Metro also award about $20,000 to Portland-based emerging artists Qi You and Sophia Xiao-fan Austrins to work with community members on ideas for the memorial’s altar and ways to create connection between ancestors and the living.
The art committee selected Lead Pencil Studio as the established artist. The two-person, Seattle-based studio has a long resume of public art installations in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Artists Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo have strong connections to Oregon, having met while studying architecture at University of Oregon. They have created major public artworks in the state, including “Inversion: Plus Minus” in Portland’s Central Eastside and the memorial for cremated remains of patients at the Oregon State Hospital.
Their proposed artwork, “Passage,” uses a technique they call “filigree,” in which thick and durable metal wire is welded together to create forms that can range between crisp edges and transparent clouds. “Passage” proposes an arched gateway at the eastern entrance to the site that gradually becomes more transparent as it rises toward the sky. Within the filigree are traditional elements from southern Chinese architecture that can only be seen from certain angles.
“The rendering of the sculpture is such that it is completely transparent and will be neither fragile nor imposing,” reads the artists’ statement. “It will be an invitation to enter or exit through this portal as a transition to prepare visitors of all backgrounds for a culturally specific and sacred environment.”
Lead Pencil presented their proposal to community members at an event held in May at the Oregon Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. A second engagement event is tentatively planned for late summer or early fall.
The art committee also selected a proposal made jointly by artists Qi You and Sophia Xiao-fan Austrins.
The two artists are based in Portland and have worked on multiple projects in the area. You’s work has been shown at the Lan Su Chinese Garden, Portland Chinatown Museum and Oregon Contemporary. Austrins has facilitated explorations of culture and identity with MaskOutHate, Living Arts, Vanport Mosaic and as a project architect on the renovated Midland Library.
“Imprints of Our Times”—a provisional title that may change as the project develops—proposes inviting community members to bring or sculpt objects that they might place on an ancestral altar. A selection of these objects could be later cast in bronze and permanently embedded into the altar at the memorial’s pavilion. Other objects could be used to create impressions in the stone of the altar, symbolizing what was lost when the cemetery was bulldozed to make way for a county maintenance facility.
The pair has engaged with community members at events held in October 2024 and April 2025; a third event was held in July 2025 at the Oregon Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.
This article originally appeared on the Metro website, oregonmetro.gov.
Community members hold objects sculpted from clay that could be used to represent altar offerings at a memorial in Lone Fir Cemetery’s historic Chinese section. Photo by Metro.
