Luna Ikuta: Afterlife (Capsule Review)

[Original publication: No Proscenium, 5/18/21; Transparent Garden is now Afterlife]

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Afterlife, by local multimedia artist Luna Ikuta, is evocative. The small gallery houses a series of aquarium tanks, each with its own fragile ecosystem. Ikuta stripped plants of their chlorophyll, resulting in a pale monochrome. The plants gently oscillate in their habitats, anchored in black gravel. The effect is both gorgeous and unsettling.

Each tank installation is accompanied by an LCD screen with the same aspect ratio. The screens play a recorded loop of the tank underneath. It’s not CGI, but an actual digital capture of the tank’s contents. NFT works are also available via SuperRare. The show’s full presentation is this mix of physical, physical-digital, and solely digital artworks. Mechanics are cohesively integrated. Most functional aspects are hidden from view and the ones that aren’t, such as aquarium tubing, are reimagined in custom-made glass.

Preserved in a transitional state from vibrance to decay, these organic compositions spotlight the beauty of ephemeral states and offer a spectral elegance that’s uncanny and meditative. They remind us that a place of limbo can also be a moment of transcendence.

(Full disclosure: Luna is a former colleague of mine.)