Dining Room by Midori is an Artist-in-Residence in collaboration with Queerly Complex at 465 Collective centered around her participatory installation. It will evolve over two weeks (December 4 to December 19) through activations, work days, and events. 

Dining Room explores intergenerational, familial, and cultural trauma through symbolic action and community engagement. I invite participants to take part in a Shatter Party, a facilitated event in which ceramic dishes are broken, one by one, as an act of emotional release. These fragments—each a material trace of pain, grief, rage, or catharsis—are then gathered by Midori and used to construct the centerpiece of the final installation: a stylized domestic dining room, where the carpet is composed entirely of broken dishes, and the table is set with white plates long ago cracked and imperfectly repaired. Casually viewed,  Dining Room appears unremarkable—a diorama of domesticity. But closer inspection reveals the underlying fractures. The viewer peers through a suspended window and sees herself reflected in a vintage mirror across the table, placing her inside the scene. This is not just one family’s table—it’s everyone’s.

"What we share across backgrounds, cultures, and identities are the quiet wounds carried from our families of origin," wrote Midori, "For many of us, the dining table—an object associated with connection—is a site of pain, silence, and pressure. In today’s world, as we all carry the weight of daily overwhelm, social fragmentation, and collective grief, we’re expected to hold it together. But many of us feel like we’re going to shatter."

The Artist-in-Residency builds upon Midori's initial vision of Dining Room, which was originally installed as a part of a group shows, to take over the entire 465 Collective Gallery. The installation will grow and evolve through a series of activations and events. A small Shatter Pit will be installed over the course of the residency so the carpet continues to grow. There will also be a Wall of Family-of-Choice Portraits, where trans, queer, non-binary, and other misfits, outsiders, kinksters, or weirdos will be invited to pin their own family portraits (either bring one, get one taken, or create one one the spot).