Sharing my stories on anti-Asian racism

My history not my memory
Xerox transfer on Japaense paper
10'x 15',  1999

 

 

 

I recently wrote a post for Harvard Fine Arts Library's social media and post about my experiences with anti-Asian racism.

“In the early nineties when I was a college student in a suburb outside Boston, my car was vandalized on the campus parking lot at night. All the windows were smashed, every single wire and tube in the front was cut and dismantled, and there was a message scratched on the side of the car, “KKK was here.” My registration card, which I kept in the glove compartment, was left on the passenger seat, as if to warn me that whoever did this knew who I was and where I lived. The campus police officer to whom I reported the incident, who was in the dominant group, refused to file it as a hate crime. Despite my pleading and the obvious evidence, the incident was only filed as vandalism. I was not offered any kind of emotional support from the college, and I lived in fear for my safety for many months... Read more.

 

My history not my memory, detail

Perpetual Self Discipline
Xerox transfer on Japanese paper, cast glass of dumbbells, video
size variable, 1996 - 1997

Hours Days Weeks Months Years Decades Centuries

Hours Days Weeks Months Years Decades Centuries, No.1
India ink and graphite on paper
22" in diameter
2020 - 2021

I started drawing black circles on a bunch of round papers last fall. I wanted to draw perfect circles, so I gathered all sorts of circular shapes to use as templates—lids of pots and pans, tins that came with candles, a Petri dish, and so on.  I used these tools to draw many different sizes of circles on the round papers. These circles didn’t demand any composition. They preferred randomness and began to multiply. It’s been my nightly activity to draw and paint these black circles each day.

No. 2, detail

I think I know what I’m doing, then I don’t know what I’m doing. I think I’m trying to make sense of the world but I don’t exactly know how to make sense of it all. Maybe intellectually I can see how the world became as it did, but my emotions are all over the place, messy and confusing. I’m afraid that there will be a delayed response. Years from now, we might realize what the year 2020 has done to the core of our beings and the entire world.

 

Or maybe not. 

 

But I know where these black circles came from. 

Hours Days Weeks Months Years Decades Centuries, No.2

In the spring of 2020 when the United States and many other countries around the world were hit by the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, I obsessively checked the maps of the coronavirus infection and death rates in the New York Times every day. At that time, both infection rates and death rates were represented as circles on the map. You could see where the hot spots were by looking at the size of the red circles on the coronavirus infection map. The map for the Covid-19 deaths used black circles. The sizes of these circles were growing each day at an exponential rate, to the point that eventually, the New York Times switched to the color-coded maps for each state, because the size of the circles got so big that they started covering the whole state. 

 

Each day, I was horrified looking at those circles growing larger and spreading throughout the country. 

 

Hours Days Weeks Months Years Decades Centuries, No.3

Then, the murder of George Floyd happened, and the Black Lives Matter protests followed. The New York Times was tracking the BLM protests and where the protests were taking place. Again, there was a map. When I first saw the map, I had to do a double take because I was seeing black circles on the map. A strange Deja-vu moment, but immediately followed by hope and joy once I realized what I was looking at. 

 

One night in my studio as I was working on the black circles, I saw the graphite marks shining on the paper against the black. I liked that and started to paint around the graphite marks so that I didn't obscure their shine with ink. I keep adding circles. I’m not sure when it will end or when it is finished. Maybe time will tell. 

 

Or maybe not.

 

No. 3, detail

Mapping

Happy New Year. I hope the 2021 will bring bright hopes, good health, peace and justice for all of us. As I write this, my mind is on Georgia right now.

Looking back on the epic year 2020, the highlight of my artistic activities was being able to install a solo show. Such things are difficult during the pandemic, but I enjoyed every minute of installing the show while wearing a mask. I was re-energized with this prospect of sharing my work with people (in-person and in real space) and realized how important it was for me to feel connected this way. Even though the exhibit was open to the Rivers School community only, but not to the public due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the exhibit was enjoyed by students and faculty at the Rivers School. I particularly enjoyed several positive comments from the students while I was installing “Field Notes, II,” a room-size installation in one of the galleries. 

 

Field Notes, II
Archival pigment print on Tyvek and vellum
98"x 240"x 180"
2016 - 2020

In order to share my work beyond the Rivers School community, I created a virtual exhibit site, so that anybody can view the exhibit from the comfort of their home.

“Mapping” opened at the Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts on October 19th. 

