there is nothing you can think that is not the moon
The Museum of Lost Things
Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky
Café at The Arts Center at Governors Island
This site-specific installation by collaborative duo Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky will transform during the exhibition. The black shed currently houses a collection of glowing replicas of antique and vintage objects, originally gathered for the artists’ ongoing public art project, which has previously been staged as a life-scale mock thrift store on the streets of Washington, Toronto, and Orebro (Sweden). Each object is created in the form of a handmade lantern, assembled from photographs of objects collected and intensively documented by the artists. They are lit in changing patterns that organize the collection into categories such as type and city of origin.
The title of the work is taken from the words of the Japanese Haiku poet Matsuo Basho. “There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.”
On September 3, the installation was transformed into The Museum of Lost Things. The lanterns that once adorned the space were given away to the public and have been replaced by lanterns created by workshop participants and visitors throughout the summer. These lanterns are small time capsules filled with memories, each replicating objects they have lost or given away.
The Museum of Lost Things is on view in the Arts Center Cafe through Sunday, October 1. Come back and see how the installation has changed!
For more information about this project please visit WepplerMahovsky.com
Special Thanks to Wade Weppler, lighting programmer, and the Swedish American Museum in Chicago for access to their archives.
2023 Exhibitions
Where Time Runs Backwards
by Daniel Shieh
With Chia-Lun Chang and Arleene Correa Valencia
Upper Gallery at The Arts Center at Governors Island
Past Events
The moon is just a mirror: Lantern Giveaway
September 3, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky host a special evening event marking the transformation of their installation, there is nothing you can think that is not the moon, which currently houses over 300 handmade lanterns the artists started making in 2022. Rhonda and Trevor invite you to take home one of these unique lanterns, a rare opportunity to receive an artwork and give these lanterns an extended life. The parade of illuminated lanterns leaving the exhibition will create a scattering of light, reminiscent of traditional lantern festivals.
Watercolor Workshop with Rhonda Weppler
July 1, 12pm-2pm
July 2, 3pm-5pm
July 15, 12pm - 2pm
July 22, 12pm - 2pm & 3pm - 5pm
July 23 12pm - 2pm & 3pm - 5pm
RSVP is encouraged due to 8 participants capacity limitation per session
Work with exhibiting artist Rhonda Weppler to build your own lantern during this free workshop!
Welcoming all ages and abilities into their practice, participants will resurrect lost objects from memory in this watercolor workshop. The exhibiting artist, Rhonda Weppler, will assemble image of participant's lost objects into lanterns. In the last month of the exhibition, participant's lanterns will be exhibited in the shed and transforming the space into the Museum of Lost Things.
Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky, based in New York and Toronto respectively, have worked collaboratively since 2004. Their work has increasingly incorporated communal aspects of craft, such as DIY tutorial videos, and virtual crafting bees. Their recent video project Crafts Abyss was hosted by the Museum of Arts & Design, NYC. Their work is in collections including the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Musee d’art Contemporain de Montreal. Weppler was an artist in residence with the School of Visual Arts NYC (MFA program, 2017), and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (Governor’s Island, 2021). In 2018 she completed a major project for the Community Arts program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. They have received a Glenfiddich Residency Prize (2014), and an LL Odette Sculpture Residency at York University (Toronto, 2022). Their exhibitions in 2022-23 included OpenArt (Orebro, Sweden), and Susan Hobbs Gallery (Toronto).