Miya Kaneko: Four Prefaces to Recalling Lost Memories

Next date: Friday, 14 March 2025 | 09:00 AM to 08:00 PM

Miya Kaneko’s exhibition Four Prefaces to Recalling Lost Memories transforms the foyer of the Multi-Arts Pavilion, mima (MAP mima) into an intimate space of quiet discovery.

By taking over the discovery boxes embedded in the walls, Kaneko offers visitors an opportunity to encounter miniature worlds—each exploring a different aspect of memory and recollection. Through her poetic, multi-layered approach, the artist invites audiences to reflect on the nature of remembering, forgetting, and personal history.

The first box presents two circular mirrors mounted on metal poles, resembling street signs. One of the signs reads Never Told Anyone, prompting visitors to contemplate the deeply personal memories that remain unspoken—those we treasure, protect, or choose to keep hidden from the world. This simple yet evocative gesture encourages an introspective moment, where the audience becomes aware of their own untold narratives.

In the second box, Kaneko intertwines personal experience with a sense of cosmic wonder. Inside, she has placed the plane tickets used by both herself and Kultura Collectiva to travel to Australia for their artist residency at the Lake House in Lake Macquarie. Over these tickets, she has drawn meteorites, connecting the act of travel with celestial bodies drifting through space. Alongside them, an asteroid-like rock—discovered on the lakeside—rests beside her signature sign (written in Japanese), subtly directing visitors toward an imagined asteroid observatory. Through this installation, Kaneko plays with the idea of displacement, travel, and the way memories can be tied to both earthly and otherworldly journeys.

The third discovery box contains three miniature bases, each topped with tiny black metal keys arranged to resemble towering stadium lights over abstracted playing fields. This mysterious and ambiguous composition invites curiosity—perhaps alluding to the tools we use to unlock memories, the passage of time through light and shadow, or the collective experience of spectatorship and shared moments in history.

Finally, the fourth box brings viewers into Kaneko’s personal past. She has delicately drawn the now-demolished home of her grandmother in Japan, placing it beside what appears to be a small playing field. This act of rendering an absent space reflects on the impermanence of memory and place, as well as the artist’s attempt to preserve something fleeting through her practice.

As a whole Four Prefaces to Recalling Lost Memories is a deeply reflective exhibition that considers how memories are constructed, preserved, and transformed over time. Through everyday objects, delicate drawings, and symbolic gestures, Kaneko invites audiences into a world of quiet nostalgia, where memory itself becomes both tangible and elusive.

The installation seamlessly aligns with MAP mima’s commitment to immersive and thought-provoking contemporary art, offering visitors a moment of introspection as they engage with the intimate and poetic fragments of Kaneko’s recollections.

Miya Kaneko’s exhibition is supported by Toshiaki Ogasawara Memorial Foundation.

Four Prefaces to Recalling Lost Memories is part of the exhibition Kultura Collectiva: Theatre of Memories. 

 

About the artists

Kultura Collectiva is an art collective based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The collective was founded by Dias Prabu, a visual artist, muralist, and drawing batik artist. Kultura Collectiva combine contemporary art with the traditional, cultural and historical context of Nusantra/Indonesia.

Through collaborations the collective pushes boundaries and creates immersive and site-specific works, by working with multiple art disciplines including photography, filmmaking, performance art, ethnic music instruments, composing and fashion.

Miya Kaneko: Four Prefaces to Recalling Lost Memories is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

When

Location

Multi-Arts Pavilion, mima, 96 Creek Reserve Road, Speers Point, 2284, View in Google Maps