LIGHTS 2005

A R T   H E A L I N G   S P A C E

Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook, New York, 2005

Curator: Nobuho Nagasawa

Lights  wax paper, glass jars, water, light

An exhibition titled, Art Healing Space was initiated by Nagasawa as a first art exhibition ever to take place at the Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University, with the support from Dr. Sunita S. Mukhi, the Director of Asian and Asian American Programs for the Center. This project allowed the students’ artworks to be installed at the various locations throughout the 120,000- square-foot facility, in and around interior and exterior pools and terraces, including the 35,000 square feet of sprawling gardens.  Nagasawa worked in collaboration with her teaching Assistant Alton Frabetti (MFA 2007), and the sculpture students to execute the project and the ceremony.

A ceremony was performed in the Charles B. Wang on April 14, 2005 to commemorate the victims of the In- dian Ocean earthquake that occured on December 26, 2004, with and epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The ceremony featured one-hundred lights submerged in the central fountain of the Wang Center, representing the souls of those who were overcome by the tsunami waves which followed the earthquake.

The lotus flowers made out of translucent wax papers were hand folded by sculpture students, signifying the transformation of the suffering. Each flower stood for about five-hundred lives; the equivalent of the 9.11 World Trade Center tragedy would have been just five such flowers.  At night, one-hundred lights submerged in the fountain. These lights were extinguished by the day after the ceremony, but the sunlight fell softely on remain- der of the five-hundred lotus flowers.