Join us for an online talk to meet two experts from Zambia, whose collaborative practice involves natural dyeing: Timothy Siachibuye at Twaabane Creative Centre; and Banji Chona and her youth- and women-led initiative Inkaya Studio.
Thursday 5 February 2026
6-7pm (GTM UK time), 8-9pm (GMT+2 Central Africa Time)
Free, all welcome
Book your place via Eventbrite page here
FUNDRAISER: Support Collective Cares, a new peer-led curatorial initiative for contemporary arts in Zambia.
WHY IT’S NEEDED
Zambia’s artistic landscape is rich in expressions but lacks visibility, infrastructure and support. Practitioners have few chances to present their works, no shared platform or advocacy for fair/sustainable practice, and limited paid opportunities. Funding is often short-term or foreign-dependent, while curatorial education and critical discourse remain minimal. To improve this, we’re creating a hybrid (physical/digital) space for conversation, research and collaboration. We grow slowly, believing that an intimate approach with mutual care, not speed, creates lasting change. Framing curation as a practice of care, we root ourselves in solidarity and critical friendship over competition and collusion.
WHAT WE DO
Offline: Host conversations, studio visits, writings and experimental collaborations among curators and artists.
Online: Create a living platform where peers share research, archives and curated features. Artists can rent affordable pages to connect, promote, and sell their work/service.
WHO WE ARE
Co-led by Luyando Muleya (Lusaka-born, Livingstone-based); and Naoko Mabon (Japan-born, Scotland-based), with a growing network of peers: Chibuye Changwe (Lusaka-born, Brussels-based); Kabila Stéphane (DR Congo-born, Berlin-based); Lifang Zhang (China-born, Beijing-based); Samba Yonga (Lusaka-born, Lusaka-based); Sana Ginwalla (Lusaka-born, Lusaka-based).
YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS
We need your support to gain self-sustaining momentum. This is a not-for-profit initiative centring on the long-term benefit for the contemporary arts community in Zambia. No big money or institutional backing. Just people—forming and nurturing community, criticality and opportunity from the ground up.
OUR GOAL
GBP £3,200 — this amount allows us to run the first 3 years’ activities to the desired level in a fairer working condition.
Please visit our WhyDonate page for full story & to make donation: https://whydonate.com/fundraising/collective-cares
Thank you very much for your support in advance!
Collective Cares Team
Start of the new 2024 season of EcoCreative Cluster!
EcoCreative Cluster is a project hosted by The Rockfield Centre, Oban, which focuses on natural dyes, pigments and the use of natural materials in art and craft. Grounded in the creation and ongoing cultivation of a community dye garden, it provides workshops and learning opportunities for the local community, led by textile artist Deborah Gray and invited specialist tutors. The project also has an international network weaving dimension led by curator Naoko Mabon, which includes a series of recorded on-line conversations and collaborations with international artists who use natural dyes in their practice.
We will unveil an exciting series of 2024 EcoCreative Cluster activities in due course. Please follow either (or all!) @deborah.gray7, @naokomabon or #EcoCreativeCluster on Instagram for news and updates.
The 2024 season activity of EcoCreative Cluster is supported by the award received by Oban Communities Trust from The National Lottery Community Fund, which was made possible by National Lottery. Thank you very much!
Timespan is excited to present the new exhibition We Move As A Murmuration opening on March 23rd 2024. Drawing inspiration from bird flocks to reflect on the entangled relationships between humans and birds, the exhibition proposes approaches of kinship, liberation, and collective care. The exhibition features the work of artists: adrienne maree brown, Chuan Lun Wu, Disarming Design from Palestine, Edwyn Collins, Hanna Tuulikki, J. Drew Lanham, Joan Ross, Khaled Jarrar, Mamadou Tall Diedhiou, Penny Woodley, Petrit Halilaj, Sethembile Msezane, and Un/Nature.
Following the natural movement of murmurations, co-curators Naoko Mabon and Timespan’s director Giulia Gregnanin have developed an exhibition design that in July will “swirl” and transform with new artworks and installation arrangements to bring fresh perspectives to audiences and emphasise the themes of change and movement part of the exhibition.
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Delighted to announce the Travelling Embroidery Exhibition EcoCreative Cluster: Nettle Circle (International). At Oban Library (reading room) on 16 & 17 February 10am-1pm, at The Rockfield Centre (ground floor corridor) on 18 & 22-25 February 10am-3pm, before travelling to Artspace Oban on Esplanade on 1-4 March.
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We are thrilled to announce a new project EcoCreative Cluster: Nettle Circle (International).
