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Unknown Memories of the Difficult-to-Return-to-Zone installation at Tacoma Art Museum

Unknown Memories of the Difficult-to-Return-to-Zone

Lauren Iida · Blades of Change

Nuclear industrial fan blade (fiberglass), paper, ink

Tacoma Art Museum, February 2025 – January 2026

Part of "Echoes of the Floating World," curated by Kenji Stoll

Artist Statement

Unknown Memories of the Difficult-to-Return-to-Zone investigates the disconnect the artist feels from her ancestral homeland, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, due to the catastrophic nuclear disaster there in 2011. Over 90 feet of hand-cut paper Memory Net trap symbolic objects important to Iida's identity, weaving and cradling two nuclear industrial fan blades.

Memory Net detail at Tacoma Art Museum

About the Artist

Lauren Iida's artworks are an ongoing investigation into her Japanese American heritage and the lasting intergenerational trauma resulting from the unjust incarceration of her ancestors during World War II.

Through her paper-cut art practice, Iida brings new life to historical photos, amplifies forgotten stories, and draws connections between the injustices of her past and those presently being faced in her local and global community.