 

"Extinction Studies" series

As an artist, making art in the studio has been tremendously helpful for me in sustaining a sense of normalcy in my life during the pandemic. My work kept me grounded, so to speak, literally working on a drawing on the floor every day. The life of confinement also gave me new ways of thinking and looking at my old work, and I saw it as an opportunity to experiment with my old work.
 
I presented a couple of new works and new “old” works in this exhibit. The new works are two map drawings from “Extinction Studies” series that are based on historical maps of the Adirondacks in northern New York state.

 

Map of Adirondack Wilderness, 1888

India ink, walnut ink, and ink on paper

86"x 70" (diptych)

2019

 

Two new “old” pieces came out of my reflection on science and belief during the pandemic. “Field Notes, II” is an installation that is composed with images of scientific writings that were hand traced from the whiteboards during my residency at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in 2016–2017. While there I learned that science is rigorous. Scientific knowledge as we come to know it is the result of countless days, months, and years of experiments by scientists working in the lab. Science, as I observed, is driven by the desire to understand the unknown and the courage to go in search of things that might not be knowable. This was where I, as an artist, felt closely in sync with scientists about the way we do our work. This installation, “Field Notes, II,” with layers of the scientific ideas and writings being laid on the floor, calls attention to what makes the groundwork for future scientific discoveries.

 

Field Notes, II, detail

When there are no treatments available, what do we do, where do we go, and how do we deal with the disease, both physically and mentally? I have been asking myself these questions since the pandemic started. We’ve been living with these questions for several months now. In “Accrescence,” which means continual growth, magic spells from ancient medical papyrus were deployed to create new meanings. I included  these magic spells in my work in the past, but the pandemic made me go back to them and look at them in a different way. In this iteration, magic spells (laser cut on vellum) are presented by layering old and found papers that have histories and meanings for me into new and singular works. In this work, layering became important to me. Adding layers of histories to these magic spells, our desire to want to believe in medical treatment is never lost then or now, whether magic spells for ancient people or prayers and hope for vaccines during the pandemic in the 21st century. To me, these pieces speak quietly as a prayer.

 

Accrescence
Installation view
Laser cut on vellum and found papers
Approx. 20"x 14" each
2016-2020

Mapping is one way we come to understand the world by organizing and systemizing layers of information. This organizing helps us understand the scope of data and information in a visual way. But maps do not remain unchanged. To an artist, maps are starting points for new interpretations, experiments, inventions, and actions. In this exhibit, I presented several different bodies of work that are related to mapping and maps. The collecting and organizing of layers of information in science, and the weaving of histories can be seen as my attempt to understand the unknown as well as the time we are in.

 

Thank you for reading and for your ongoing support.
Please stay safe and healthy.

 

 

Turning the Wheel: Artists Activists Award

I was humbled and honored to be one of the awardees for this year’s Medicine Men and Women and Artists Activists, along with Gary Bailey, Kay Walsh, and Amir Dixon on the virtual Turning the Wheel event on June 25th. 

I'm happy to share my presentation from the event. You can watch it on Vimeo.

Turning The Wheel is a fundraising event for the Medicine Wheel Productions, a non-profit organization founded in 2000 by Michael Dowling. Their mission is to transform communities from the inside out by inviting all members to participate in the healing and transcendent power of public art. They are forging a Common Path—one of inclusion and civic engagement—using art as a threshold to help individuals gain awareness of self, community, and the human condition.

Because of their strong commitment to inclusion and belonging, and civic engagement through art, I feel deeply honored to be recognized as one of the voices for making changes in our society. This year in the midst of the pandemic, fight against racism, and the presidential election campaigns, the healing and transformative power of art can be more than an inspiration but much needed sustenance for us to keep fighting. 

Thank you so much for your ongoing support! 

Charting the World: Subjective Map Making

Map of Saranac Lake and Surrounding Area, 1954

India Ink on BFK Rives Paper, 42.5"x 53", 2019

It's been a great fun to share my work besides such talented artists that I admire so much. It's hard to believe that a month already went by. Today is the last day for "Charting the World: Subjective Map Making" at the Suffolk University Gallery. What a great ride it has been!


Charting the World: Subjective Map Making
January 30 - February 27, 2020
Suffolk University Gallery
8 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA

What we call the 'world'... is not given as self-evident from the outset. It is apprehended...in an ongoing 'crisis' of spatial consciousness. E. Cassirer

For centuries, we have used maps to chart the world - from the body to the stars and everything in between. Both foreign and familiar, we can both lose and find ourselves. Mapping is a way of using spatial reasoning. Many contemporary artists use maps or refer to them in some way to inform their work: Google maps, imaginary maps, mind maps, genome mapping, data visualization, historical maps. The results are often reflective and personal. Questions abound: What is the meaning of a map in 2020? How has that changed with the abundance of possibilities available by way of our devices? How do we find the way to each other and back to ourselves?

