WAGON

21/08/2026

[最後の4枚日本語です]
For the first of the new Relational series of Collective Cares, Naoko met with curator/researcher Lifang Zhang. As well as Lifang's seven years plus of experience in learning contemporary art on the African continent, they chatted about their experience working as foreigners in foreign places.

Lifang curated “Viable Visions,” a retrospective dedicated to work by Zambian artist Martin Abasi Phiri (1957–1997) based on her long-term research since 2018, together with Lusaka Contemporary Art Centre and the Zambia National Visual Arts Council. Following the Lusaka exhibition at LuCAC last year, now the Chipata exhibition at Martin Phiri Gallery Chipata is on until 6th October 2026.

You can read the text here too:
https://www.collectivecares-zm.net/

04/08/2026

Third conversation of Collective Cares 💚

https://www.youtube.com/

21/06/2026

Happy solstice and Collective Cares's website is here 🤩🥳
www.collectivecares-zm.net

20/06/2026

Online Live Event “Witnessing Change: Nepal's Gen Z Through Photography and Collective Voices”

An international group of artists, photographers, curators, and writers from Nepal, Japan, Canada, and Scotland will come together online on Friday, June 26, 2026 for Witnessing Change: Nepal’s Gen Z Through Photography and Collective Voices, a live Zoom event exploring Nepal’s recent Gen Z-led social transformation through photography, testimony, and collaborative dialogue.

Friday 26th June 2026

Japan: 22:00
Nepal: 18:45
Scotland: 14:00
Canada: 07:00 (CST)

Book ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/witnessing-change-nepals-gen-z-through-photography-and-collective-voices-tickets-1992088024908

The online gathering will include presentations by Nepal-based photographers, discussions on collaborative writing and social memory, and conversations about how images shape the understanding of contemporary civic movements. Organizers describe the project not simply as a political discussion, but as an evolving international archive created through photography, testimony, and collective voices.

This event matters because it creates an international space to document, reflect on, and preserve a major moment of social transformation through the voices and images of the generation that experienced it directly.

One of the core goals is to preserve visual and personal records connected to Nepal’s recent Gen Z-led social transformation before those materials disappear or become fragmented. Many scholars and cultural institutions have emphasized the growing importance of preserving photographic archives connected to social movements and civic memory.

The organizers also hope to create a “living archive” that continues evolving through contributions from photographers, writers, curators, and participants across countries. Research on visual culture and protest movements has shown that photography not only documents events, but also shapes how future generations remember social change.

Featured contributors include:

🔴Aawhan Rana — photographer based in Kathmandu. Contributed to “Gen Z Power”.
🔴Bijesh Shrestha — photographer based in Kathmandu. Edited and contributed to “Gen Z Power”.
🔴Dominique Liboiron — writer and photographer based in Canada. Related article: https://webouest.ca/photographie-violence-et-espoir-des-temoignages-des-defi-sociaux-et-politiques-au-nepal/
🔴Keijiro Suzuki — interdisciplinary artist, curator and producer based in Yamaguchi, Japan. Related article: https://note.com/keijiro_suzuki/n/n4bc248f67fd2?hl=en
🔴Naoko Mabon — curator based in Oban, Scotland.
🔴Nepal Point, a space dedicated to photography in Kathmandu, who published “Gen Z Power”.
🔴Rohan Shrestha — photographer based in Kathmandu. Edited and contributed to “Gen Z Power”.
🔴Srija Shrestha — artist and illustrator from Kathmandu, based in Scotland.

More on the photo book “Gen Z Power”, please visit: https://www.protestinphotobook.com/post/gen-z-power

18/06/2026

Look forward to speaking with Mwaba & Luyando and activating Collective Cares's Studio Visit via IG Live - join us 🍋

📣 Collective Cares: Conversation #003

Friday 3rd July
3:00-3:30pm (Central Africa Time)
Instagram Live /

Join us for the third conversation of Collective Cares. Co-leads Luyando and Naoko will meet Lusaka-based artist Mwaba Chandia . The conversation will activate Naoko’s Studio Visit with Mwaba, exploring Mwaba’s two recent pieces informed by materials from the natural surroundings of the artist, including seedpods and sheaths of trees.

In Collective Cares, we have been trying to create a hybrid - physical and digital - space for conversation, research, and collaboration. Instagram Live is one platform to test and nurture.

You can watch the recordings of previous conversations on YouTube (link in bio).

It will be a welcoming and safe space for conversation and interaction. See you there!

15/06/2026

An absolute pleasure to have visited (virtually) the Lusaka-based artist Mwaba Chandia and talked about her new pieces made with nature-based materials that are around her.

