​Waugh Office was established in 2011 by Julia and Mark Waugh as a hybrid platform.
since then we have worked with curators, writers, theorists and artists to smudge
cultural differences and attitudes across physical and national borders.
Pushing this programme, exploring the traffic between peoples and ideas,
nomadic and unfixed perceptions rather than stereotypes and assumptions.
We come to play and escape prejudice and shout for renegade
values of the broken, unfixable and un-homely.
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© Waugh Office 2024.
Tamaki Kawaguchi
Painting Day By day in
the Anthropocene
![Tamaki Kawaguchi - Painting Day By Day In The Anthropocene - Leaving Language 2017.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6e08d1_e96f30811398416e922ed5bc885b8d33~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_443,h_594,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Tamaki%20Kawaguchi%20-%20Painting%20Day%20By%20Day%20In%20The%20Anthropocene%20-%20Leaving%20Language%202017.jpg)
“I paint on anything anywhere, especially in the everyday spaces that we don't notice ... like when I find growth between the cracks of concrete, hope and despair exist next to each other ... it is where a work of Art can find a breath for itself.”
Tamaki Kawaguchi performed Painting Day By Day In The Anthropocene for the opening of Leaving Language. The cubicle made of paper, filled with paintings of insects completed as a performance for the opening of Leaving Language was on view at The Metropole Gallery Folkestone England.
![tk 1.JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6e08d1_795ca4d7d0d043f0acd7e0f6cf236a9b~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_751,h_561,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/tk%201_JPG.jpg)
Wikipedia tells us that Erich von Däniken’s 1968 bestseller, Chariots Of The Gods, was partly ghost written by an professional author Utz Utermann. The ethnocentric tone has been noted, but the questioning of facts predicts the current malaise and suspicion of academic information.
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The subjects explored included hieroglyphs detailing myriad beasts and genetic mutations; supposed to have occurred millennias ago when the first alien space craft landed. The paperbacks contained archaeological research and aerial photography, the authors claimed these proved the hidden truth of humanity and missing link in civilisation's evolution,
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![tamiki suit floor.JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6e08d1_43ea3c2bad8c431eb1b6e9d4b4c93dd0~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_743,h_495,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/tamiki%20suit%20floor_JPG.jpg)
Under this meteor shower of knowledge, true or false, Tamaki Kawaguchi paints insects, dressed to enter a post apocalyptic world were the universe is observed from memory. The Japanese respect insects in a high regard, a tenacity for their abilities of survival is revered as much as an exquisite form. Sometimes kept as pets, insectariums are popular attractions such as: the Mino Park Museum in Osaka or Tamura's Mushi Mushi Land.
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The Artist is filtered through the surfaces on which the paint is applied, larger than life butterflies, bees and moths fading in and out of focus as an ephemeral gesture of resistance. In Folkestone this action was called Painting Day By Day In The Anthropocene.
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Our lives as consumers is part of a forced cycle of production, acquisition and waste creating a world with decreasing areas for other lifeforms This is the reality we exist in and these performances, masked and anonymous are perhaps an attempt to disrupt the narcissism of the current human condition.
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Interviews of all participating Artists were filmed in the back of black Mercedes Limousine and during this Tamaki Kawaguchi revealed "Insects are something we don't understand." and that the work was a kind of refusal or even a challenge to a world of endless stereotypes and consumption. The performance was also an opportunity to listen to the audience , the casual comments and observations on the butterflies and bees that share our world.
![f9671b63915d8353a5d41c66a5f7b411.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6e08d1_0faf5c01522a4350ad68349c8eddcb55~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_600,h_900,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/f9671b63915d8353a5d41c66a5f7b411.jpg)
Waugh Office was established in 2011 by Julia Waugh and Mark Waugh,
as a hybrid platform curating exhibitions, events and publications internationally
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© Waugh Office 2024.