With CHARTS’ Growing Global Networks Micro-Projects award, Naoko is working on a micro exchange with textile artist Deborah Gray, artist Lyndsey McDougall, and community members in Oban, Argyll and in Malin Head, Ireland. Focusing around natural dyeing and nettles, this project involves a Malin Head visit by Naoko and Deborah, embroidery sessions led by Deborah and Lyndsey, material/story exchange between Oban and Malin Head, and a series of public events both in Oban and Malin Head.
Join us on Saturday 30th from 11am for a day of poetry, film, picnic and coastal bird walk, part of the Highlands & Islands Climate Festival. Hosted by Timespan in Helmsdale. The final activity of the day from 2pm Walk and Talk on Birds with Nina O’Hanlon, a Caithness-based seabird ecologist, is the first research activity of a new birds-derived project We Move As A Murmuration. This is the second part of Coastal Commons: Beyond North Sea Extractivism, a long-term heritage and art programme at Timespan.
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[ ] of the Woodland // [ ] na Coille is an community arts project celebrating Oban as a woodland/rainforest town.
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Torry Ecomuseum Project “Torry-Yubari Exchange” Second Season
トリー・エコミュージアム・プロジェクト「トリーと夕張の交流」第二季
To go to the Instagram account of Torry-Yubari Exchange, please click here.
For more on Torry Ecomuseum Project, please click here.
インスタグラム「トリーと夕張の交流」はこちらをご覧ください。
トリー・エコミュージアム・プロジェクトについてはこちらをご覧ください。
EcoCreatives: Nurturing Creativity, Piece by Piece is the second season of the EcoCreative Cluster, which connects practitioners and practices focusing on nature-based materials and natural dyeing techniques. Over the course of 2022, there have been various collaborative activities taken place, including the dye garden development, skill-sharing workshops and online conversations with dye practitioners across the world.
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“What might shift in our understanding of and relationship with geology and geological time, if we imagine ourselves as part of the rock cycle? As part of a deep time calcium carbonate family tree from coral, limestone and marble to our teeth and bones?” − Ilana Halperin
The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi) is a cross-disciplinary exhibition connecting Yamaguchi, in Japan, and Orkney, in Scotland.
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Undertaken by Naoko Mabon (curator) and Deborah Gray (textile artist), Oban Heritage of Colours explores the dyeing and growing heritage of Oban, and the origins and heritage of the dye plants growing in the Dye Garden at The Rockfield Centre, Oban. The project is culminated with an interactive digital map of historical growing sites, a collection of writings and pictures of dye plants at the Dye Garden, a natural dyeing workshop and a future potential for guided walks. Presented by The Rockfield Centre in Oban as part of Heritage Horizon programme of CHArts with support from Scottish Power Foundation.
For more on the project, please visit: www.therockfieldcentre.org.uk/heritageofcolours
Over the 1st and 2nd of November, at the beginning of COP26, Renuka Ramanujam (artist/designer/writer) and Naoko Mabon (curator) have created the “COP” and “Oban’s Climate Future” window display at Oban Youth Cafe Project.
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Photographs by: David Fryer (Cave of Red Rocks, and Girdle Ness Lighthouse); Yvette Bathgate (summer swim, and screenshot from video of dolphin jump); Jake Shepherd (rest during a coastal walk); Naoko Mabon (Victoria Bridge with a rowing boat on River Dee)
写真提供：デイヴィッド・フライヤー（レッドロックの洞窟；ガードルネス灯台）、イヴェット・バスゲート（夏の水泳；イルカのジャンプのを撮った動画のスクリーンショット）、ジェイク・シェパード（海岸散歩中の休憩）、メイボン尚子（ディー川のボートとヴィクトリア・ブリッジ）
It is delighted to announce that Torry Ecomuseum Project, for which WAGON is a part of the management team, has been launched on Saturday 23rd January 2021. You can watch the virtual launch event (via Facebook Live) here.
WAGONが企画運営に関わる「トリー・エコミュージアム・プロジェクト」2021年1月23日にスタートしました。Facebook Live経由で行われたオープン記念のバーチャルイベントはこちらでご覧いただけます。
Ilana Halperin: The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi)
A cross-disciplinary project between Yamaguchi and Scotland
自然科学×現代美術 リサーチとアウトリーチによる
「イラナ・ハルペリン：ロックサイクル（ヤマグチ）− 山口とスコットランドをつなぐ領域横断プロジェクト」
(Beautiful flyer designed by Graphical House – thank you!)
