Naoko Mabon

Individual

Oban

Website

https://wagonart.org/

Naoko Mabon is a freelance art practitioner specialised in curation and facilitation. Born and raised in Fukuoka in Kyushu island and currently residing in Oban in Argyll, the coastline of the Gaels. Driven by her own lived experience as an ethnic minority in the UK and the sense of urgency and responsibility towards environmental and societal planetary issues, Naoko uses arts and her skills as effective tools to generate relationships and changes for an even more just, diverse and sustainable world for present and upcoming generations.

Being mindful of the power dynamics within curatorial practices, acknowledging the traditional connections to capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy, Naoko seeks to reclaim curating as a practice of care with aspects of activism. This is based on how the origin of the word “curate” is related to ideas of care — responsively maintaining various lives within an interdependent network.

To achieve this, Naoko often works collaboratively with people and more-than-human beings from diverse backgrounds and produces transboundary and participatory activities or situations. This is done based on attentive listening to historically underrepresented voices and perspectives of focused context, locality or community. This approach indicates her intention of dismantling exploitative practices and hierarchical systems, grounded in her ongoing research on and understanding of theories including “care ethics,” a feminist approach to ethics, and “queer ecologies,” a space that blurs traditional preconceptions of sexuality, gender and ways of being.