On January 18, Glen P. Sutherland Art Gallery debuted Nostalgiacore, an art exhibit featuring four faculty members from the IshKaabatens Waasa Gaa Inaabateg Department of Visual Art at BU. As described by curator Dr. Stacey Koosel, “Nostalgiacore is an exhibition that looks at nostalgia, from four different artists point of view.” The exhibit features Kevin Ei-ichi deForest, Kevin McKenzie, Lisa Wood and Lin Xu.
There is something uniquely intimate about being in the art gallery - a fairly small space, the walls are covered in the artist’s works. In the center of the exhibit is a tatami mat covered in a warm quilt and a pillow, CD player on its side. Short white stands lie in corners, holding what look like cracked porcelain pillows. Perhaps it is the size of the space, or the crowd of people. Or maybe it is the exhibit itself, each piece an outcropping from a memory that we, the audience, are now being made privy to. The theme of the exhibit is apparent in the work: Lin Xu’s Pillow Series - Vestiges features cracked pillows of ceramic sculptures, featuring a burst of nature erupting from the center. Each sculpture is an amalgamation of elements, whether it be tentacles or dragonfly wings. Kevin McKenzie’s Being Indigenous features a series of paintings, freshly interpreted in style and story from a comic book series he loved in his youth. The work speaks on Indigenous issues and experiences. Lisa Wood’s photograph series The Dinner Parties features different female artists, assumed friends of Lisa Wood. The same 9 people are present in the photographs, and the background remains the same. What changes as you walk through the different scenes, however, is the moment in the night while they have dinner. Lastly, Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest’s series Walks with Hanako depicts a point of view perspective on walks with his dog Hanna, who passed away last year. The soft watercolor paintings were dreamy in a way that would make anyone who’s lost a pet wistful for the small memories they shared. His contribution to the exhibit also includes an art installation, titled The Same Sweetness. The installation features a tatami mat, a tribute to his mother who passed last year. It is covered with a quilt made by the artist from his mother’s old clothes. In the corner, his dog Hanna’s old bed sits. The installation encourages audiences to participate by laying on the mat and listening to the playlist made by the artist on a CD player. The artist’s work was a
personal favorite of mine, and left me daydreaming in my bed late into the night.
The exhibition runs from January 18-February 18, and is open Thursday-Saturday from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. I highly encourage all students to check it out.