Naoko Mabon contributed an article to Bijutsutecho magazine (web) reporting Ēastre Weekend programme held at Timespan in Helmsdale over the weekend of 8-9th April. Centred around the launch of photographer Lina Pallotta’s first photography book Porpora, featuring trans activist and writer Porpora Marcasciano, the programme explored experience of transition, resistance, community, celebration and love through an act as a collective process.

To read the article (in Japanese), please click here.
(Please note: there is a small membership fee to read the whole article, but there seems to be a two-week trial for the membership.)

Naoko Mabon has contributed a text to introduce On Sonorous Seas to the latest Bijutsutecho issue (April 2023, special feature: Black Art). Triggered by one stranded whale came ashore at North end of the Isle of Iona, this project explores the impact of military sonar on the marine ecosystem around the Hebrides in Scotland and gives voice to invisible/hard-to-see things in the deep seas.

For more on the issue and to order a copy, please click here.

Naoko Mabon has contributed a text woven from the perspective of translation through her own experience to the Storytelling Table Runner focused section in the new issue of Bijutsutecho magazine (Jan 2023 issue) featuring the practice of the artist Tomoko Konoike.

For more on the issue and to order a copy, please click here.

Such an honour and pleasure to be included in the Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History amongst other experts with a paper “International Conglomerate: Collaborations of Ilana Halperin and Naoko Mabon Between Scotland and Japan”.

Many congratulations and thank you very much to all the organising, editing, reviewing and designing team at the Scottish Society for Art History, and of course, to Ilana. Thank you also Dr Leslie Mabon of the School of Engineering and Innovation, The Open University, for support with proofreading and with English language phrasing.

Journal launch event (online) is planned in January 2023.
For more on the Scottish Society for Art History, please click here.

Naoko Mabon has been awarded the VACMA 21/22 (Argyll & Bute) through CHARTS (supported by funders Argyll and Bute Council and Creative Scotland). This support enables Naoko to enrol on a supported distance learning Gaelic course by Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, University of the Highlands and Islands, to listen and respond to often invisible and historically underrepresented voices and issues of specific localities.

To read more on the VACMA 21/22 awardees and their projects, please click here.

Climate Action Points poster was designed and printed as part of the series of activities supported and delivered by Mandate Climate Action Fund of Scottish Contemporary Art Network & Engage Scotland.

These action points and questions were raised during the Climate Fresk workshops (co-)facilitated by Naoko Mabon in February-June 2022 across Scotland: Edinburgh, Helmsdale, Iona and online.

A few physical posters in A2 are still remaining, and a printable digital format is available on request. If you are interested in receiving them, please feel free to contact.

Climate Fresk is a participatory and creative workshop of collective intelligence that aims to engage people on climate change. Based on a 42-card game developed from the scientific reports of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Climate Fresk explains the complex links between causes and consequences of climate change, and empowers actions.

Naoko Mabon has contributed a text to the new collection Felt Events, which explores the multifaceted conceptual practice of the artist Ilana Halperin. Edited by Dr Catriona McAra.

Naoko Mabon contributed a text on Tomoko Konoike’s Storytelling Table Runner project to Japan Quality magazine (web version). The text is based on Naoko’s experience as a translator/mediator in the June-2021 event featuring the project as part of Neighbouring programme of Glasgow International. 

The same text has been also featured in The Drouth, the host platform of the Neighbouring programme. 

Warmest thanks go to: Akane Nakamori at Suisei-Art; Japan Quality magazine; Tomoko Konoike; Mayako Murai; Yuko Shoji; Johnny Rodger at The Drouth; Glasgow International; and all the event organisers and participants namely: Mónica Laiseca; Carol Dunn; Jessica Holdengarde; Megan Lucille Boettcher; and Stefanie Cheong.

To read the piece in the Japan Quality, please click here.
To read the piece in The Drouth, please click here. 

Naoko Mabon together with Ilana Halperin will present what has been brought out from our collaborations to date between Scotland and Japan in the “Scotland and Japan Conference”. This two-day international conference on 10-11 February has been organised by the Scottish Society for Art History (SSAH) in partnership with The National Museum of Japanese History among all other colleagues and experts.

For more on the conference and to book a ticket, please click here.

