From August to October 2021 instillation artist Nobuho Nagasawa exhibited Drawn to the Light at The Westwood Gallery. The exhibit explored the intersectionality of Nagasawa’s personal loss the collective loss due to the pandemic. 

  

After walking through white scrim panels that were illuminated by a single light source and listening to stories of trauma recorded in nearby parks, visitors were encouraged to let go of their own losses by stenciling a luna moth on a 35-foot gallery wall. 

  

To accompany the instillation, Nagasawa invited Izumi Ashizawa to create an improvised performance as a part of the exhibit. 

 

Nagasawa & visitors stenciled hundreds of luna moths over the course of the exhibition. After 12 months in metamorphosis, the luna moth exists for less than 10 days as a winged adult and is rarely seen due to its nocturnal nature. Their short life span reminds us of our moments to live and love to the fullest.  

 

Although Nagasawa intended to make them all disappear as a symbolic act of release for all we have lost during Covid-19, their forms, while altered, like our memories, remained.