Reflections

In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Tokyo served as a host city for a vital community of Australian artists, many of whom worked in the Australia Council’s Artist-in-Residence Studio, which opened in 1987. Upon that studio’s closure in 2016, Sachiko Tamai and Emiko Namikawa, who had served as managers and consultants at the time, realized it held an important history that should be preserved. Reflections: Australian Artists Living in Tokyo presents a series of essays by artists, curators, and organisers involved in international art exchanges between Australia and Japan. It documents the history of more than three decades and includes contributions by contemporary Australian artists who lived in Japan between the 1980s and the opening of the twenty-first century, such as Stelarc, Caroline Turner, Emiko Namikawa, Noelene Lucas, Anna Waldmann, and many others. This timely and culturally relevant collection documents those artistic exchanges between Australia and Japan through the voices of those involved, including artists and curators.