Participating Artists:

In this exhibit Naoe Suzuki is represented by two bodies of work. In her Extinction Studies series, she researches maps of the Adirondack region and traces animals' names from the maps. On these maps, she was fascinated by finding so many places with animal names, such as "Little Otter Pond" or "Salmon River." Floating in the sea of blackness, these names become stars in the sky, constellations, and ghosts of memories of places she holds dear. The Water Is Taught by Thirst series was created by tracing waterways from topographical maps. The waterways were laser cut, leaving behind a crackled, sculptural terrain, evoking a sense of loss.

Kate McLean works at the intersection of human-perceived smellscapes, cartography and the communication of 'eye-invisible' sensed data. To achieve this, she leads public smellwalks internationally and translates the resulting data using digital design, watercolor, animation, scent diffusion and sculpture into smellscape mappings. Smells form part of our knowing, but are elusive, often disappearing before they can be pinned down. Smell experience is an invisible and currently under-presented dataset with strong connections to emotions and memory.

Heidi Whitman's drawings are cartographies of the subconscious that refer to time and memory as uncharted territory. She is interested in states of mind, how experience is translated into thought, and how dreams jumble reality. Maps of ancient ruins and contemporary cities are part of a layered network of pathways, spirals, and switchbacks that conflates the concrete world with the invisible mind. Each Mental Map drawing is constructed with layers of hand-cut paper, ink, and gouache.

Born in Taipei Taiwan, Yu-Wen Wu's subjectivity as an immigrant is central to her practice. Human migration and climate change are the defining issues of Wu's work.  At the crossroads of art, science, politics and cultural issues, her wide range of projects include large-scale drawings, site-specific video installations, community engaged practices and public art.

Deb Todd Wheeler's recent work, Radio Silence is a geo-located guided audio walk at Lost Pond Sanctuary in Brookline, MA. In a time before the world began to collapse around her, with the sudden death of her son and the suicide of her brother and in the depths of grief in 2019, she set out to record a group of songs with the LENNYcollective. For the artist, it became a healing journey, a walk through the soundtrack of her life. She says "this walk is for all of us who walk the wild edge of sorrow."
 
Teri Rueb's work combines sound and site using mobile media. One of the works represented in the exhibit Fens, is composed mainly from location recordings made in the Boston Back Bay Fens in different seasons, different weather, at different times of day and night. Inspired by Fredrick Law Olmsted's fascination with parks as confluences of natural and social processes, the piece takes up landscape as a site of interaction between human and non-human elements evoked through sound. The other Core Sample, is a GPS-based interactive sound walk and corresponding sound sculpture that evokes the material and cultural histories contained in and suggested by the landscape of Spectacle Island. The piece engages the extended landscape of Boston Harbor as bound by the Institute of Contemporary Art building on the Seaport waterfront, and Spectacle Island, a former dump and reclaimed landfill park visible just off the coast.

The exhibit is curated by Deborah Davidson.
 

Recent Newsletter: Celebrating Art and Science at the Broad and more

Read my most recent newsletter about "Celebrating Art and Science at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard" and the upcoming exhibit, "Charting the World: Subjective MapMaking" at the Suffolk University.

Library
Deaccessioned card catalog cabinets from the Harvard Fine Arts Library,
Petri dishes, laser cut vellum, lab tapes, and various lab tools in the drawers.
2016 - 2017

Currently installed at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Celebrating Art and Science at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

My work is being included in this group exhibition featuring works by past and current Artists-in-Residence at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. I'm happy to be finally showing my work at the place where I created them during my Artist-in-Residence. I'm showing an installation entitled Library and several pieces from Inscription drawings (translocation of double-stranded passage).

I feel honored to be showing my work in a group of such talented artists, Daniel Kohn, Gupi Ranganathan, Maskull Lasserre, and Lucy Kim.

Broad Institute is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year. This exhibit is a part of their Broad15 celebration. The exhibit is open by appointment only to the public. It is free, but must register on Eventbrite to make appointments.

Artists talk and reception is scheduled for January 14, 5-7pm at the Broad Institute, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA. It'll be held on the 2nd floor connector area where the exhibit is. It should be a great event!

