In case my mind [betrays] me, let me say one last thing.

Solo exhibition
7 November – 14 December 2024

Curated by Anne-Laure Lemaitre
Trotter&Sholer, NYC, USA

“(instability)”, interior view.

Exhibition statement

“In case my mind [betrays] me, let me say one last thing.” is an installation of sculptural paper works made using traditional paper and techniques created within traditions of over 1000 years.

“(instability)” is a site-specific paper work created to enclose the exhibition, wrapping visitors into its own space. “(instability)” invites outside peeks into the exhibition through intentionally left openings in the work. The multiple points of viewing and obscuring gestures to the capacity for which we can see others — what may be perceived externally and what circulates internally, when we are invited in and what can never fully be understood, and how the internal and external environments affect one another.

The line that divides the work diagonally traces a graph of the growing prevalence of the word “instability,” making references best described in the curatorial text:

“...Many of us have been experiencing climate anxiety. Storms, cataclysms, displacements have been increasingly part of our human experience. The way we live, as functional participants in a capitalist society actively participates in the increasingly changing nature of our environment.

Alexa has bipolar and was only recently diagnosed as such. This discovery impacted her understanding of herself and of the way she engages intimately with the world. A known hypothesis links the origin of bipolarity to the Pleistocene Epoch, where extreme weather variation required fast adaptation to climate change. What is now considered an illness or disability may have been a mere evolutive behavior to a changing ecosystem...”

— Anne-Laure Lemaitre

“(instability)”, exterior view. Once the sun has set, this floor-to-ceiling window piece takes on a whole new look. Reminiscent of stained glass, the artfully placed tapestry partially obscures the gallery’s interior while providing small windows to peek in to another world brought to life by Hatanaka. It is at once the heartbeat of and the entrance to the exhibition.