Aiko Miyanaga at the White Rainbow Gallery

We had a very interesting visit to the newly opened White Rainbow Gallery on Mortimer Street. They are showing an exhibition from Aiko Miyanaga, her debut gallery show in the UK.

She is known for her use of ephemeral materials – and today’s show used naphthalene and resin. Her work is concerned with the process of transition – her works transform when exposed to the air, “physically dissolving and challenging the temporality of the present.”. I love this property – where the materiality of the object and the narrative are speaking one and the same message. Can I get my work to find the right materials to do this too?

Her naphthalene work is volatile – it sublimates and re-solidifies in response to temperature and humidity. There was a really interesting piece with naphthalene keys trapped inside a resin box (photo below). Slowly sublimating into crystals on the top of the box. This too is a property I find fascinating – the object will naturally change with time, showing the same constant state of flux and change in which we all exist. I wonder how I can embed this sort of property as a reflection of the ‘boundaries of reality’ which sits at the core of my proposal? The other thing I liked was a series of resin books (made for an exhibition earlier this year in Liverpool Central Library). Bubbles have been purposefully let into the resin, “capturing the atmosphere of the space in which the object was cast: each sculptural piece incorporates layers of time – then it sublimates into the air of the library, to be replaced by the breath of visitors, as if integrated into the act of reading. Miyanaga’s perspective on the library is more than a collection of words, books or a representation of history; she values the undefinable and the traces of thoughts.”

The gallery were kind enough to allow us to take photos, I think because we sweet talked them by saying we were Camberwell students and fans of Aiko’s work!

Her statement for the show: