Landscapes and residential structures dominate Isha Naguiat’s “Untethered Dwellings.” Portraying the sometimes abstruse feeling of disassociating the self from the body, the works in this exhibition highlight the concept of the flâneur or an idler of the modern world, as introduced by the French poet Charles Baudelaire in the 19th century. He wrote, “To be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere; to see the world, to be at the very center of the world, and yet to remain hidden from the world.” These similar ponderings are found in Naguiat’s body of works as one examines every mise-en-scène that alludes to the present— a place we sometimes know too well, or perhaps, not at all.

In this exhibition, we find images from photographs the artist took while on a trip to New Zealand. Printed on fabric, Naguiat captured family members and strangers alike as they looked into the horizon — observing waters and skies as they faintly disappeared with the silhouettes of the surrounding land. Like the onlookers within the frame, Naguiat is mesmerized by the vastness of the natural landscape. The movements on the shores, the gliding clouds above, and the swaying of the fading greenery against the winds — all of these bring forth feelings of awe and comfort while wrestling with the confounding sentiments of the displaced as one might experience when visiting foreign places. Still, the warmth and tranquil grounding of what one calls home remain embedded within. In this case, it is the meditative state of being present and at peace despite not knowing or understanding everything; all of this is intuitively manifested in Naguiat’s process of making. As though fondly reliving a distant memory, she embroiders on fabric guided by these emotions. Subconsciously carried away into almost indescribable moments of nostalgia, silence, and contentment as the malleable details replaying in her thoughts draw parallels with the fabric, which never holds still.

As disassociation heightens, the artist’s desire for a grounding force to pull one back to reality is seen through her series of works on paper. Here, the presence of houses becomes a central force to represent one’s base or foundation — a site of departure and return. However, such preconceived notions about the idea of home tied to these spaces propel the artist to confront the mere definition of the present. When reality is in question, from where does one ground itself back? Hence, the embroidery work on these images guides us through fragments and sections that Naguiat urges us to see in a better light. Within these segments, a standpoint exists that safely keeps us here and, at the same time, away from here. Thus, it is not always necessary to define one’s home in relation to space but rather be resolved with the fact that we may as well be from all of the places we have lived before and where we might be headed next. 

Looking from all directions, the process of photographing and embroidering along with the selected medium (fabric and paper) displays the balance between contrasting elements as they linger within the entangled familiarities and the dreamlike encounters of scenic views elsewhere. There remains the immense happiness brought by the experience of the perfect flâneur; amidst the uncertainties of energies present in modern life, there is room for stillness. To gaze and meander only to fall deeply back into what grounds and guides the body back home; to be there but here and present anywhere for as long as the memories hold.

Text by Gwen Bautista and Sayoka Takemura