Upcoming solo exhibition, "Excerpts" at Babson College

I’m pleased to announce my upcoming solo exhibition, Excerpts at the Hollister Gallery at Babson College. The exhibit opens on September 12th. I’m showing a new iteration of my Artist-in-Residence projects at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, as well as two new pieces I have created this summer, including "Untitled (We still want to believe)". These works have never been exhibited, so I'm very excited to show my new work.

Excerpts (solo exhibition)
September 12 - November 1, 2019
Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Thursday, September 12, 5-7pm
Hollister Gallery at the Sorenson Center for the Arts
Babson College
231 Forest Street, Wellesley, MA
Free and open to the public. *Reservation is encouraged.
Visit Facebook Event page

Excerpts, a new iteration of Naoe Suzuki’s Artist-in-Residence projects at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, is an exploration of interconnectedness between knowledge and belief in medical science. Suzuki incorporates magic spells from the Edwin Smith Papyrus, from 1,600 BC in Egypt, the earliest known medical papyrus to include prognosis. She extracts and sequences these archaic spells—indecipherable to the untrained eye—as formal visual elements, and invites viewers to read the unreadable. The artist traced the magic spells by hand, recalling the scribes’ handiwork in the papyrus, but used laser cutting to cut out these spells.

Suzuki contemplates our ancient convictions about medicine in a time when science, medicine, and technology are all accelerating at a rate that is unprecedented in human history. Bringing forth a forgotten treatise to the present, she asks us what is legitimate, what we may have lost, and what we still believe.

Watch the video about Broad Institute Artist-in-Residence.

Evening with the Artist at the Leventhal Map & Education Center on March 7th

Enlarged historical map is seen on the floor just before you enter 

the Leventhal Map & Education Center. 

Evening with the Artist at the Leventhal Map & Education Center on March 7th

I'm currently developing ideas for using historical maps from the collections from the Leventhal Map & Education Center for my workshop that's scheduled for March 7th. Using copies of historical maps of Back Bay, we'll explore Back Bay before 1857 and 1882. What happened to these years? Did you know that Back Bay was literally a bay before 1857? Massive landfill project began that year, and the present day Back Bay was filled by 1882. I'm looking through their online collection and finding many great maps for this workshop!

The workshop is free but registration is required. Participation is limited to 20 people. If you're interested, please register for the workshop.

"Our Evening with the Artist events invite you to look, listen and create. Look closely at art and map pairings in the Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps exhibition at the Leventhal Map & Education Center. Listen to an artist talk. Create something inspired by the artist's work and process."

Boston Globe review on "Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps"

"Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps" was reviewed in the Boston Globe! My work was mentioned in this review written by Mark Feeney.

"A map is at once abstract and representational. It’s abstract because it doesn’t look like anything that exists in the external world — as say, a portrait, does a human face. It’s representational because it renders actual relationships in the external world — like distances, heights, and direction. So the issue of a map’s intrinsic beauty aside — and some of the cartographic items in “Crossing Boundaries: Art//Maps” are very beautiful indeed — read more. 


The exhibit poster was designed with detail image of my work, "Water, is Taught by Thirst (BLUE), Greater Boston" on the left, and detail image of the 1892 blueprint map, "Map of Charles River Showing Principal Sources of Pollution"by the Boston Engineer Department. 

The Leventhal B. Map & Education Center put together a very insightful online exhibition. My drawing is included in the section called, "Coastlines & Waterways." You can explore each sections, and learn more about each map and artwork that's paired.

Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps opens at Leventhal Map & Education Center

Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps opens

press release

Naoe Suzuki featured in new exhibition at Leventhal Map & Education Center 

 “Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps” goes on view October 9

Boston, MA –The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center has featured Naoe Suzuki in a new show that explores maps as art in Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps.

Image: “Water, is Taught by Thirst (BLUE), Greater Boston” 

Mineral pigment, watercolor, and tea on paper. 30”x 22” 

The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library will open a new exhibition next week exploring the ways in which artists traverse the traditional boundaries of cartography and art. Maps spanning several centuries and contemporary works of art are juxtaposed to create a dialogue between geographic representation and how artists use cartographic imagery to explore themes rarely touched by conventional mapmakers. Maps and artworks have been paired to present the juxtaposition between geographic representations and the ways that artists use cartographic imagery to explore themes untouched by conventional mapmakers. 

The exhibition is on view October 9, 2018 through April 21, 2019, in the Leventhal Map Gallery, at the Boston Public Library, Central Library in Copley Square. 

