Kea Tawana: I traveled to the future in a dream presents the recent acquisition by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center of the contents of the artist’s small apartment in Port Jervis, New York. It is visible until October 8 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
This is the first museum exhibition of Tawana’s work. Many objects – which were given to John Michael Kohler Center for the Arts (JMKAC) by Gallery Aferro and Kohler Foundation, Inc. — are presented for the first time. The exhibition recontextualizes her work and life in many ways, including her long-standing and largely unknown roles as an architect, community activist, historian, educator and craftswoman.
Tawana (c. 1935-2016) is best known for “the Ark,” an 86-foot-long, three-story vessel she created in Newark, New Jersey, beginning in 1982. For decades prior, she had salvaged materials from abandoned buildings. in the central district of the city. By incorporating these materials, she built her future home – which she hoped to name AKE Matsu Kaisha (Red pine) — on a vacant lot. The “Ark” was unfinished when the city condemned it in 1987. Unable to find a new location, Tawana dismantled it in 1988. Its destruction haunted her and she began to imagine a life on earth free from greed, racism, poverty, and injustices.
The exhibit includes approximately 30 handmade boxes containing glued and bound “encyclopedic records” and personal effects; plans for utopian and unrealized building projects; handmade stained glass; and hundreds of sketches and manuscripts. Little biographical information is known about Tawana. However, her limited possessions reflect a commitment to learning, self-reliance, shared responsibility, and the pursuit of freedom.
Tawana’s collected books and encyclopedias speak to a person who was constantly seeking new information and eager to know. His ingenuity is evident in his handmade tools, antennae and creative reuse. Her respect for beauty is evident in the stained glass windows she has made.
Throughout this exhibition, JMKAC staff will be in the gallery photographing and documenting the objects.
I traveled to the future in a dream is on view through October 8 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Admission to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center is free.
To learn more, visit jmkac.org.
Kea Tawana: I traveled to the future in a dream is supported by the Kohler Trust for Arts and Education, the Frederic Cornell Kohler Charitable Trust, Kohler Foundation, Inc., and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
