02/19/2024
Here's an upcoming event from one of last year's grantees, Naoe Suzuki:
Language, Like Letters
Gabriel Sosa, Naoe Suzuki, Kenson Truong
February 1 - March 3
Reception: February 22, 6-8pm
Lesley Art + Design
1801 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140
Gallery Hours: By Appointments Only
If you are unable to attend the February 22nd reception and would like to view the exhibit, please contact [email protected] to schedule your visit.
I’m thrilled to announce that my work is shown in Language, Like Letters at Lesley University. I’m showing “Extinction Studies” series, in which two works have never been shown before. I’m also excited to show “Letter to 13 year old 直江,” a text installation which came out of a beautiful collaboration with Andrew Mroczek, the Director of the Exhibition at Lesley Art + Design and eleven Lesley students. I’m so grateful for all their work.
“Letter to 13 year old 直江” was originally written as a part of Chain Letters, an online project initiated by artist Christopher K. Ho and curator Daisy Nam for CHART in 2022. I wrote about being bullied at my middle school in Japan where I experienced a number of bullying “tactics”—name calling, use of fake information against me, humiliating punishment, silence from bystanders, violence, and even restriction of movement within a classroom.
In this letter, I linked human species as bullies to the environment and ecosystems, and the biggest bullies being the global powers—acknowledging that I am now a part of this group due to living in the Global North, especially in the United States. This reality has been setting in me very heavily in the recent months and amid accelerating climate crisis. (We past 1.5 degree Celsius threshold, as reported this past Thursday.)
When Andrew invited me to be a part of this exhibition, I shared this letter with him. He asked me if I wanted to speak these words loud or in whisper. I gave a quick thought and said, “LOUD!” He suggested that we would make it as a large scale installation, and he made it happen miraculously. I believe this installation is as much as his work as mine. It was his vision and encouragement for me to let the work be as powerful as it could be. I feel extremely blessed to be working with him once again. This letter is about my personal experiences from four decades ago, but I think there are many parallel stories that speak to this moment.
I hope many of you can visit the exhibition. The works by Kenson Truong and Gabriel Sosa are fabulous! For those of you who are not able to come to Cambridge, you can still read my letter on my website. I also recommend reading other intriguing letters written by Asian American artists on Chain Letters website.
Thank you very much for reading and for your ongoing support.
Warmly,
Naoe
