Art Museo at the InterContinental Chicago O’Hare presents Islands, a contemplative photography exhibition by Emily Hanako Momohara. The show opens to the public on April 7 and continues through mid-June.
Islands examines how landscapes can serve as metaphors for immigration, myth and legacy, explored through Momohara’s personal history. While researching her family background in Okinawa, she learned that several long-held family stories — including the origin of their surname — were inaccurate.
“It was said our family lived on an island after our namesake, Momohara,” Momohara recalls. “I imagined it to be small and isolated, maybe even abandoned by now. However, when we did find our family in Okinawa, the reality was different.”
Her work investigates the overlap of myth and fact. “Legacy is composed of our memories and the passing down of stories. Remembrances may not be factual, however are important to how we define ourselves,” she explains.
The exhibition reflects Momohara’s relationship to her family narratives and cultural heritage. Photographs are presented as archival pigment prints mounted as scrolls, linking her family roots in Okinawa with periods she lived in Hawaii and her current studio practice in Cincinnati. The images create a layered exploration of place, memory and identity, allowing viewers to consider how landscapes carry personal and collective histories.
Islands invites quiet reflection on how stories shape belonging and how discovering facts can transform inherited myths. The scroll format and archival printing emphasize the tactile and archival qualities of memory while connecting disparate geographic locations central to Momohara’s life and work.
This installation is open to all visitors during regular gallery hours. It offers an intimate, thoughtful presentation that will resonate with anyone interested in photography, migration narratives, cultural memory and the ways places hold meaning across generations.
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