Naoko Mabon has contributed to Not From Here, Sluice magazine’s Autumn 2021 issue. To respond to the theme of the issue “immigrants”, Naoko wrote a text around the 2018 project in São Paulo entitled Kyojitsu-Hiniku: Between the Skin and the Flesh of Japan, which explored the identity of Nipo-Brazilian, developed through a process and consequence of the physical movement of people (featured work by: Juliana Kase; Takanori Suga; Detanico Lain; Satoshi Hashimoto; Hikaru Fujii).

Honoured to be invited to be part of “Towards the Water – Ecotone” Folio, conceived by Deirdre MacKenna and produced by Cultural Documents for the Dunoon Burgh Hall COP26 Season, with funding from Creative Scotland.

Naoko Mabon has been invited to conduct this year’s CLIMAVORE: On Tidal Zones Residency. Click here for more details.

✳︎“How can we collaboratively activate the intertidal zones as a forum for critically thinking about and taking actions towards the climate crisis?”

✳︎“How can we approach, understand and share the complex ecology, stories, heritage and challenges around the intertidal zones in an inclusive way?”

As part of the new On Tidal Zones Residency launched by Skye-based ATLAS Arts and CLIMAVORE of Cooking Sections, Oban-based curator Naoko Mabon will explore these questions through a practice-led action research in her own locale during the summer 2021.

Naoko Mabon was commissioned by The Drouth to write a piece on the ongoing project Ilana Halperin: The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi) in relation to their Neighbouring project (15-18 June 2021 as part of Glasgow International).

My warmest thanks go to: The Drouth, Prof. Johnny Rodger, Ilana Halperin and all our Japanese and Scottish collaborators. To read Naoko’s piece please click here.

国際交流基金サンパウロ日本文化センターの副所長・山雄起さんによる「Kyojitsu-Hiniku − 日本の皮膚と肉体のはざま」展のインタビューが掲載されました。
Entrevista extensiva de Yuki Yama, da Japan Foundation Sao Paulo, sobre o projeto ‘Kyojitsu-Hiniku: Sob A Pele – Sobre A Carne Do Japão’, no ano passado, para os 110 anos de Imigração Japonesa no Brasil.
Extensive interview by Yuki Yama of Japan Foundation Sao Paulo on ‘Kyojitsu-Hiniku: Between the Skin and the Flesh of Japan’ project last year for The 110 Years of Japanese Immigration in Brazil.

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Naoko Mabon (as WAGON) has been invited to a panel discussion ‘Tipping Point’ in Assembly Aberdeen – where will be speaking alongside D2 and Kirsty Russell (as Underpinning) on ‘strategies to further build endurance and stability within Aberdeen’s growing grassroots community’.

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The Curator’s Workshop is a monthly discussion group, run by Glasgow-based curator Francesca Zappia, open to curators, artists, writers, researchers, students and other arts professionals as well as amateurs interested in a critical reflection around curatorial practices (exhibitions, displays, discursive and performative forms, public engagement…) and related theory. The Curator’s Workshop aims to be a platform open to different perspectives of research and will invite a new professional each month to share material and reflections in order to foster new discussions.

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Peacock Associates is Scotland’s first fully-funded Curatorial Fellowship for visual arts.

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Naoko Mabon was commissioned by LUX Scotland to write a piece reflecting on On Sharing, Separations, an evening event between artist Tako Taal and curator Seán Elder. The event was held last November at W OR M of Peacock Visual Arts in Aberdeen, as part of LUX Scotland’s pilot programme of events in Aberdeen, supported by Aberdeen City Council’s Creative Funding Programme.

Thank you LUX Scotland, Tako and Sean for this wonderful opportunity.
To read Naoko’s piece please click here.

Naoko Mabon contributed a writing piece on a Japanese sculptor Bushiro Mohri (1923-2004) for the website of JAPAN Quality magazine.

Warmest thanks go to Akane Nakamori, JAPAN Quality, Asuka Mohri, Masaki Yanagihara, Sachiko Yanagihara, Ryouhei Yanagihara, Coelacanth – Bushiro Mohri Memorial Museum, Concept Space, Satoshi Mouri, and Leslie Mabon.

To read the piece, please click here.

Thanks to the generous support and advice from the Sculptor Yutaka Toyota and Osamu Matsuo of Bunkyo, we just delivered work by Takanori Suga A Blank Sign “Dripping Project in São Paulo” to the Sports Center Kokushikan Daigaku in São Roque of São Paulo. Thank you so much to all the people who gave us warm support and advice towards the production, storage – and future re-installing. We very much look forward to seeing this piece in the near future.

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