Inglenook Gallery
Announcing WSS's newest art activation—Inglenook Gallery! This small, site-specific gallery featuring four local artists annually is located in the historic fireplace in the school's lobby. This initiative expands creative thinking and allows students to see problem-solving and innovation in action.
Generations
by Death by Narwhals
On View: October 4 through December 31
Artist Statement
The fireplace was the hearth of the home, a place of gathering and communion. It functioned as a necessity for warmth and cooking, while providing a space for intimacy, discussion, and idea creation. Since the advent of central heating, inglenooks have been sealed off and abandoned. This former centerpiece has commonly been replaced with large televisions in the contemporary home. Generations is an installation of anthropomorphized old cell phones living out their days without us. I was looking at and admiring the design of old phones and how they have changed over the years – incredible functional individual objects made irrelevant by changes to the networks and operating systems that surround them. In the United States about 350,000 old cell phones are discarded every day, 5.3 billion phones per year across the world, 169 phones per second, making them one of, if not the fastest growing form of electronic waste in the world. Every year a new generation of phones is released, and every day the old are discarded.
Generations playfully asks larger questions of aging, consumerism, technology, and environmental stewardship in our modern world.
About the Artist
“Death by Narwhals” is a Washington, DC based Korean American artist. He completed his bachelor’s degree in studio art in New Hampshire with a focus in oil painting. His career began working briefly in a variety of commercial art and animation gigs in NYC before returning to DC in 2008.
Aside from contemporary painting, he has completed murals, music videos, and art for local bands and establishments. He is a grantee of the 2024 Awesome Foundation, DC Art Bank, and DC Arts and Humanities Fellowship Program. His work has shown across the District at The Washington Studio School, Hole in the Sky, 52 O Street, Umbrella, SQFT, Secret Walls, Transformer/Katzen Arts Center at American University, and Strathmore Mansion, with solo shows at Lost Origins gallery and Rhizome DC.