Kelly Akashi Turns a Burned Altadena Lot Into a Site of Repair
When Kelly Akashi returned to the Altadena property where her house and studio once stood, only a brick chimney was left. The rest had been taken by the Eaton wildfire. Nearly a year later, the Los Angeles artist has transformed that damaged lot into Field Set, a two-day installation and performance made with Los Angeles Nomadic Division that drew roughly 500 visitors on its first day.
The project unfolded on ground that still bears the fire’s afterimage. Around the site, rebuilding is already visible on neighboring blocks, but Akashi’s former lot remains a study in absence and recovery: a concrete slab, salvaged debris, and the slow work of deciding what can be preserved. For Field Set, she arranged blackened branches and rusted metal beams alongside hand-blown glass orbs and vases, then replanted the front yard with wildflowers such as poppies, alyssum, and Queen Anne’s lace.
Akashi said she wanted to isolate the individual plants while also drawing attention to the garden as a whole. The effect was delicate rather than declarative, a composition that made the site feel both provisional and alive. That balance has long defined her practice, which often joins natural forms to handmade objects and returns to themes of evanescence, fragility, and renewal.
Sound was central to the installation. Artist Phil Peters created a three-hour audio work from recordings of earth-moving and trucks, which played through subwoofers he built and placed on the slab that once held Akashi’s house. Later in the day, composer Celia Hollander performed a concert. Hollander, too, lost her home in the fire, giving the event an added layer of shared experience.
The project also connects to Akashi’s recent rise in the art world. Her February 2025 exhibition at Lisson Gallery was completed in haste to coincide with Frieze Los Angeles, and she has since received the Hyundai Terrace Commission as part of the 2026 Whitney Biennial. She will also create a major work for a new terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. For the Whitney, she is making Monument (Altadena), a glass replica of the chimney that survived the fire.
Laura Hyatt, director of Los Angeles Nomadic Division, said the organization was drawn to the timeliness of the project and to Akashi’s care for the grounds as she navigates rebuilding. In Altadena, Field Set became more than an artwork on a vacant lot. It offered a temporary structure for memory, grief, and the possibility of return.
