Mika Taga

Studio Art major

My work explores sensations of otherness, hybridity, queerness, void, and dimensional darkness. I am captivated by the transformative potential of in-betweens and seek to access and reveal the forms born from those spaces. Working predominantly in sculpture, I work with salvaged wood from the Wellesley College landscape, plaster, wire, and burlap, guided by John Cage-inspired chance operations and nonintention in the act of carving and shaping form. I listen to the material and respond to it. The nonintention allows one to be in conversation with the material itself. The conversation comes to life as the form takes shape, articulating the unseen space, and tracing the unconscious mind.

Through the coalescence of Zen meditation practice, training in silence and stillness, and learning to open to the conversation that arises between myself and the material as the form takes shape, I attempt to understand and bridge essense with existence in an ontological exploration of forms tracing the unconscious mind. In the next phase of my practice, I hope the forms I make, in conversation and collaboration with other makers, will act as portals of connection, collective healing, and space-making for that which does not yet have a place in current systems.

Silent Echo and Buddha Bowl Stool

both oak wood

Deep Cuts, Abdomen Sensation, Look Over Your Shoulder, and Kannon's Twisted Compassion

all pine wood

Jewett Gallery

various carved and stained wooden forms in the center of a gallery

view down along a piece of wood with bark still on, gouges carved all down it

close up on a rounded cross-like shape on dark stained wood

close up on a horizontal dark stained wood knob shaped like the top of a walking cane

detail shot of a carved dark stained wood form resting on top of another carved wood form

several carved dark stained wood sculptures on a low white pedestal and the gallery floor

Shadow Inheritance

welded Sawzall blades, wire, yarn

Jewett Gallery

angular hanging sculptures of sawzall blades and black yarn, casting sharp shadows on the white wall behind

three angular linear hanging sculptures comprised of sawzall blades and black yarn against a white gallery wall

Perspectives of Indra's Net

plaster, wire, burlap, dyed burlap, sewing thread

PNW 2nd floor lobby

corner with floor to ceiling windows and a cement column; an amorphous dark burlap sculpture hangs from the ceiling; an amorphous rough white sculpture rests below it on the floor; a vaguely neo-Gothic brick building is visible outside the window

Primordial Womb

scrap plywood, black acrylic paint, wire

PNW 2nd floor lobby

three floor sculptures made of interlocking black painted cut wood forms; the one farthest to the right also has chicken wire stretched over it; all three rest on a gray concrete floor in front of large windows with shafts of sunlight coming through

This body of work is comprised of forms I imagine emerge from in-between, unseen, interstitial crevices. It is an attempt to shape emptiness and trace the unconscious mind. The wooden forms were carved using a Sawzall, a reciprocating saw typically used for demolition and remodeling. The process of carving was guided by John Cage inspired chance operations and intuition. The other sculptural forms arose out of a fascination with scrap and found materials-- transforming the discarded/overlooked into the entirely unexpected. I worked with chicken wire, burlap, sewing thread, yarn, plaster, and welded saw blades to shape the forms imagined to be born from the empty space between.

detail shot of a dark burlap sculpture, backlit by giant windows

looking down at a sculpture made of black painted cut wood forms interlocked; a shaft of sunlight runs diagonally through the frame and casts a strong shadow from the sculpture

two abstract white plaster forms, touching at one point, resting in the corner of a building with giant windows that go all the way to the floor

hallway and corner in a building with concrete floor, pressed concrete wall at left, and floor to ceiling windows at rear and right; sculptures hang in the corner and are installed along the base of the windows

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