nakushita • trouvé
A mixed media body of work investigating translations of what can be found through what has been lost. Many featured works were made collaboratively or in response to collected writing about loss from individuals whom Manon identified as helping her find something significant.
Materials: medicine cabinet, plexiglass, drawing on wood, acrylic mirror, vinyl text, graphite, glitter, shellac, lace, print on transparency, two-channel video
Dimensions: 15” L x 20″ H x 6″ W
Description: Artist collaborators Sanié Bokhari and Manon Wada reflect back on pandemic experiences of isolation, illness, and loss. Their two-channel video sculpture cabin fever, fever dream is set inside a medicine cabinet and divulges a series of hallucinatory vignettes mediated through experimental zoom recordings.
Materials: collection of found frames with etched glass, wooden dowels, monofilament
Dimensions: 5’3” L x 9’ H x 6’4” W
Description: a pause intended to hold space as a momentary altar for collective mourning and acknowledging the immense amount of loss in 2020 and ongoing. It was installed inside a walk-in closet at Whitney Center for the Arts in Pittsfield, MA, for Rites of Passage Project.
Materials: the suitcase that my father immigrated to the United States with, fabric screen, single-channel video projection
Dimensions: 4′ L x 5’3″ H x 3′ W
Description: A dissected suitcase houses a projector in one side and projects onto a screen on the other side. The video includes a number of actions processing and reanimating inherited materials, such as the tracing/erasing of a letter and the configuration of a lost home floor plan constructed from molding.
Materials: repurposed chairs, table, molding, miscellaneous found wood, hardware, joint compound, paint, glass cup, sugar, salt, single-channel video projection
Dimensions: 8’6″ L x 6’6″ H x 3’6″ W
Description: Invited participant Irene Wibawa responded to writing prompts on loss and identified losing time gradually. A video featuring artists Wibawa and Wada reading their responses back and forth is projected above a sculptural installation, which has snippets of the narrative carved into it with reversed text.
Materials: 26 sets of lower case and 26 sets of capital magnet alphabet letters cast in hydrocal and graphite, paper and wood glue origami boats, corner of wall, cast iron origami shuriken
Dimensions: 5′ L x 4′ H x 4′ W
Description: Invited participant and artist Maggie Yee responded to written prompts on loss and identified losing her childhood due to significant events. This work was made in response to the submitted writing and is comprised of ingredients intended to serve as a first aid kit. It was installed sequentially in two different locations.
Materials: lightcatchers, dissected couch, halved and full book shelves, sheetrock screen, single-channel video projection
Dimensions: 10′ L x 8′ H x 5′ W
Description: Invited participant and artist Reiko Fujii responded to writing prompts on loss and identified losing ‘a lightness of being’ when Trump was elected. The composite images feature video stills from the installation, which responded to her writing and attempted to find what was lost.
Materials: cast iron picture frame, partial desk drawer, denatured alcohol lamp, silver and copper casting grain, half of a table, chair in halves, wall, headphones, audio recording
Dimensions: 5′ L x 4′ H x 2′ W
Description: Invited artist and participant Suzanne Pugh responded to written prompts on loss and identified losing a sense of belonging when a family member passed away. This installation response attempted to serve as an anchor and was accompanied by an audio recording– an overlay of singing middle c from memory eight days in a row.
Materials: Found dollhouse, jars, personal photo archives, led lights, tree branches, fabricated floating houses, paper, pens
Dimensions: 7′ L x 7′ H x 3′ W
Description: Wandering Home was created collaboratively by Reiko Fujii, Cynthia Tom, Manon Wada, and Maggie Yee. The intention of this work was to create an open space to pay homage to personal hungry ghosts that one wishes to release. From 2017–19, this traveling installation collected over 300 handwritten notes from the public to their self-identified hungry ghosts. Due to the personal nature of the writing, the contents have been kept private. Collaborators of the project acknowledged the notes and then released them via burning at Muir Beach in California.