Biography

Sally Kawamura is a Daphne Jackson Fellow, returning to research after a career break.  She works in the area of 1960s Japanese experimental communities. 

Her interests began at the University of York where she wrote her undergraduate dissertation on Yoko Ono.  Her doctoral thesis, Object into Action: Group Ongaku and Fluxus (University of Glasgow, 2009) investigated the reasons for the mutual similarities and connections between avant-garde practice in Japan, Europe and America. She now continues this research with a project illuminating networks of artistic exchanges between experimental groups within different areas of Japan and internationally. 

She particularly focuses on composer Mieko Shiomi, and has written an article and spoken at conferences about her work. Sally is also an Associate Researcher with the Activating Fluxus project, based at Bern Academy of the Arts, with whom she has produced a blog post and a podcast about Shiomi.  

Sally has been invited to participate in two of Shiomi’s recent installations of Spatial Poem at the Aichi Triennale, 2022, and at Out of Bounds: Japanese Women in Fluxus at the Japan Society Gallery in New York 2023/4. She also loves to perform Shiomi’s pieces while out in nature.

Publications

“Appreciating the Incidental: Mieko Shiomi’s ‘Events’” in Women and Performance (Dec 09) (invited).

“Art Minus Art: Facing the Zero Point.  The World War Defeat Day Anniversary Dinner,” in Civilisation of Evolution. Civilisation of Revolution. Metamorphoses in Japan 1900-2000, ed. by A. Jabłoński, S. Meyer and K. Morita. Krakow: Museum Manngha, 2009.  Proceedings of conference held in Krakow, Oct 07.

Blog posts

“Towards Infinity: Mieko Shiomi’s “Transmedia,”” Activating Fluxus, 7 May 2023.  

Talks and Conference Presentations

“Mieko Shiomi: Boundary Lines,” Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, 23 June 2023 (online talk).

“Finding and Losing the Still Form: Boundaries, Music and Environment in Mieko Shiomi’s Works,” University of Liverpool Centre for Continuing Education, 25 May 22 (online talk).

“Takehisa Kosugi: Space, Action, Event,” DisPlacement, University of Glasgow, 31 May 08. 

“Art Minus Art: Facing the Zero Point.  The World War Defeat Day Anniversary Dinner,” Civilization of Evolution. Civilization of Revolution. Metamorphoses in Japan, 1900-2000, Manggha Centre, Krakow. Hosted by Jagiellonian and Poznan Universities, 27 Oct 07.

“Mieko Shiomi’s Spatial Poem,” Modern Environments: Contemporary Readings in Green Studies, University of Glasgow, 8 September 07.

Radio appearances

Interviewed about Japanese Fluxus on Diagonal, Radio Ö1, Austria, 9 Feb 2014. (Invited).

Podcasts

Interviewed by Aga Wielocha  about <mirror piece> (1963) by Mieko Shiomi. Activating Fluxus, January 2023. (Invited).

Public Engagement

‘Come Prepared to Fly: The Art of Yoko Ono’ workshop.  Centre for Continuing Education, University of Liverpool, 23 March, 2024.