The New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art proudly presents Signals, a solo exhibition of work by Aya Rodriguez-Izumi. Featuring a suite of 鈥榥obori鈥� - Japanese-style announcement, or signal, flags interpolating the gallery space - along with printed materials. The exhibition centers abstraction, featuring a balance shape and color while speaking to past histories in an accessible manner. The artist also presents a limited suite of limited edition bookmark artworks free for the visitor to take, presented inside a cabinet of a wooden shelves meant to echo a Japanese 鈥榯okonoma鈥�: this object was created by New Harmony鈥檚 own Charlie Gaston in a collaborative effort to welcome guests to the gallery and to give them a multi-sensory entry point into the exhibition. This collaborative activity echoes Rodriguez-Izumi鈥檚 own work as an artist-collaborator building bodies of artwork with handmade objects created by community residents, featured in this and other series of work by the artist such as 鈥榃ish鈥� and 鈥楪ate 3.鈥�
The symbolic power of a 鈥榥obori鈥� flag throughout present-day Japan can be witnessed by walking a block in a small town or driving through a city: car dealerships and political candidates alike adopt this ubiquitous flag format as a direct way to grab the attention of the viewer. The signal flag itself has a rich history of use over the years, serving as a battle standard during historical battles and advertising treats at seasonal local festivals in equal measure. In this exhibition, Rodriguez-Izumi adopts the 鈥榥obori鈥� as a format for investigating the intersections of formal and conceptual expression, whereby the formal elements -- shapes and colors -- echo buried pasts and complex legacies.
The artist touches on various uses of 鈥榥obori鈥� across war and advertising, while also noting her belief that the signal flag is a potential harbringer of cultural identity and allegiance through imagery. 鈥淭his series of twelve unique designs are reproductions of paintings created with colored sumi ink and gouache, and the imagery is based on designs of aircrafts used by the Japanese Imperial Navy during World War II. This symbol of allegiance is remixed and reimagined using swirling colors and turned into abstractions,鈥� reflects Rodriguez-Izumi. 鈥淓ach banner is emblemed with two circles that rise, fall and intersect. When all are seen together, they create an undulating landscape that blurs and rethinks an expression of identity as one of intersection, in between-ness and anti-allegiance. These works attempt to unearth layers of identity, how it appears, intersects and is hard to pin down; especially is spaces such as Okinawa where histories and influences from multiple powers weigh heavy, intersect and give birth to new identities.鈥�
Signals offers the visitor the chance to slow down, consider these 鈥榥obori鈥� individually and collectively, and reflect on the ways in which we also show up as individuals and as a part of a collective whole in our everyday lives.
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About the artist:
Aya Rodriguez-Izumi is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work blends sculpture, installation, performance, community engagement and documentation to explore aspects of ritual retention, cross-cultural identity and histories that risk erasure. She was born in Okinawa, Japan, and grew up between that island and East Harlem, NY, where she currently holds a studio. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues such as El Museo del Barrio, MoCADA, the NUS Museum in Singapore, the International House of Japan in Tokyo, the Taipei Fine Art Museum, The Aldrich Museum, and The Children鈥檚 Museum of Manhattan among others. She was a recipient of the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship in New York, a Jerome Foundation Fellowship at Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota, the JUSFC Creative Artist Fellowship, the Annual Artist fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park, the Artist Alliance Inc x District 1 in-school residency program in New York, and represented Okinawa and the United States in the 2021 Benizakura Art Annual in Hokkaido, the 2023 Romantic Route 3 Triennial in Taiwan, and the 2024-25 Yanbaru Art Festival in Okinawa, as well as the 2025 Singapore Biennial. She earned a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons the New School for Design and an MFA in Fine Arts from The School of Visuals Arts.
Lead image: 鈥淣oboru鈥�, 2021, sumi ink and gauche on paper.
New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art at 黑料网 promotes discourse about and access to contemporary art in the southern Indiana region. New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art is a proud outreach partner of the 黑料网
The gallery is grateful for the continued support of the Efroymson Family Fund for ensuring continuation of our exhibitions and programming, with additional funding provided for arts educational activities by funds administered from the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.s.
