Performance Painting
The impetus for why I started this was the extended paintings. I have been doing this performance for many years, initially flies in the UK, ants in Japan, and bees in Germany, to paint insects on this extended canvas that are somehow associated with a country, and I unconsciously felt the importance of this.
Each of the insects I unconsciously chose is in danger. The white non-woven protective clothing worn as a backing behind the canvas reminds me of the protective clothing used at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to protect against contamination and corona infections.
Over the years, I have not been able to stop thinking about the significance of the relationship between art and the environment. I never thought that the insects I draw would become endangered, but as a medium, I want to continue expressing myself.
London 2002 @ Chelsea College of Art and Design
I started painting a fly by a fly in a white framed box called a canvas at the second-year show.
Flies was on Damien Hirst’s installation A Hundred Years in the 1990s.
A fly was on a Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family by an unknown Swabian artist in the 1940s.
Osaka 2009 @ Kadoma Art Event
Participation in an art event in a deserted shopping street in northern Osaka.
This time I drew an ant one by one for a week. Japanese work like ants.
I enjoyed chatting with local kids and neighbours in Kadoma Shotengai.
Berlin 2010 @ To-Be | Tokyo-Berlin: Communication art exhibition at Freies Museum Berlin
Draw a bee one at a time. The bee was felt to be a symbolic insect of Germany.
It highlighted works by 28 artists from Japan and Germany, who research spheres of common ground in the «Being and Becoming» in both cultures.
https://www.kunstfaktor.de/to-be/2010/downloads/to-be_pressreleases.html
https://culture360.asef.org/news-events/tokyo-berlin-communication-art-exhibition
Kyoto 2013 @ Art Space Niji
I painted butterflies one by one for 6 days at the art gallery. Some tourists came and chatted while painting.
Painting butterflies was a great joy because of the different colours and shapes!
Vancouver 2015 @ a house garden
I spent 3 days in my sister’s garden painting gold beetles one by one. Neighbours came to watch and chat while I painted.
There are over 9,000 species of beetles in Canada.
Vietnam 2016 @ Hanoi Botanical Garden
A friend who worked for JICA helped me to try painting dragonflies one by one. It was a very hot day. Although many children came to see it.
Dragonfly is a good luck charm in Veitnam.
FoIkestone 2017 @ The Metropole Gallery, UK
I performed Painting Day By Day In The Anthropocene for the opening of Leaving Language.
Painting British butterflies for the opening with a tracing paper this time.
Leaving Language was organised by Waugh Office – waughoffice.com
https://www.waughoffice.com/copy-of-tamaki-kawaguchi-leaving-l
Iceland 2018 @ Heima Artist in Residency
I stayed 3 months from April to July 2018 in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland.
Being in Iceland gave me a strange feeling of being on earth and closest to space, as if the light and air made it easy to make contact with extraterrestrial beings. The people I met in Iceland were super friendly. The experience felt almost like a primordial sensation, evoking important sensations in my body.
https://www.h-e-i-m-a.com/
Leipzig 2018 @ PILOTENKUECHE
In the ruins of a devastated Germany, it is an empty canvas to draw on. There was no vinyl or tracing paper, only performance.
https://www.pilotenkueche.net/
I would like to thank all my friends, family and artists for inviting me to the exhibitions and giving me the courage to perform in the middle of nowhere, which has made this possible over the years.
Video footage