WAGON

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.

21/05/2026

Collective Cares’ “Studio Visit” series #003! Luyando Muleya visited the workshop of Mutemwa Mukelebai, who is described by Luyando as “a sculptor, a painter, a stargazer, a self-taught biologist, a grinder of lenses, a teller of Lozi mythologies, a basic scientist. The word "polymath" fits loosely; in this studio, disciplines dissolve into a single practice of seeing.”

Reading this gives a great place to ponder about “outside the infrastructure of the global art market and the institutional laboratory, what kind of independence is possible.”

19/04/2026

Naoko responded to her visit/meeting with Lusaka-based artist Loliwe Phiri who specialises in humanitarian photography ( Loliwe Photography)

16/04/2026

The 2026 edition of Shizuoka City Museum of Art’s annual exhibition schedule that I have been translating since 2020 is now up. Currently exhibition is works of one of Japan's most acclaimed managa artist, Shigeru Mizuki!

ご縁あり2020年から英語訳を担当させていただいている静岡市美術館さんの年間スケジュール、2026年版がアップになったそうです。いつもどうもありがとうございます。現在「水木しげるの妖怪 百鬼夜行」展
開催中！

👇👇👇🌸🍵🗻
https://shizubi.jp/common/img/eng/schedule_2026_e.pdf

11/04/2026

👏

20/03/2026

“...In a world that too often demands we choose between tradition and modernity, between resistance and accommodation, between art and politics, Isaac's work insists that such choices are false - that we can, and must, hold multiple ways of being in tension, learning from trees and healers and ancestors even as we navigate the institutions and languages that colonialism has left us.”

“...In sharing this document, I hope to model a way of working that prioritises relationship over extraction, conversation over interview, and care over capture.”

Really great engaging with this form of studio visit!

18/03/2026

Wonderful first Studio Visit and write-up by Luyando Muleya - on the artist Isaac Kalambata. Great questions posed and to be explored:

“What knowledges have we been taught to dismiss as primitive?”　

“What might we learn from trees and healers?”

“How do we make visible the absurdity at the heart of white power—the colonial statutes still active, the rituals we’ve naturalised as “democracy” and “Christianity,” the hierarchies that position some beliefs as superior to others?”

08/02/2026

Recording of the 14th episode of “Conversation with Artists” series of EcoCreative Cluster is now up on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/ajnXlHDtcxQ

In this episode, we met two practitioners from Zambia, both of whom collaboratively work on natural dyeing with their communities: Timothy Siachibuye at Twaabane Creative Centre; and Banji Chona and her youth- and women-led initiative Inkaya Studio.

It is so wonderful to learn more about the contexts of their practices rooted in specific communities, and how and why they use natural dyeing as a way to respond to wider issues or discussions that we share collectively. How both of them brought their community members voices into their presentations was particularly powerful. Thank you Timothy, Banji and all who tuned in.

We are planning to host one more conversation event in this season 👀

🌿

is a project hosted by The Rockfield Centre (Oban, Scotland) since 2021, which focuses on natural dyes, pigments and the use of natural materials in art and craft. Grounded in the creation and ongoing cultivation of a community dye garden, it provides workshops and learning opportunities for the local community, led by textile artist Deborah Gray and invited specialist tutors. The project also has an international network weaving dimension led by curator Naoko Mabon, which includes a series of recorded online conversations and collaborations with international artists who use natural dyes in their practice.