The Cave of Tongues

A tongue is not only an organ of taste, but also the very vessel for human language.

Rooted respectively in Japanese calligraphy and music, Nana Shimomura and Chiku Komiya have each engaged in the deconstruction and reconstruction of language within their own practices. Their duo exhibition, The Cave of Tongues, embraces the collision of different languages and the instability of the mother tongue within the multilingual environment of New York.

In this exhibition, their new works generate strange and enigmatic forms of “Broken Language,” as if the tongue were dancing, stumbling, and stuttering over itself. From the perspective of the concise, efficient, and “correct” speech demanded in public spaces, such utterances are deemed erroneous—something to be corrected and disciplined.

This exhibition unfolds within a “cave”—a closed, private sanctuary where speech can be born secretly and unceasingly, free from external coercion. Here, the artworks function as organs within the dark, echoing voices and blurring text. Through misrecognition, they propagate linguistic mutations imbued with entirely new meanings.

Operating as both a disruptive virus and a protective vaccine, The Cave of Tongues quietly infects visitors with these mutations, fundamentally unsettling our shared linguistic system.

Dates: June 15 (Mon) – July 17 (Fri), 2026

Midtown East, NY

Open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM

*By appointment only: Visit the link or scan the QR code to register

https://forms.gle/ZoQCNAuR3KDXQLCq9

Press release

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/4/my-drive