Ones to Watch: Naomi Kashiwagi

The Manchester-based performance artist kicks off our new series on up-and-coming cultural folk – and performs with Warehouse Project DJ Matthew Krysko as part of Saturday’s Manchester Weekender

Naomi Kashiwagi is admittedly a little fixated on the old and the useless. Dusty gramophones, abandoned typewriters and busted violin bows find new life in her art, which takes in everything from sound and composition to language, drawing and collage.

The 28-year-old artist is at an interesting point in her career. With a 2008 Best of Manchester award under her belt, and her work increasingly featured in exhibitions around the world, you’d be forgiven for expecting her to be one of those continent-hopping artists who seem intent on world domination before the age of 40. It’s something of a relief to find, instead, a very down-to-earth young woman who calmly says that she’s enjoying a fertile time in her art practice, but that she finds her day job at the Whitworth every bit as fullfilling.

And it must be said that the work in question occupies a fascinating place at the intersection of several disciplines. She describes what she does as ‘reinventing the everyday – reusing obsolete technologies and objects to reveal the curiostities and enchantments of the everyday that are inherently strange… I want to help people realise that there are different ways of seeing the world.’

Kashiwagi sees her half-Japanese, half-English cultural identity reflected in her desire to bring seemingly disparate things together. A paint brush and a violin bow don’t appear to have much in common, but they’re both made of wood and horsehair. Why not use a violin bow to paint with, then? That’s the way her mind works, and listening to her describe her creative process, its hard not to catch her enthusiasm for finding unexpected new uses for old things.

Past projects have included a musical score to be played on typewriters, and since 2005 she’s been using gramophones in unusual ways – replacing the needle with a compass leg and drawing on paper with it, for example, or applying 78rpm electrical tape to old 78s of Dixieland Jazz, gospel and classical music to create random patterns of sound.

Her gramophone DJ skills will come to the forefront in a collaboration with Warehouse Project resident Matthew Krysko for the Manchester Weekender. Kashiwagi says the two met on a collaborative project at the Whitworth and became curious about each other’s work – and, as she explains, its hard to imagine two more different ways of playing a record: ‘I play with no headphones and, because of the electrical tape and the sounds of the different records blending together, you can’t predict what it’s going to be like,’ she says. ‘What Krysko does is so much more controlled. We’ll both be learning from each other.’

Her interest in music stretches back to a youth spent playing classical piano and flute, but it was an art teacher at Halifax’s Crossley Heath Grammar School who first showed Kashiwagi what life as an artist had to offer. Getting to know artist Tom Phillips was also pivotal, as he became an ongoing source of advice and inspiration. Having benefitted so much from her own mentors, it’s only fitting that securing similar support for others should now figure prominently in Kashiwagi’s life – she hold an education and outreach role at the Whitworth, as well as acting as Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Having a day job in art brings other benefits. ‘It gives you more creative autonomy. It seems ideal to just make art all the time, but you have to worry about the financial considerations much more: “oh, this piece sold, so I’ll do more like that,”’ she says. ‘This way, I am making a living doing something I love, but I also have the freedom to experiment with different things.’

Kashiwagi is a passionate advocate of her adopted hometown. ‘People are so open to ideas in Manchester,’ she says. She tells a story about the time she had an idea for an audio performance in the General Readers Room at Central Library. She figured it was a no-hoper. ‘It felt quite cheeky even asking at the time. You’re meant to be quiet in the library!’

But to her surprise, staff there loved the idea and she went on to create it. ‘That’s the realisation that being here gives you,’ she says. ‘you can make things happen.’

Krysko & Kashiwagi: In the Mix, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Saturday 2 October, 7pm-10pm. Free, drop-in. Part of The Manchester Weekender. The duo are also one of the acts in this weekend’s Un-convention. Words: Kate Feld.

Possibly related to this:

1. Ones to watch. Who do you rate? Creative Tourist launches a new series designed to profile the creative, entrepreneurial people we think are tipped for the big...
2. Top Northwest Designers to Watch. ‘Made in Britain’ is still something to be proud of. Laura Mansfield celebrates the best independent craft designers in her...