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Işık Kaya & Thomas Georg Blank

@kaya.blank

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Lens-based artists📍Los Angeles, CA.
Works available through @marshall.gallery

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Into the Well, Concrete Horizon

Thanks for everyone for coming and joining to the orbit screening last Friday @walnut.well
🌱🍿🌕

Works by:
Ali Amiri @araniom
Kat Bawden @bawdenka
Kaya & Blank @kaya.blank
Sophia Leitenmayer @sophia.fngr
Naoto Nakamura @naoto0_0
Lydia Nsiah @_lydiansiah
Sorn Patharakorn @sornr
Tian Skultan @tianskultan
Thi Hong Linh @lintendooo
Ping Ho — Curatorial Reflection @pingho.art
with
Iikkamatti Hauru @iikkamattihauru
Iza Koczanowska @islaparadis
Rachel Jungeun Oh @racheljungeunoh
Hesam Salehbeig @hesam_salehbeig
Tzu-En Wu (Theo) @tzuenwu_theo

Curated by Rio Usui / orbit
@rio.usui @orbit_platform

Walnut Well – Experiencing and Sensing Spaces
Fabrik 1230 (Courtyard), Kunst- und Kulturareal Breitenfurter Str. 176, 1230, Vienna
@walnut.well
@hanakogeierhos
@florianschmidt_artist

Photo: @florianschmidt_artist @fabianreetz @igigo.wu @sophia.fngr @saffi_adler

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🌱Upcoming orbit screening:

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗼𝗻

Friday 16.10.2026 / 8:30pm
hosted by @walnut.well

Works by:
Ali Amiri @araniom
Kat Bawden @bawdenka
Kaya & Blank @kaya.blank
Sophia Leitenmayer @sophia.fngr
Naoto Nakamura @naoto0_0
Lydia Nsiah @_lydiansiah
Sorn Patharakorn @sornr
Tian Skultan @tianskultan
Thi Hong Linh @lintendooo
Ping Ho — Curatorial Reflection
@pingho.89 @pingho.art

Curated by Rio Usui / orbit
@rio_usui @orbit_platform

The screening concept takes the well as a starting point, thinking through its vertical and horizontal associations. Vertically, it considers the well as a space of depth, descent, and looking inward. Horizontally, it follows the concrete surface of a well, on the former Nuss Brunnen Feld, and the flow of water extending toward the port, the sea, and the horizon beyond.

The works in the program engage with these relationships through different distances between the body, nature, objects, and architecture, as well as through different ways of looking and sensing space. The screening will take place within the space of Walnut Well itself, so the site and its architectural surfaces will also become part of the viewing experience.

orbit is an international and interdisciplinary platform for exhibition and publication, extending across conversations, interviews, research, and other forms of exchange, founded and directed by Rio Usui.
From autumn 2026, orbit will be hosted by Walnut Well, where it will develop and present a series of activations and cultural events.

Address:
Walnut Well – Experiencing and Sensing Spaces
Fabrik 1230 (Courtyard), Kunst- und Kulturareal Breitenfurter Str. 176, 1230, Vienna
@walnut.well
@hanakogeierhos
@florianschmidt_artist

Accessibility:
S-Bahn or U6 Meidling, change to Bus 62A, Bildungscampus Atzgersdorf
Entrance: gate to the inner courtyard / between the pharmacy and the fitness center

We are looking forward to welcoming you! 🍿

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There are trees growing beside American highways that have never seen a drop of rain. They have trunks, branches and leaves. Some look like pines. Others resemble palms, cypresses, eucalyptus or even desert cacti. They stand among real vegetation, outside shopping centers, next to roads and in suburban neighborhoods.

But they are not trees. They are cell towers.

Hidden inside their artificial trunks are antennas and telecommunications equipment Their branches are made from synthetic materials, their bark is molded and their leaves are manufactured. And in some cases, the entire tree exists for one reason: to make a piece of infrastructure look like something that belongs to nature. The idea sounds almost absurd. And sometimes, it looks exactly that way.

Known as stealth or tree towers, the idea took off in the 1990s, as mobile networks expanded and communities pushed back against the visual impact of conventional metal towers. Instead of hiding the need for a tower, engineers began hiding the tower itself. The phenomenon became especially widespread in Southern California. Today, hundreds can be found across the Los Angeles area, with thousands more across the U.S.