Art // Maps is driven by core themes which inform the viewer and allow for personal reflection: Order Out of Chaos, Projections & Distortions, Coastlines & Waterways, Urban Life and Borders & Conflicts. Water, is Taught by Thirst (BLUE), Greater Boston by Naoe Suzuki is displayed in the exhibition as a companion to a map to show the natural resonance of art and maps in natural pairings. 

“Water, Is Taught by Thirst” series was created by tracing waterways from topographical maps. In (BLUE) series, the waterways are painted in mineral pigment and watercolor. The paper was first stained with tea.

Connie Chin, President of the Leventhal Map & Education Center, says “We welcome back former Executive Director Jan Spitz to organize this exhibition, which is a fresh take on art and cartographic inspiration, and also showcases some of the fascinating treasures of the collection.”

“I’ve always seen maps as art,” adds Jan Spitz. “By comparing maps with contemporary art, we see creativity and cartography from a new perspective.” 

Exhibition visitors will be invited to join the What Did YouSee? table, an interactive component designed for this show. They can play a game with family, friends or other visitors to share impressions about the works of art and the maps. Comparing viewpoints with others will expand the experience for all, and everyone is encouraged to join in the fun. 

The Map Center will be hosting three evenings to engage in art-making activities with artists from the exhibition. The first event will be Thursday, November 15th from 6pm – 8pm. Registration is required, please visit Eventbrite and sign-up for “Crossing Boundaries: Art // Maps – Evening with the Artist”. The second two events are scheduled for Thursday, January 17, 2019, and Thursday, March 7, 2019 and registration information will be available closer to event dates. A panel discussion with artists from the exhibit will be hosted in the winter of 2019, date and time to be released.

Crossing Boundaries: Art / /Mapsis open Monday-Thursday: 10am-7pm, Friday & Saturday: 10am-5pm, and Sundays: 1pm-5pm in the Leventhal Map Gallery, located on the first floor of the Central Library in Copley Square. As part of this exhibition, works by the following artists will be on display: Mary Armstrong, Abel Barroso, Tony Berlant, Jonathan Callan, Tiffany Chung, Kirsten Fisher, Carly Glovinski, Abby Goldstein, Alexander Gorlizki, Joyce Kozloff, Daniel McDonald, Abelardo Morell, Bruce Myren, Naoe Suzuki, Heidi Whitman, Richard Youngstrom. Visit the exhibition website at leventhalmap.org. 

About the NORMAN B. LEVENTHAL MAP & EDUCATION CENTER AT THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center is ranked among the top map centers in the United States for the size of its collection, the significance of its historic (pre-1900) material, its advanced digitization program, and its exceptional exhibitions and educational programs.

The Center’s mission is to use its extensive map collections to inspire curiosity and learning among people of all ages, illuminating history, geography, world cultures, science, and contemporary issues. The Center offers a robust selection of K-12 education programs for students of all levels, develops and disseminates lesson plans, and trains teachers to use maps effectively and creatively in the classroom. Public programming includes changing exhibitions, lectures, workshops, classes, and family programs. An extensive website offers free access to nearly 10,000 high resolution digitized maps of historical significance, virtual exhibitions, geo-referencing capabilities, and a Tools for Teachers section with map sets and classroom activities.   

The Center was established by philanthropist Norman Leventhal as a public-private partnership with the Boston Public Library and was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2007. The Center stewards the Boston Public Library’s permanent collection of 200,000 maps and 5,000 atlases and a select group of rare maps collected by Mr. Leventhal. The collection, the second largest in the country located in a public library, is freely available for academic and public research. To learn more, visit leventhalmap.org

About BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY Boston Public Library provides educational, cultural and civic enrichment, free to all, for the residents of Boston, Massachusetts and beyond, through its collections, services, programs, and spaces. Established in 1848, the Boston Public Library is a pioneer of public library service in

America. It was the first large free municipal library in the United States, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library, and the first to have a children’s room. As a City of Boston historic cultural institution, Boston Public Library today features a Central Library, twenty-five branches, a map center, business library, archival center; extensive special collections of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, and prints; and rich digital content and online services. The award-winning renovation of the Central Library in Copley Square, completed in 2016, together with new, renovated and historic branches, provide a transformed library system for the next generation of users. Boston Public Library enriches lives, hosting thousands of free educational programs and exhibitions, and providing free library services online and in-person to millions of people each year. 

To learn more, visit bpl.org

Elemental at 13FOREST Gallery

I'm pleased to announce that my work is currently shown in a two-person show, Elemental, featuring the work of Lynda Schlosberg and Naoe Suzuki.

