JACOB HASHIMOTO

Viruses, stained-glass windows, Atari circuit-board patterns, and leaf structures all collide in the eleven new sculptural works in The Disappointment Engine, Jacob Hashimoto’s first solo exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery. Loosely referencing East Asian craft traditions, the work also draws from the visual language of weeds and invasive species; radio telescopes; as well as the architecture of churches and mosques built during plagues, all to ask: how might visual sampling exist at the root of identity formation?

Through his artworks, Hashimoto explores what it means to build an understanding of oneself from scratch, both as a denizen of the visually cacophonous digital age, but also as a Japanese American artist grappling with family histories of internment that resulted in shattered cultural inheritance.

At Miles McEnery Gallery, The Disappointment Engine features an immersive, site-specific hanging installation stretching from wall to wall. Forcing viewers to duck, sidestep, and recalibrate, it initiates a physical dance of give-and-take: otherworldly, but also unapologetic in its right to take up space.

Jacob Hashimoto (b. 1973) has been the subject of solo museum exhibitions at MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Italy; Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Schauwerk Sindelﬁngen, Germany; Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku, Finland; SITE Santa Fe, NM; Crow Museum of Asian Art, Dallas, TX; Tampa Museum of Art, FL; and the Boise Art Museum, ID.

His work is in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Schauwerk Sindelingen, Germany; Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond, WA; Fondation Carmignac, Hyères, France; Civic Art Collection, San Francisco, CA; and the Tokiwabashi Tower Art Collection, Tokyo, Japan, among others. He has lectured at the Rhode Island School of Design; Temple University; The City College of New York; and Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner.

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THE DISAPPOINTMENT ENGINE

Installation Views

Selected Works

Press Release