MATERIALS FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS “TEMPORAL BELONGING,” A NEW EXHIBITION BY MFTA ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE NATSUKI TAKAUJI
Admission to this exhibition is free and open to the public, Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m
Opening reception on Thursday, September 18, 2025, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Queens, NY -- Materials for the Arts (MFTA) is pleased to present “Temporal Belonging,” a new solo exhibition by MFTA Artist-in-Residence Natsuki Takauji, now on view at the MFTA Gallery through October 9, 2025. Influenced by her visit to cities in her native Japan—Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and Fukushima—where abandoned homes remain eerily frozen in time after nuclear devastation and natural disasters, Takauji brings a keen awareness to the overlooked and forgotten. Through immersive installations and small-scale works, “Temporal Belonging” invites visitors on an intimate journey through Takauji’s subconscious as she explores themes of life and death, home and belonging, and all the fragile spaces in between.
In “Temporal Belonging,” Takauji pushes her interdisciplinary art practice through an exploration and recontextualization of everyday objects and mundane life. As MFTA’s Artist-in-Residence since May 2025, Takauji had access to free workspace and a 35,000-square-foot warehouse of materials donated across New York City—an everchanging archive of what people leave behind. Walking through MFTA's warehouse aisles, Takauji engaged with every material, from dolls to a rabbit costume, as if she were meeting a person for the first time. She deciphered and enshrined their stories, reminding us of the powerful meaning imbued in all the materials of our lives.
“This residency made me rethink our relationship to materials; how we invent them, cherish them, and neglect them,” said artist Natsuki Takauji. “Traditionally, the materials I work with are ones that I’ve purposely chosen and purchased. Here, the materials choose me. Developing connections with materials that contain a unique past and quality, I began to explore the life of materials, from beginning to end, and the complex human psychology around the materials, their meanings, narratives, symbols, and the efficacy of powerful subconscious associations with objects.” Every item has been delicately selected by the artist for viewers to contemplate their existence while reflecting on their own. Concerned with herself as a temporal belonging to the passage of time and space, Takauji took to filming the panoramic railroads outside the MFTA studio windows and the warehouse. These videos, both mundane and intimate, are juxtaposed with her documentation of her trip in Japan, screened in this exhibit.