But there was a practical reason for making them disappear. Concealment offered a compromise: carriers could build the infrastructure needed for coverage, while local authorities could reduce its visual impact on the landscape. The disguise doesn’t necessarily have to fool anyone up close. It simply has to make the tower less noticeable from a distance. And the disguise is more sophisticated than it seems. These structures are typically made from metal, fiberglass and plastic, with artificial branches designed to conceal the antennas near the top. Manufacturers create different leaves, bark textures and irregular growth patterns to make them look more natural. Some eucalyptus designs even include fake insect damage on their leaves.

Behind these strange artificial forests is a story about the way modern societies negotiate with technology, and about our increasingly complicated relationship with the landscapes we inhabit.

What do you think?

📸: @kaya.blank

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Went to see @kaya.blank ‘s truly incredible #intermodal exhibition at the San Pedro Cultural Center - wonderful experience! Did not expect to find a model train club literally next door 🚂 👀

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Kaya & Blank, stills from Intermodal, 2024. Video

Join us this Saturday, August 22nd at 1pm in the gallery for a closing reception and curator-led tour with the artists of Built on Water.

Artists Flora Kao, Kaya & Blank, Jennifer Gunlock, Hilary Norcliffe and Katie E. Stubblefield will discuss past, present and future visions of the Port within their works and creative practice. Overlooking the Ports of LA and Long Beach, AGCC provides a unique vantage point to consider the region's layered landscape and storied histories beneath.

The closing reception begins at 1pm in the gallery with a curator-facilitated artist talk beginning at 2pm. This event is free and open to the public.

To learn more and RSVP, visit BuiltOnWaterClosing.eventbrite.com 🌊

Built on Water is made possible with support from @culture_la, @portofla, @portoflongbeach, @lawaterfront, and @lacountyarts.

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💧 Ever-curious? Take a deep dive in the gallery on 8/22 for a closing reception and curator-led tour with the artists of Built on Water.

Visit the link in our bio to RSVP!

Built on Water | Closing Reception & Artist Talk
Saturday, August 22nd • Closing 1pm – 4pm | Artist Talk 2pm
Free and open to the public – bring your friends!
Angels Gate Cultural Center, Building A

Artists Flora Kao, Kaya & Blank, Jennifer Gunlock, Hilary Norcliffe and Katie E. Stubblefield will discuss past, present and future visions of the Port within their works and creative practice. Overlooking the Ports of LA and Long Beach, AGCC provides a unique vantage point to consider the region's layered landscape and storied histories beneath.

Built on Water is made possible with support from @culture_la, @portofla, @portoflongbeach, @lawaterfront, and @lacountyarts.

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🌊 Join us Sat. 8/22 for the Built on Water Closing Reception & Artist Talk with Flora Kao, Kaya & Blank, Jennifer Gunlock, Hilary Norcliffe and Katie E. Stubblefield, and curator Cecelia Caro.

RSVP now at the link in our bio 🌐

Hear from the artists as they discuss the past, present and future of the Ports along with their creative processes and motivations.

Built on Water examines the Port's industrial landscape and layered histories beneath in order to postulate a visionary future – where memories surface, nature reclaims and humanity progresses in harmony with the natural world.

Reception starts at 1pm in the gallery, and the artist talk will begin at 2pm. Free and open to the public.

Accessibility note: the floor 2 gallery is currently only accessible via stairs. A virtual walkthrough is available on an iPad in our floor 1 gallery.

Built on Water is made possible with support from @culturela, @portofla, @portoflongbeach, and @lacountyarts, and @lawaterfront. Part of the Hyper SoCal initiative.

#BuiltOnWater #SanPedroArt #PortOfLA #ClosingReception #ArtistTalk #AGCC #ContemporaryArtLA

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Hidden among pine forests, tucked between palm trees, or standing beside highways, thousands of cellphone towers around the world are disguised as trees in an attempt to disappear into the landscape. The irony is impossible to ignore. Built to make modern infrastructure invisible, these synthetic trees often become even more conspicuous than the steel towers they were designed to replace.

The trend emerged in the early 1990s as wireless networks expanded and communities pushed back against the visual impact of cell towers. Companies began creating "stealth towers" disguised as pines, palms, cacti, and even church steeples to satisfy local aesthetic regulations while maintaining coverage.

Whether you find them clever or comically unconvincing, fake tree towers expose a fascinating contradiction of modern life. We demand flawless reception everywhere we go, yet we still dream of landscapes untouched by technology.

What are your thoughts? 🌵

*This content is for educational purposes only.

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I'll be honest – this book was a struggle to bring into the world, but it's finally here, available now (link in bio).

