A Compendium for Navigating Borderlands

A collection of words and images exploring places, practices and notions of borders, real, imagined, and reimagined.

 

Togatta Utamakura

TOGATTA UTAMAKURA is a ten-day snapshot of an onsen town, Togatta, with a focus on poetry. Togatta is situated in the foothills of the Zao Mountain Ranges in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Our process explores the notion that utamakura can be created over time, and that time begins now.

 

Ratana

Māori prophet Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana was born and raised in the southern region of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Because of his special friendship with Japanese people, I started a process blog on the first day of 2023 as my own study notes, as a creative process, and to share the still little-known connections between Māori culture and Japanese culture, the people of Rātana and the Japanese, and Aotearoa New Zealand and Japan.

 

Teiju to wa Nandaro Australia

What does it mean to leave one’s birthplace and settle in another? With this fundamental question in mind, this exhibition gathers Mayu Kanamori’s photographs which explores the past, present and future of the Japanese migration to Australia in an attempt to approach the Australia-Japan relationship from a grassroots perspective. A short film reflecting on Japanese women in Australia, You’ve Mistaken Me For A Butterfly will also be screened daily as part of this exhibition.

Untitled.Showa

Untitled.Showa is a project which attempts to solve a mystery and making new meanings through found photographs. Contributors interact with a collection of old photographs from Japan, found in Australia, to solve a historic puzzle with the view to collectively finding ways to (re)patriate the original prints, the copyright holder or an appropriate archive, and in real time, participate in the unfolding of a contemporary story.

Cowra Voices and Cowra Japanese War Cemetery Online Database


Cowra Voices app and the Cowra Japanese War Cemetery Online Database, were collaborative projects with members of Nikkei Australia. They spanned for 3 years between 2016 and 2019.

You’ve Mistaken Me for a Butterfly

A performative poem reflecting on a Japanese woman in Western Australia during the gold rush days, who was involved in an assault case. Collaboration with composer Terumi Narushima.

img_9793Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens

“We take so many photographs. How do we know which ones are important, which ones matter?”
A multi media theatre production with photographic projections, video, original music, soundscape, and dramatic action on the life of Yasukichi Murakami and the search of his missing photographs. A meditation on love, truth and, in a digital age where cameras proliferate, the nature of photography.

Jetty to Jetty – Stories of Broome

Winner 2016 AILA WA Tourism Award
Yawuru’s heritage walk along the foreshore of Roebuck Bay. The appis an audio companion to the trail, including over 90 minutes of stories and music.
With Nyamba Buru Yawuru, UDLA and Shire of Broome.

05 copyBorn in the Year of the Horse

Video installation for 2014 City of Sydney Chinese New Year, Crossing Boundaries: A Celebration of Contemporary Asian Australian Art is an investigation into human stereotypes, which can often be negative, leading to racism or often positive, self-reinforcing and preventing deeper understanding of humanity.

IMG_7190i just can’t say that word

i just can’t say that word is a collaborative multi arts project between Mayu Kanamori and Vic McEwan in response to diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

Live Photography

Experimental performances with simultaneous photo shoot and projection.

From Our School House

Site-specific installation memory work in the Old Birrego School House. As a result of Cad Factory’s rural arts residency in collaboration with Vic McEwan.

In Repose

Site-specific multi arts work involving photographic and sound installation and performances in Japanese cemeteries in regional Australia. In collaboration with Wakako Asano, Satsuki Odamura and Vic McEwan.

Chika

Finalist, Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism, Radio Features with ABC Radio National

A documentary performance and radio documentary about the life of Chika Honda, who was wrongly incarcerated in Melbourne for a decade for a crime she did not commit.

The Heart of the Journey

Commendation, UN Media Association Media Peace Awards, Promotion of Multicultural Issues / Radio Feature with ABC Radio National

Non Indigenous Reconciliation Award, Broome Naidoc Awards

A performative slide show and radio documentary about Lucy Dann, an Indigenous woman who found out in her adult life that her biological father was Japanese.

Sugao no Australia

A photographic exhibition of subcultures in Australia.

Unseen Faces of Japan

A photographic exhibition of subcultures in Japan.