The “What Remains: Memory, Ritual, Trace” exhibit on campus invokes emotions of mourning

An exhibition featuring themes of loss and healing will remain open at Valley College’s Art building until April 3.

By: Jesse Illanes, Managing Editor & Valley Life Editor

Valley College’s current art exhibit, “What Remains: Memory, Ritual, Trace” explores themes of loss, mourning and healing. 

The opening reception for the art gallery was hosted on March 10 in the LAVC Art Gallery, featuring artists, organizers and the show’s curator. 

The goal of this show was to demonstrate ways to process heavy emotions through thought-provoking work. Different mediums were utilized in the various pieces on display such as paper, ceramics, wood, weavings and paintings on silk.

Artist Kiyomi Fukui Nannery created six pieces for the exhibit, with some carrying inspiration from her late mother and all connecting to the larger theme. 

“I was going back to Japan to visit my mom’s childhood home and then where she resides now,  her grave in the southern part of Japan. From north to south we traveled all the way through, and we picked some plants along the way,” she said.“So what you see here is mostly mugworts,  and those were what we picked from her graveyard.”

Art Gallery Director Jenene Nagy described this exhibit’s place at Valley was to showcase the work of a different curator, Lek Vercauteren Borja. “This is a place for lots of different voices to be heard and lots of different perspectives to be explored and celebrated. I want the gallery to host different visions besides my own… and I feel like that supports the mission of the gallery and the mission of the college,” said Nagy.

Borja is a local artist taking part in many different exhibits nationwide. She mentioned that being a curator at this exhibit was a full circle moment, as one of the artists, Sharon Kagan, was Borja’s professor during her undergrad studies at Antioch College. 

“Hopefully it allows visitors to look inwards more. I think that’s important, especially at a time that we’re living in - all the chaos that’s happening,” Borja said about her hopes for what students will take away from the show. “It’s so detail-oriented that it really invites you to look closer and think about that kind of intimacy and this smaller scale.”

The reception opened with about 30 students and local art community members in attendance and will remain open until April 3 at the Art building. Borja will lead a walkthrough of the exhibit on Thursday, March 19.