the eight directions of the wind: Edmund de Waal at The Huntington
Oct. 18, 2025—Oct. 26, 2026
Huntington Art Gallery, Chinese Garden, and Japanese Garden
Overview | Events & Resources | Artist Bio
Each installation incorporates text, natural materials, and recent works by de Waal that create new perspectives and connections among The Huntington’s collecting areas. These installations—exploring the movement of ideas, people, and objects—invite visitors to reflect on the transmission of stories and histories that shape contemporary culture. Like the primary points of a compass rose, “the eight directions of the wind” serves as a thought-provoking guide to travel through The Huntington’s iconic spaces.
“This exhibition is a meditation on belonging and the stories that objects carry,” de Waal said. “Porcelain, to me, is a way to speak across cultures and time.”
Edmund de Waal, eight directions (detail), 2025. Kaolin, gold, graphite, charcoal, and wood. © Edmund de Waal. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Alzbeta Jaresova.
Overview
Three Installations (“Three Meditations”)
on sanctuary | Huntington Art Gallery
Inside the Huntington Art Gallery’s Small Library, de Waal has curated a library of poetry, bringing together stories of exile, often the poets’ own. Many are in translation, framing language itself as a form of migration. The books are held within a table topped with porcelain slip and gold, into which de Waal has written a text on sanctuary, referencing the words of Chinese poet Bei Dao (b. 1949), who has spent much of his life in exile. The room once housed a portion of Henry E. and Arabella Huntington’s book collection.
Nearby, in the gallery’s white marble hall, de Waal’s benches, which are made of Kilkenny stone, invite visitors to sit and engage in quiet contemplation.
In the dining room, de Waal presents restored 18th-century Meissen plates, which were looted by the Nazis and subsequently damaged during the Allied bombing of Dresden in World War II. The plates have been repaired using the traditional Japanese art of kintsugi, in which fractured pieces are mended with urushi lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Instead of hiding imperfections, kintsugi honors the history of fragile objects and celebrates their endurance.
On the second floor of the gallery, de Waal’s newly created vitrine with Wedgwood shards is in dialogue with The Huntington’s renowned collection of Sèvres porcelain, emphasizing the migration of materials and ideas across continents and centuries.
on porcelain | Studio for Lodging the Mind, Chinese Garden
De Waal is the author of The White Road: Journey into an Obsession (2015), an intimate portrait of his 40-plus years working with porcelain. The book describes his journeys around the world to places that tell the story of porcelain’s creation.
In this installation, de Waal traces the thousand-year evolution of porcelain, pairing shards and full vessels from China, Korea, Southeast Asia, Russia, Germany, Austria, Britain, and America with his own contemporary vessels. Selections from his personal library—including texts on porcelain and of Chinese poetry—create a quiet space for contemplation.
Cold Mountain Poem Transcriptions
on shadows | Marsh Tea House, Japanese Garden
For this installation, de Waal constructed a pavilion from charred oak as an invitation and appeal to pause, look deeply, and gather one’s thoughts. The pavilion—meant to serve as a poem in praise of shadow and light—recalls de Waal’s early apprenticeship in Japan, where he encountered sadō, or tea ceremony.
In this installation, a Kilkenny stone bench invites visitors to sit and look through the white shoji doors of the Marsh Tea House, where two installations of de Waal’s black porcelain vessels can be observed amid the shadows.
Join Us
- Nov. 11, 2025 | An Evening with Edmund de Waal
- June 2026 | Youth Summit on Resilience, a daylong conference exploring Jewish, Asian American, and Los Angeles experiences of displacement and cultural survival. Details coming soon.
Companion Materials
Location Map
Get the Exhibition Location Map
Spanish and Chinese Text
On Sanctuary TranslationsHuntington Art Gallery
On Porcelain TranslationsStudio for Lodging the Mind, Chinese Garden
On Shadows TranslationsMarsh Tea House, The Japanese Garden
Audio Guide
Edmund de Waal narrates an exploration of each installation’s themes and historical layers.
Listen now on Bloomberg Connects
Musical Playlists
Illustrated Book
June 2026 | Featuring new text by de Waal and anthologized voices. Details coming soon.
News Release
Edmund de Waal Brings New Perspectives to The Huntington’s Iconic Spaces
Media inquiries: huntingtonnews@huntington.org
About the Artist
Edmund de Waal
Edmund de Waal (b. 1964) is an acclaimed author and ceramist. Both his artistic and written practice have broken new ground through their critical engagement with the history and potential of ceramics, as well as with architecture, music, dance, and poetry. De Waal continually investigates themes of diaspora, memorial, and materiality with his interventions and artworks, which are made for diverse spaces and museums worldwide, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, England; the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris; the British Museum in London; the Frick Collection in New York; Museo Ebraico in Venice; Schindler House in Los Angeles; Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; and the V&A Museum in London.
De Waal is also renowned for his bestselling family memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010), The White Road (2015), and Letters to Camondo (2021). His latest book an Archive (2025), published with Ivorypress, is an archival gathering together of texts that reflect on both his own family archives and the archives of the writers, artists, and spaces that he has spent years inhabiting.
He was awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize for nonfiction by Yale University in 2015. In 2021, he was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and awarded a CBE (commander of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to art. He received the Isamu Noguchi Award in 2023 and the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2024. He lives and works in London.
Sponsors
Generous support for this exhibition is provided by Mei-Lee Ney, the Douglas and Eunice Erb Goodan Endowment, the Robertson Family in memory of Susan W. Robertson, Louise and John Bryson, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle, and Dorian Huntington Davis. Additional funding is provided by June and Simon K.C. Li, the LLWW Foundation, an anonymous donor, Suzanne Deal Booth, William Zachs, Sandra Gering, and Alan Kennedy and Joan Simon.
