Cardboard, Cassette Tapes, And Street Art Interventions: TakaHashi Naoko At IMT

In a city like London, their are always throngs of foreigners and immigrants adjusting to the rhythm of such an old and tried place. Naoko TakaHashi takes this adjustment as the starting point for her artist explorations in her show “An Exploration of Perforated Space in Four Segments of Words” at Image Music Text Gallery in Hackney. (The title is a little misleading; the project is more of an exploration about narrative and social mores than into the materiality with which she creates the installation.)

Known for her graffiti interventions at construction sites using text and cardboard, the show allows TakaHashi to take that presence and personalize the narrative further. The backdrop of a cardboard dramatization helps to both locate and anonymize the setting of TakaHashi’s spoken word stories (accompanied by music of Terence Kirkbide) on cassette tape, where we hear the stories of assimilation, fear, antagonism, and tension of TakaHashi with her surrounding. What’s always at hand is the feelings of isolation and disconnection of a city that is your home but not at the same time.

Naoko TakaHashi’s show closes on April 4th with a preceding artist talk on March 6th.