Daniel Isaac Jimenez, Miami, FL
’Aberdeen // Yubari’ is a new printmaking project connecting the community and context of two cities built around energy – Aberdeen, Scotland and Yubari, Japan.
「アバディーン // 夕張」は石油・ガスの街として栄えてきたスコットランド・アバディーンと、炭鉱の町として栄えた北海道・夕張市という遠く離れた二都市をつなぐ版画制作プロジェクトです。
WAGON is delighted to announce The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi), a new cross-disciplinary international project with Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin between Yamaguchi/Japan and Scotland/UK.
この度 WAGON はグラスゴー在住のアーティスト、イラナ・ハルペリンとともに山口とスコットランドをつなぐ領域横断プロジェクト「ロックサイクル（ヤマグチ）」を行います。
8h is a new, small, slow and domestic project involving three independent art practitioners and three locations with 8h time difference between.
Contemporary art exhibition for 110 Years of Japanese Immigration in Brazil
Kyojitsu-Hiniku: Between the Skin and the Flesh of Japan
7 – 23 September 2018
Pavilhão Japonês, Parque Ibirapuera, São Paulo, Brazil
Juliana Kase | Takanori Suga | Detanico Lain | Satoshi Hashimoto | Hikaru Fujii
COOPERATION:
– Brazilian Society of Japanese Culture and Social Services (BUNKYO)
SUPPORT:
– 110 Years of Japanese Immigration in Brazil;
– Consulate General of Japan in Sao Paulo;
– The Japan Foundation, São Paulo.
RELATED PUBLIC EVENTS:
– 9 September (Sun) 3pm: Event by Satoshi Hashimoto
– 15 September (Sat) 2pm: Dance Performance by Danilo Silveira
– 15 September (Sat) 3-5pm: Artist Talk by Juliana Kase
– 22 September (Sat) 2pm: Dance + Sound Performance by Beatriz Sano and They-Group
– 22 September (Sat) 3-5pm: Artist Talk by Takanori Suga
– 23 September (Sun) 4pm: Sound-visual performance by Rodrigo Amor Experimental and Evandro Nicolau
Installation shots:
Installation view of the exhibition ‘Kyojitsu-Hiniku: Between the Skin and the Flesh of Japan’ at Pavilhão Japonês, Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo. Installation shot: Fernando Lima.
WAGON is thrilled to announce its new project Kyojitsu-Hiniku: Between the Skin and the Flesh of Japan, a contemporary art exhibition dedicated to 110 Years of Japanese Immigration in Brazil. The exhibition features works by Juliana Kase, Takanori Suga, Detanico Lain, Satoshi Hashimoto and Hikaru Fujii at the Pavilhão Japonês in the Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo, Brazil.
In Praise of Shadows: Atsuo Hukuda & Alan Johnston two-person show
12 May – 3 Jun 2018
Suisei-Art (11-8-1 Sanjyamachi, Kanazawa-City, Ishikawa 920-0861 Japan)
Supported by Shibuya Foundation for Science, Culture and Sports; Hope Scott Trust; The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation; and THE ASAHI SHIMBUN FOUNDATION.
Photography: Hiraku Ikeda
Naoko Mabon made two site-visits to Nagasaki-city and Yubari-city in Japan. The overall aim for these visits is to forge a concrete plan of a new exchange between Japan and Aberdeen of Scotland.
NY-born Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin has conducted a two week field research residency as part of the 2018 Residence Fellowship Program of Akiyoshidai International Art Village from 16 May – 29 May 2018.
WAGON is delighted to announce In Praise of Shadows, the first two-person exhibition between Atsuo Hukuda (b.1958, Hokkaido) and Alan Johnston (b.1945, Edinburgh) in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. Hosted by Suisei-Art, a project space based in a historical Kanazawa Machiya building. Curated by Naoko Mabon.
Jack Davidson: Show and Tell
6 February – 17 February 2018
The W OR M, 11 Castle Street, Aberdeen AB11 5BQ Scotland
Supported by Aberdeen City Council and Robert Gordon University.
Presented by Peacock Visual Arts as part of W OR M / OPEN programme.
RELATED EVENT
Jack Davidson in conversation with Keith Grant and Naoko Mabon
Saturday 17 February 2018, 3-4pm
Guests @ Gray’s lecture by Jack Davidson
Friday 16 February 2018, 1-2pm
Lecture Theatre SB42, Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University
[Image] Jack Davidson | down the road to ecstasy | 2016 | oil on canvas | 65 x 54 cm | Courtesy of the artist and Tat Art Barcelona
WAGON is delighted to announce Jack Davidson: Show and Tell, a showcase of work by Jack Davidson (b.1958, Aberdeen).