Elemental
13Forest Gallery 
167A Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 
September 29 - November 9, 2018 
Opening Reception: September 29, 4:00-6:00pm
Artist Talk: October 13, 4:00-6:00pm

Elemental connects two artists who share a desire to peel back the layers of nature and human perception to reveal fundamental truths at the heart of reality. Using processes of digital abstraction and intuitive mark making, Schlosberg and Suzuki deconstruct the world around us and then rebuild it through intricate and engaging imagery.

Read more.

WAKE - a group exhibit about water at Dorsky Gallery

I’m pleased to announce that my work is included in a group show about water at Dorsky Gallery in New York.  "WAKE examines the power of water to sustain life and to destroy it—and also looks at what is left in its wake. The paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations in this exhibition explore the sheer force of water in the form of waves, storms, and energy, as well as the aftermath of water once it retreats: parched earth, invasive plants, dwin- dling animal populations, human illness. The visual dialogue between these six artists invites reflection and discussion on the impact of global climate change..." (essay by the curator)  Read more.

WAKE 
Dorsky Gallery
11-03 45th Avenue, Long Island City, NY
May 6 - July 15, 2018
Panel Talk: All About Water
A conversation with artists Resa Blatman, Stacy Levy, and Naoe Suzuki 
Moderated by Michele L'Heureux
May 20, 1:30 - 3pm

Seating is Limited. RSVP 718-937-6317 or rsvp@dorsky.org

Lost and Found opens at the Boston Arts Academy

From October 5 – November 15, 2017, the Boston Arts Academy will present Lost and Found, an exhibition by Naoe Suzuki.

Suzuki will be presenting Lost and Found, the second installment of a three-part project, completed during her tenure as artist in residence at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Observations made during her appointment inside this dynamic biomedical research institute led Suzuki to investigate what has been lost in the history of science and medicine while making progress — eventually leading her to the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the oldest medical textbook from 1,600 BC, which includes prognosis for the first time in recorded history. On the verso, magic spells were introduced as medical treatment in ancient Egypt.

Fascinated with this information, Suzuki created a number of works incorporating the images of magic spells along with the current scientific information including the paper on the Human Genome Project published in 2001, and numerous writings she traced from the whiteboards around the Broad Institute.

Suzuki explores the interconnectedness of meaning between knowledge and belief, bringing forth forgotten beliefs—the magic spells that were mostly written on the verso side of the papyrus—and asks us: What is legitimate? What might we have lost? What do we still believe? and What do we hope to find? These magic spells, which are undecipherable to untrained eye, operate as a visual form, in a similar way to technical scientific writings that are difficult to understand to a layperson.

Courtesy of the Broad Institute, Suzuki includes decontaminated lab equipment in the exhibit. Suzuki also uses card catalog cabinets, deaccessioned from the Harvard Fine Arts Library, to hold a collection of petri dishes that contain laser cut pieces of magic spells.

At the Boston Arts Academy (BAA,) Suzuki will work inside the gallery and spend nearly a month as the artist in residence, continuing to explore the concept of “lost and found” with students. A manual typewriter is set up on the 4^th floor with a question on the wall, “What have you lost that you want to find again?” The artist asks students to think about this question and to respond by typing on a manual typewriter, which itself is a lost device no longer commonly used.

The exhibit, Lost and Found will open on Thursday, October 5^th. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, October 12^th from 5-7 pm. The art gallery is open to the public during school hours. The Artist-in-Residence program at BAA was made possible through the Polly Thayer Starr Charitable Trust.

Lost and Found

Boston Arts Academy

174 Ipswich Street, Boston, MA. Tel: 617.635.6470

School hours:

Monday through Friday • 9am - 4pm (closed October 9 & November 10)

Boston Arts Academy (BAA) is Boston’s only public high school for the visual and performing arts, serving 450 students who reflect the diversity of Boston’s neighborhoods. 

Related exhibitions:

Stories retold, the first installment of Suzuki’s project completed during her appointment as the Broad Institute’s artist in residence, is installed in the institute’s main lobby through December 21, 2017.

Naoe Suzuki: Stories retold

Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA
Extended through December 21, 2017

Suzuki’s third installment of her project from her Broad Institute residency will be exhibited at the Cambridge School of Weston’s Red Wall Gallery.

With eyes open: Dreamcatchers (solo show) 
Cambridge School of Weston

Red Wall Gallery
Weston, MA
October 30 - December 20, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 11 • 2-5pm
Gallery Talk: Saturday, November 18 • 1-2pm