Distant Echoes
22nd -28th May 2026, ( 10-6pm )
The Watch House Orford, The Quay, IP12 2NU
Private View; Friday 22nd May, 4-6pm
Following the successful 2025 exhibition, Kaori Homma returns with a new body of work created using her distinctive Fire Etching technique, Aburidashi. This arresting process employs invisible ink and flame to reveal images through burning.
Inspired by Orford Ness—the UK’s only site of atomic experimentation—the exhibition explores hidden histories embedded within landscapes shaped by secrecy and power. Homma draws on the historical use of Aburidashi in espionage, where messages were concealed in plain sight until exposed by heat. In her work, the process becomes both material and metaphor: fire scorches paper to reveal what has been deliberately obscured, leaving fragile yet irreversible traces.
“Fire is not only destructive—it is also revealing,” says Homma. “What interests me is the moment when something invisible becomes impossible to conceal. Aburidashi allows the image to appear through damage, just as history surfaces through rupture.”
At the heart of the exhibition is an exploration of the unspoken connections between Orford Ness and the South Pacific—regions geographically distant yet historically entangled through colonial and nuclear histories. A newly commissioned video installation presents the testimony of a woman whose personal story bridges these locations, weaving lived experience into dialogue with broader questions of memory and historical responsibility.
Rather than offering answers, Homma’s work engages with absence, residue, and revelation. The exhibition reflects on how landscapes carry the traces of past violence and how histories continue to reverberate in the present. Through fire as both process and metaphor, Homma exposes the silent legacies that persist beneath the surface. This exhibition situates itself within urgent global conversations around nuclear legacy, offering a rare and quietly devastating meditation on how the past continues to burn beneath the surface.
Events
Private View 22nd May 4-6pm
Secret of Fire Etching Workshop 23rd May 6-7pm
Artist Talk & Discussion 27thMay 6-7pm
Finnisage 28th May 3-6pm
Kaori Homma | Art Portfolio | Artist in London
Website Design by Digibees Studio
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP