Photos 1, 8, 9, 10 & 11 Paul Wong, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 Jon Vincent/VANDOCUMENT
Being My Mother (2014)
Performance and installation (photographs, notes, perfume, old dresses, antique furnishings, tea and sweets)
This work was inspired by a recent event, Makiko helped her mother move on to a new phase in life by moving out of the house in which she had lived for 30 years. Makiko became her mother by wearing her dresses and favorite perfume, displaying photographs and memorabilia spanning four decades from the 1960’s through the 1990’s. This performance took place in locker 60 which was transformed into her mothers room. She enacted her mother in attire and mannerisms, she engaged in telling stories and conversations while serving her guests tea and sweets, when alone she wrote in journals.
Curator: Paul Wong
Bio
Makiko Hara is an independent curator and writer from Tokyo currently based in Vancouver. From 2007 to 2013, Hara was the curator of Centre A – Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, where she curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions and projects by regional, national and international artists. Hara was the co-founder of TOKYO ART SPEAK, an art-collective that organized monthly informal, bilingual, roundtable discussions (1993-2006) and worked as an independent curator in Tokyo prior to moving to Canada. She served as project coordinator for several international exhibitions, including the Yokohama Triennale (2001/ 2005) and the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale (2003).
Her recent projects include solo exhibitions by artists such as Kyohei Sakaguchi, Koki Tanaka, Lida Abdul, Sharmila Samant, Louise Noguchi, Noriko Sunayama, Yoshihiro Suda, Masashi Ogura & Paul de Guzman, Garry Neil Kennedy & Cathy Busby, Lani Maestro, Howie Tsui, YOUNG HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Nobuo Kubota and Li Yilin. Hara was one of the three curators for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009 in Toronto. She has contributed to catalogues, anthologies and periodicals; a recent essay was published in Mutation Perspectives on Photography (Steidl/Paris Photo, 2011) and in Institutions by Artists Volume One (Fillip Edition/Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres, 2012).
Makiko was recently appointed Guest Curator at Koganecho Bazaar 2014, and AIR Yonago 2014.
Hara Curated Randy Gledhill