As part of Studio Visit series of Collective Cares, a peer-led curatorial initiative I co-lead with Luyando Muleya.

09/06/2026

What a “SCAN Summit 2026: Take Liberty” today!

Focusing on human rights and arts, this year’s SCAN Summit explored various and intersecting human rights topics: regal framework of the proposed Human Rights Bill for Scotland; visibility/safety in public life for different bodies, genders and sexualities; the right to protest; Universal Basic Income for Artists; prisoners’ rights; and spatial justice.

On behalf of SCAN’s Highland Development Lead Emma Gibson, with SCAN’s Deputy Director Helen Moore, I co-facilitated the “Highland place-making” table in the Roundtable session. Centred around Ley Lines, SCAN’s creative placemaking project for Highlands, we exchanged our experiences and views on working within Highlands and beyond. How/why we work with Highlands communities were varied, but was good to share views with other people on the rights to participate in a cultural life in rural regions despite a lack of infrastructure, and how important to be a part of collaborative network instead of competition.

Some highlights (maybe not exact, but close I hope!)

“Human rights is respecting dignity. Human rights is a discourse because it’s constructed within the social context. It’s about how people participate, access and contribute to culture of their own choice.” “Does arts have role to define the future of human rights?” (Dr Elaine Webster)

“The purpose of culture is how groups of individuals and communities express their humanity and the meaning they give to their existanse.” (Helen Trew, on UN definition of culture)

“To me, contemporary art offers a space where uncomfortable things are sitting together side by side with contradictions. It doesn’t offer a solution nor rush to the conclusion but letting people to figure it out.” (Naeem Mohaiemen)

“If there is a wall, name the wall and work on it. And think who is this side of the wall and who isn’t.” (So Mayer)

HUGE WELL DONE & CONGRATS to the incredible SCAN team for creating such an educational and engaging event, namely: .emma Tilly Edwards & SCAN Chair

Lovely seeing familiar/new faces too❣️🙏

09/06/2026

New video from Collective Cares - a recording of the conversation with Mutemwa Mukelebai.

https://youtu.be/XvyphmXgumE

02/06/2026

Naoko is running a Tataki-zome workshop in Tiree Tiree Makery, using locally gathered plants. This Saturday 10.30-12.00 🌿🌼🌸🍃

Join us this Saturday for a free hands-on workshop exploring tataki-zome with Oban based Japanese curator Naoko Mabon!

A simple natural dyeing method in which colours from plants are transferred directly onto fabric through pounding. Using locally gathered plants, participants will explore Tiree’s unique ecosystem and landscape while reflecting on ideas of impermanence, biodiversity and our changing environment.

Delivered in partnership with Urras Thiriodh - Tiree Community Development Trust and Screen Argyll, part of a weekend of activities!

🌱 Tataki-zome Workshop
🌱 Saturday 6th June
🌱 10.30am – 12pm | Skerryvore Studio, Hynish Trust

Book on our website or get in touch to let us know you are coming! https://tireemakery.square.site/product/tataki-zome-workshop-with-naoko-mabon/XJCVWBQO32ZNDISHIC7HOMWS?cs=true&cst=custom

23/05/2026

Recording of the 15th episode of “Conversation with Artists” series of is now up on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/9rR8MLU7BkM

In this episode, we met two groups from Indonesia, whose collaborative partnership intersects environmental activism and natural dyeing, through mangrove: Trees4Trees.org, a non-profit foundation focusing on renewing the environment and empowering local communities across Indonesia through planting trees, education, and related activities; and Sodiqin, a batik artist and natural dyer in Kampung Laut village, who leads the Mekar Canting Batik Group , a collective composed mostly of local women.

It was a great occasion to learn more about the contexts and reasonings behind what they do, and how cross-disciplinary collaboration between an environmental organisation and a group of artisans using traditional textile making skills could create mutual benefit and solidarity across community, cultural heritage, and our shared environment. Thank you so much to the team of Trees4Trees, Sodiqin and all who tuned in. Enjoy catching up if you missed it!

We are so happy and humbled to note that - Trees4Trees is allocating their fee for this event to plant 50-60 trees in their working areas under the EcoCreative Cluster name. An e-certificate and a World Identification Number (WIN) to track trees on trees4trees.org will be issued. Thank you so much!

🌳🌳🌳

Established in 2020, EcoCreative Cluster has been focusing on natural dyes, pigments and the use of natural materials in creative practices. Grounded in the creation and ongoing cultivation of a community dye garden at The Rockfield Centre in Oban, it provides workshops and learning opportunities for the local community, led by textile artist Deborah Gray and invited tutors. The project also has an international network weaving dimension led by curator Naoko Mabon, including collaborations and online conversation series with practitioners across the world.