Curated by Naoko Mabon. Presented by Peacock Visual Arts as part of W OR M / OPEN programme.
Supported by Aberdeen City Council and Robert Gordon University.
Ilana Halperin: Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana)
SCOTTISH EXHIBITION
Friday 31 March – Saturday 29 April 2017
Peacock Visual Arts (21 Castle Street, Aberdeen AB11 5BQ Scotland)
RELATED EVENT
Artist’s Talk in conversation with Professor Tim Ingold from the Anthropology Department of the University of Aberdeen and Peacock Visual Arts’ Director Nuno Sacramento.
Saturday 1 April 2017, 3-4.30pm
IMAGE CREDIT: Fiona Stephen
To read a feature in Creative Scotland website, please click here.
To read a feature in The James Hutton Institute website, please click here.
To view more on the project, please click here.
Courtesy of the artist, Patricia Fleming Projects and WAGON. Photography: Sachiyo Ando.
Scottish exhibition and event for ‘Ilana Halperin: Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana)’ will be held at Peacock Visual Arts in Aberdeen.
WAGON is delighted to announce Leaves Without Routes: 根も葉も無い, an art exhibition featuring work by four Japanese contemporary artists – Yasunori Kawamatsu, Yuki Okumura, Nobuyuki Yamamoto and Kaori Yamashita – at Nan-Men Ting 323 (南門町三二三), a Japanese style house originally built in 1930s during the Japanese colonial period within Taipei Botanical Garden in Taiwan.
The resulting exhibition of Ilana Halperin: Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana), which launched last Autumn, will be held in Kannawa, Beppu. Meet the artist Ilana Halperin and newly formed her geothermal sculptures.
昨年9月にスタートした「イラナ・ハルペリン：地質学的むつまじさ（湯の花）」。１年の時間をかけ生成された新しい地熱彫刻を美しい明治建築で知られる別府・鉄輪の冨士屋Gallery一也百さまにて開催します。
WAGON is delighted to announce the exhibition Atsuo Hukuda + Shuhei Fukuda: RYUHA = Inheritance of School of Art and Inheritance of Style of Art, which will be held at sleeper in Edinburgh.
The fifth on-site photo report by BEPPU PROJECT is now up.
第5回目となる現地レポートがBEPPU PROJECTさんより届きました。
To view the photo report #5, please click here.
Progress Report #4 – Ilana Halperin: Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana)
The fifth on-site photo report by BEPPU PROJECT is now up.
第4回目となる現地レポートがBEPPU PROJECTさんより届きました。
To view the photo report #4, please click here.
The third on-site photo report by BEPPU PROJECT is now up.
第3回目となる現地レポートがBEPPU PROJECTさんより届きました。
To view the photo report #3, please click here.
The second on-site photo report for Ilana Halperin: Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana) by BEPPU PROJECT is now up. BEPPU PROJECTさんより第二回目となる「イラナ・ハルペリン：地質学的むつまじさ（湯の花）」の現地フォトレポートが届きました。
To view the photo report #2, please click here.
The first on-site photo report for our ongoing project Ilana Halperin: Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana) by BEPPU PROJECT is now up. 今回「イラナ・ハルペリン：地質学的むつまじさ（湯の花）」プロジェクトをパートナーとしてサポートしていただいているBEPPU PROJECTさんより第一回目の現地フォトレポートが届きました。
To view the photo report #1, please click here.
‘Blood Pond Hell’ hot-spring in Beppu, Photography: Ilana Halperin
We are delighted to announce that, together with one of the most acclaimed Scotland-based contemporary artists Ilana Halperin, we have officially launched Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana), a new art-science project between Japanese island Kyushu and Scotland.
A to/from B – a year-long silent conversation
12 September – 3 October at Seventeen
Kaori Yamashita | Martyna Benedyka
To view a year-long silent conversation online, please click here.
To view images of the related open discussion event, please click here.
To view more on the project, please click here.
Courtesy of the artists and WAGON
Photography: Fiona Stephen
WAGON is delighted to announce its very first curatorial project A to/from B, a year-long art/cultural interchange project launched on the 1st September 2014.
Installation view, 2014 ©Kaori Yamashita
As its very first exhibition curation project, WAGON is currently underway in developing an exhibition for Japanese, US-based artist Kaori Yamashita. The project will invite Kaori for a short stay in Aberdeen to create a new site-specific installation relating to the city.
Container for Art, Container for Ideas.
Thomas A Clark
Container will be a new creative space in the city of Aberdeen, inviting and introducing the best of international and national art to the city.
WAGON 