This work was made during the IKEA Residency, which culminated in an exhibition titled AT HOME. The residency sparked conversations about what it means to have a home and how people choose objects to bring into their homes as if it would change their lives. I was inspired by the IKEA vase RÄFFELBJÖRK that reminded me of a holographic wormhole. The vase gives off a promise to a certain life filled with fresh flowers when you purchase it, while we also see and hear about tragedies happening around the world, of homes being destroyed and bodies under rubbles. The being in and out of the present moment, the physical and the emotional, of finding that feeling of home in the midst of the chaos... Human experiences are full of dichotomies, and we are constantly slipping through the veils of holograms, between what is here now and what is not, what we see but not touch, what we knew as yellow turning blue.

Shizuka Kusayanagi

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Shizuka Kusayanagi (b. 1982, Yokohama, Japan) is an artist, designer, and educator whose practice centers on painting, drawing, and text as forms of translation—exploring how personal and emotional experiences can be expressed beyond words. After more than 25 years living in New York and Los Angeles, she recently returned to Japan and now lives and works in Fukuoka. Working primarily in oil painting, Kusayanagi also works across drawing, printmaking, installation, photography, video, and text. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including a solo show at Signal Gallery in Fukuoka, Japan; DMST Atelier, Project Space, and la Beast Gallery in Los Angeles; Arario Gallery in New York; and in Dublin, Ireland. Recent exhibitions include All The (Healing) Parts (2024), Positive Exposure: Southern California Asian American Art (2023), and CHIMERA (2023). Kusayanagi was selected for the Fall 2023 IKEA Residency and shortlisted for the Spring 2023 Hopper Prize. Her IKEA residency experience was featured in The Los Angeles Times. Her short film was selected for the Motionpoems film catalog in association with the Poetry Foundation, and her drawings and installations have been featured in Graphic Magazine and Grafuck. She holds a BFA in Communication Design from Parsons School of Design in New York.