Statement from Of an Aclove - 2025

A tokonoma is a recessed alcove in a traditional Japanese home used to display art, calligraphy, or flower arrangements, serving as a space for contemplation and aesthetic appreciation. I began this project wanting to explore the role of art in a domestic setting. In American homes, art does not follow strict rules. It is placed where it fits, where it feels right, without formalized guide- lines. This led me to the tokonoma, a space designed with a singular purpose. Like the white walls of a gallery, its function is exhibition.

I reinterpreted this concept by placing the tokonoma outside, laying it on its back, and allowing time through late summer, fall, and winter to alter its form. At its center, I placed a mirror, shift- ing its function from a curated interior space to an evolving artwork that reflects the surround- ing environment. Rather than housing a singular, reverent object, my tokonoma holds natural elements such as plants, ceramic vessels, and found objects, becoming a space both familiar and transformed. Throughout this process, I documented its changes in a series of photographs, cap- turing the way light, weather, and time shaped its presence.

This reinterpretation is inherently Americanized, not through excess but through adaptation. Unlike the structured formality of the tokonoma, my version does not serve a ritualistic pur- pose. It is stripped of its original function and repurposed for my own exploration of image, object, and spatial perception. Its materials and arrangements, though intentional, do not follow a prescribed order. They respond to context, prioritizing transformation over tradition.

This exhibition includes this weathered tokonoma, presented alongside a floating mirror and a series of works. Ceramic vessels function as apertures, casting shadows that form alcoves of their own. Wooden structures recall the tokonoma’s architecture but shift its meaning, orienting light and space to challenge perception.

At the core of my practice is an intentional manipulation of medium and context. My work explores how utility extends beyond original function. Though minimal in presentation, it resists rigid categorization. Objects repeat, transform, and reappear across media, shifting from sculpture to image, from solid form to shadow. The pictorial compositions blur distinctions between representation and abstraction, structure and impermanence. What was once a space of singular reverence becomes a landscape of shifting relationships, an open system where meaning is shaped by perception and interaction rather than tradition.