Continuum | Continuum II from the collection of City of Eugene Cultural Services

Continuum | Continuum II, 2022

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Every time I see a rusty nail on the ground, I put it in my pocket. I dream of what it was before and what it might become, and I remember them. To "remember" is to put back together, to make whole. I feel kinship to broken, cast-aside things. I want to find a meaning in the meaningless. The compulsion to collect detritus seems a pointless gesture, yet it is precisely this odd behavior that reveals whom we are. I explore the humanness of absurdity and futility, finding value in unfulfilled wishes. I cherish a process of making that invites fantasy of what could be. With my idiosyncratic actions I genuinely pay attention to my surroundings.

As a woman and resident alien in the US, I often think about what it means to go across geographical and emotional borders. How do we draw the line between adjacent matters? Would I succumb to the expectations to belong somewhere? No. I know, however, that I will forever be wishing to belong somewhere. I embrace contradiction, parodying my own identity as one who doesn't fit into a category. In everchanging, shifting landscapes, I am seeking a way to exist with the present in equilibrium.

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From City of Eugene Cultural Services

Mija Matriz

Primera Pop-Up Shop, 2022
Esteban Camacho Steffensen

Touching Balance, 2022
Andre Royal Jr., Andre Royal Sr.

LIttLE BIG Bear, 2022
Eric Braman, Alex Ever, Melissa Rose

Queer Ancestries, Self-Prophesies and Horse Girl Fantasies, 2022
Kum Ja Lee

Nostalgia, 2022
Sandra Honda

Why Hate? Why Not Love?, 2022
Mei-Ling Lee

Trilogy: The Lighted Windows, The Ocean Thief, The Beautiful Feather, 2022
Valentina Gonzalez (VRGNZ)

Celestial Migration, 2022

View All Artworks

About the artist

Mika Aono

Mika Aono is a multidisciplinary artist and one of the founding members of the non-profit Eugene Printmakers. Her recent work explores humanness in absurdity and futility through laborious processes. Her fascination for nature has driven her projects and installations, utilizing found objects and various printmaking techniques. She cherishes serendipitous moments and believes art has a power to connect all living things. She wishes she were a gentle superhero.

Mika was born in Sendai, Japan and received a Bachelor of education in Primary and Special Ed from Miyagi University of Education in Japan, a Bachelors of Art from University of Oregon, and a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from San Francisco Art Institute. Currently, she works as an instructor and a printmaking/letterpress studio technician in the Department of Art at the University of Oregon. Her work has been shown at galleries including Northwest Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museum, Asheville Bookworks, Manhattan Graphics Center and in international exhibitions in India, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil and Canada; some are in museums and public collections.

Additional Details

Additional Artworks

Primera Pop-Up Shop, 2022

Touching Balance, 2022

LIttLE BIG Bear, 2022

Queer Ancestries, Self-Prophesies and Horse Girl Fantasies, 2022

Nostalgia, 2022

Why Hate? Why Not Love?, 2022

Trilogy: The Lighted Windows, The Ocean Thief, The Beautiful Feather, 2022

Celestial Migration, 2022

About the artist

Mika Aono