California-based artist Kelly Akashi has created a glass chimney to recount her private expertise of loss after the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles for the 2026 Whitney Biennial exhibition.
Titled Monument (Altadena), and constituted of 821 handcast glass bricks, the recreated chimney piece evokes chimneys that remained seen on the charred panorama within the aftermath of the devastating wildfire in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January 2025, which destroyed tens of hundreds of buildings.
It was positioned on a terrace of the Whitney Museum in New York Metropolis’s Meatpacking District for the establishment’s biennial survey.
Akashi, who misplaced her 1926 dwelling and studio within the fireplace, has been part of a neighborhood inventive cohort working to get well supplies following the January 2025 fires.
The 6,550-pound (2,971-kilogram) piece was fabricated and assembled in her Hudson Valley studio to work in unison with a 538-piece duplicate of the house’s former walkway.
She informed Dezeen that every of the bricks put in could be considered as items of a metaphorical puzzle that carry her nearer to salvaging hope from the ruins of her misplaced dwelling.
“The work will not be a literal reconstruction, so utilizing clay bricks did not really feel applicable. Stable glass bricks allowed me to rebuild the chimney via a unique materials language, the place weight and fragility coexist.” Akashi mentioned.
“In rebuilding every ingredient, I used to be occupied with how reminiscence is constructed via care and persistence. The shape stays, however is reworked. Gentle passes via it, and the solidity we affiliate with a chimney is unsettled.”
Akashi’s work has lengthy interrogated notions of time and reminiscence, leveraging her data of casting and glass blowing to provide artwork that feedback on social and concrete points.
This time, she has utilized her apply to the non-public expertise of shedding her own residence, and in direction of restoration.
In Los Angeles, the rebuilding course of has been fraught and different, a component Akashi emphasised in Monument (Altadena).
Willett reveals furnishings initially designed for household dwelling misplaced to wildfires
“The stress between its recognizable type and weird materiality felt akin to the act of rebuilding in my neighborhood. Whereas we are going to rebuild, it could possibly by no means be the identical,” she added.
“The act of rebuilding will not be merely about materials endurance; it’s a deliberate labor of care, an engagement with historical past, and an act of reclamation. Every brick carries the document of labor and materials transformation; collectively, they compose a brand new physique that holds the traces of its previous,” Akashi mentioned.
Her sculpture on the Whitney Biennial is accompanied by a piece referred to as Inheritance (Distressed), a aid duplicate of her grandmother’s Corten metal dolly, a household artefact additionally misplaced to the Eaton Fireplace.
Akashi can also be a slated participant within the upcoming 61st Venice Biennale.
Earlier this 12 months, Dezeen lined the supply of prefabricated properties to the stricken communities in Los Angeles.
Architect Shigeru Ban lately joined the restoration effort via his contribution of a neighborhood centre constituted of delivery containers after different architects raised considerations over the disjointed nature of the restoration.
The pictures is by Timothy Schenck.
The 2026 Whitney Biennial is on view from 8 March to 13 August in New York Metropolis. For extra exhibitions in structure and design go to Dezeen Occasions Information.
