Artist Kelly Akashi has created a major installation for the 2026 Whitney Biennial titled 'Monument (Altadena)', a 13-foot-tall chimney and walkway made of clear glass bricks. The work is a direct response to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, which destroyed her home and studio, leaving only the original brick chimney standing. She collaborated with mason Christian Inga to meticulously reconstruct this remnant in a new, spectral form.
The installation serves as a powerful meditation on loss, memory, and resilience, transforming personal trauma into a public monument. Akashi's work underscores how memory is an active, laborious process of reconstruction, mirroring the collective effort of a city recovering from disaster. Presented alongside other works like 'Inheritance (Distressed)', which references a lost family heirloom, the project engages with art historical dialogues on materiality, gender, and legacy, making it a poignant highlight of the thematically open 2026 Biennial.