UNSTAGED Anthology: Substratum is part artistic manifesto, part cultural critique. A physical object built on human error, denial, shame, grief, structured across three thematic acts:

1) Elemental – on ecology and our relationship to the earth

2) Somatic – on trauma and physicality

3) Spectral – on forgetting and the spectral traces of the past

Gratitude to all featured artists for exposing stories that matter and for using photography as a pretext to force us to look. With special thanks to:

Alyssa Warren (@alyssawarrenstudio)
Angela Crosti (@angelacrosti_photography)
Djeneba Aduayom (@djeneba.aduayom)
KAYA & BLANK (@kaya.blank)
Kirill Muniabin (@mnbn.art)
Lea Capelli (@parmilesregards)
Léa Marais (@leamaraisprint)
Lisa-Maria Gruber (@liemarie__)
Matt Cauthron (@mcauthronarts)
Oksana Shatalova (@oksanashatalova_artist)
Thomas van Poppel (@thomas.van.poppel)
Tyler Green (@tylergreenphoto)

—

UNSTAGED Anthology: Substratum
First edition published by UNSTAGED | 2026

© artists for their respective images
© cover image by Thomas van Poppel
© 2026 Arek Ratai UNSTAGED

ISBN 978-83-980236-8-9

—

"This book will not save a single tree. It will not purify one drop of poisoned water. It will not bring back the dead, nor erase a single scar on your skin. You are holding a physical object made of paper and ink, trying to understand real damage while remaining safely behind the page. Now, look down at your feet. Every environmental loss (Elemental), every physical strain (Somatic), and every erased memory (Spectral) adds another layer to the ground beneath us. Now close the cover. Walk forward. Try not to feel the weight of the substratum beneath your feet."

— Arek Ratai, Afterword

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A huge thank you to Melina Paris @culturequest for writing about Built on Water for @randomlengthsnews! We appreciate your thoughtful words about the exhibition and its connections to our present moment. Read the full article at the Iink in our bio.

If you haven’t seen Built on Water yet, the gallery is open Thurs – Sat from 10am – 5pm through August 22. We will host a Closing Reception and Artist Talk on Saturday, August 22nd from 2pm – 4pm.

Built on Water is made possible with support from @culture_la, @portofla, @portoflongbeach, @lawaterfront, and @lacountyarts.

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Kaya & Blank, stills from Intermodal, 2024. Video

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are not only the largest port complex in the United States but also the busiest in the Western Hemisphere. Each year, they handle more than 15 million cargo containers, representing over $300 billion in goods. Intermodal depicts the intersection between infrastructure, ecology, and systems of power. Containers conceal the goods and labor that sustain the system, while port operations and their supporting infrastructure have reshaped the surrounding environment at a monumental scale. The sheer magnitude of these operations distorts global commerce into an abstract landscape of steel and color, underscoring our enmeshed relationship to global consumption.

Watch the full video with sound in Built on Water, on view at @angelsgateart through August 22nd. The gallery is open Thurs – Sat from 10am – 5pm. Visit angelsgateart.org for more info.

Built on Water is a contemporary art exhibition presenting past, present, and future visions of the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, featuring Los Angeles-based artists Flora Kao, Kaya & Blank, Jennifer Gunlock, Hilary Norcliffe, and Katie E. Stubblefield. Built on Water is curated by AGCC’s Director of Exhibitions, Cecelia Caro.

Built on Water is made possible with support from @culture_la, @portofla, @portoflongbeach, @lawaterfront, and @lacountyarts.

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Kaya & Blank, Intermodal, 2025. Gold-toned salted paper print made with water from the Port of Los Angeles in artist frame

In their series of photographs, @kaya.blank use seawater collected directly from the ports in a saltwater and silver nitrate process developed in the nineteenth century. While their video piece offers a close-up view of operations within the ports and the intermodal freight system, their photographs shift perspective, depicting industrial marine traffic suspended on the horizon of seemingly tranquil seascapes. This contrast reveals both the immense scale and the often-overlooked presence of global shipping networks in everyday life.

Currently on view in Built on Water at @angelsgateart through August 22nd.

Built on Water is a contemporary art exhibition presenting past, present, and future visions of the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, featuring Los Angeles-based artists Flora Kao, Kaya & Blank, Jennifer Gunlock, Hilary Norcliffe, and Katie E. Stubblefield. Built on Water is curated by AGCC’s Director of Exhibitions, Cecelia Caro. The gallery is open Thurs – Sat from 10am – 5pm. Visit angelsgateart.org for more info.

Photos by Jordan Rodriguez @cookiecrumblejordan. Built on Water is made possible with support from @culture_la, @portofla, @portoflongbeach, @lawaterfront, and @lacountyarts.

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