Year: 2025
Medium: Mixed media : glass, taxidermy
Dimensions: 11.2 x 12.9 x 12.9 cm (4 3/8 x 5 1/8 x 5 1/8 in.)
Acquired from SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, 2025
It is clear that this work inherits the conceptual framework of Nawa’s ongoing “PixCell” series, yet it marks a striking departure: the taxidermied form is no longer encased in the characteristic layer of transparent beads. Instead, here lies the form of a frog, retaining a vivid body color as if it were still alive. In the earlier “PixCell” works, taxidermied animals and objects were covered in countless beads, their surfaces pixelated to the extent that their original appearance was obscured from view. Although undeniably present, their forms could not be clearly perceived —a condition of uncertainty that defined those sculptures. In contrast, this work abandons such indeterminacy, turning decisively toward a sculpture that affirms that singular, unambiguous presence of the individual.
Within the “PixCell” series, the process of beading interfered with an object’s inherent individuality, dissolving its distinctiveness into anonymity of abstraction, likely directed toward expressing a certain archetype residing within that individuality. Since the frog placed here is a natural living being, it possesses a basic form as a member of its species, yet it demonstrates uniqueness through variation. At the time of this work’s presentation, three frogs were presented together as a series, each differentiated by its pose to explicitly show individual variation.
The beads, once employed to diffuse light and conceal the interior of the form, have here been transformed into protective domes. Reconfigured in this way, their transparency no longer functions as a veil of obscurity but is now redefined to explicitly reveal and protect the individuality of what lies within.
