Exhibition Insight... Bioregional Bodies
Kyoko Hashimoto, Coal Necklace, 2021. Photo: Fred Kroh, courtesy of the Artist and Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert
Japanese-born Australian designer Kyoko Hashimoto utilises her multidisciplinary design practice to propose ethical and aesthetic challenges to the paradigms of material use in art, craft, design and industry. Working across critical and experimental craft and design, Hashimoto advocates for new kinds of sensory engagement with materials and positions her work as tools to examine human
relationship to ecology.
In her most recent solo exhibition, Bioregional Bodies, Hashimoto presents a new collection of contemporary jewellery made from locally sourced materials found in the Sydney Basin, a bioregion characterised by the presence of sandstone, coal and oyster shells — the latter of which she grinds up, cooks and combines with local sand to make artisanal concrete. These key raw materials are paired with other locally sourced and foraged natural and industrial materials such as eucalyptus, kangaroo leather, driftwood, sea sponges, marine plastic, fishing line, sterling silver, silk, jute and waxed linen to form highly textured and organic-looking neckpieces, brooches and ornaments.
The work in Bioregional Bodies is centred around the idea of the bioregion: that is, a territory whose limits are not defined by the human-devised divisions of politics, but by the natural geographical and environmental characteristics of the land. While this exhibition, Hashimoto’s first since relocating from Sydney to Adelaide earlier this year, largely features raw materials sourced from the Sydney Basin bioregion, it also features new work made with materials sourced from Adelaide’s Flinders Lofty Block. Place-based making is central to Hashimoto’s practice and her works are imbued with a distinct sensory connection to the places from which the materials were sourced. In the initial phase of her research, Hashimoto foraged sandstone, coal and oysters from the Sydney Basin bioregion, connecting with the materiality of the sites and researching both their geological and socio-cultural significance.
In her multidisciplinary design practice, Hashimoto embraces tactile and iterative processes that adhere to the concept of ‘correspondence’, a theoretical concept coined by British anthropologist Tim Ingold (1948-present) that encourages makers to work with
a material in a way that is responsive and respectful to its inherent qualities. By working intuitively to gain an understanding of the material and allowing the material’s natural properties to guide the making process (rather than applying brute force to produce the maker’s preconceived design), the maker can encourage the final form to emerge organically.[i] In the development of the works featured in Bioregional Bodies, Hashimoto embraced this concept of correspondence to develop a better understanding of how wearable objects might be formed from the unfamiliar materiality of sandstone, coal
and oysters.
When engaging with sandstone, Hashimoto experimented with different layers of rock, each with its own material properties, variously using a chisel, coarse metal files, rotary tools and an angle grinder to cut and shape the rock before settling on a lathe. Over time, Hashimoto’s body learnt and adjusted to the strength and hardness of the various samples of rocks, with the rhythmic movement of her wrists and fingers continually rotating the stone over time to give birth to a spherical form. These spheres were initially created with the view of stringing them together to make a neckpiece of sandstone beads. However, the difficulty Hashimoto had in drilling holes into the spheres, a process which ruined several drill pieces for each hole created, and the resulting chipping and breaking of the sandstone, caused her to realise that both the stone and the form were resisting this action. Instead of forcing her design and her will on a material that would not easily yield, Hashimoto instead sought an innovative means of suspending the spheres
in a way that worked with the material and afforded it a sense of respect and kindness.
The journey of working with coal was challenging for Hashimoto conceptually due to its duality as both a major influence on the development of human ingenuity and progress, and a primary cause of environmental destruction and climate change. “Coal is possibly the most contentious material of our time,” Hashimoto says. “This ancient material formed from trees that fell 300 million years ago before bacteria and fungus had evolved to decompose their lignin; now it's burnt to fuel infrastructure and economy at the cost of our environment and our future.” A challenge to obtain, Hashimoto foraged for coal from decommissioned mines and exposed coal seams near Wollongong. The spherical shape which she carved in a similar manner as sandstone revealed irregularities in the coal’s internal structure in the form of grooves containing tiny, sparkling crystal-like grains suggestive of diamonds. Working within a more traditional jewellery typology, Hashimoto set the coal spheres in a claw system cast in sterling silver in place of precious stones.
By recontextualising coal not as a ubiquitous, cheap and problematic source of energy, but as a revered and elevated symbol of luxury, wealth and value, Hashimoto invites us
to view coal in a new light.
Kyoko Hashimoto, Coal Cube, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist.
Kyoko Hashimoto, Bioregional Rock Chain (Flinders Lofty Block - Adelaide), 2022. Image courtesy of the artist.
As a renewable material that is grown rather than extracted, oyster shells have a significant potential for use in future sustainable design and requires further investigation to uncover its capability for the creation of objects. Working with oyster shells to produce concrete was a particularly labour intensive process owing to the need for Hashimoto to process the shells and experiment with various ratios and mixtures of ingredients. The multistep process involved sourcing oysters from the Sydney Fish Market, thoroughly cleaning the shells and placing them in a kiln to cook to produce quicklime (calcium oxide). Developing many different ratios and recipes, Hashimoto experimented with sands collected from rivers and beaches within the Sydney Basin as well as various pozzolans to test the strength and natural qualities that they contributed to the concrete. Distinct from the cutting, carving and shaping processes required for sandstone and coal, the concrete forms were instead shaped through the use of moulds, with Hashimoto embracing the flowing and engulfing materiality of concrete to produce different shapes.
The animism of the Japanese religion of Shinto is a formative source of inspiration for Hashimoto and a cultural lens through which she engages with found materials.
“I reflected on my own cultural heritage and researched design interventions that expressed a sense of kindness towards objects and materials,” Hashimoto says. “I was interested to see how such concepts could be applied to the design of objects as a way of exploring spiritual connection between people and objects.” In Japan, animism and anthropomorphism are key aspects of cultural practices that shape the worldview of Shinto, with nature being revered through various everyday customs and practices.
Rocks, trees, rivers, mountains, as well as animals and inanimate objects, are venerated as awe-inspiring phenomena of the natural world.[i] The phrase yaoyorozu-no-kami (eight million gods) refers to the animist idea that kami (the divine spirit) can be found within everyday objects, both manufactured and natural.[ii] These aspects of Japanese Shinto culture highlight the belief that humans are not the only beings possessing a soul or spirit, and that inanimate objects, as beings themselves, deserve to be treated with respect.[iii] This philosophy is further illustrated through the anthropomorphic practice of kuyo, a religious service conducted for the deceased, which while generally performed for humans, can also be conducted for objects with special affinities, such as old dolls or
tools of trade. In such instances, kuyo ceremony is believed to allow the owner to
thank the objects for their service before they are disposed.[iv]
Informed by her Japanese heritage and the philosophies of the Shinto religion, Hashimoto honours the raw materials she forages from nature through careful, thoughtful crafting and the use, at times, of musubi knots to signify respect for nature. In Shinto philosophy, objects bound by shimenawa (lengths of twisted rice straw rope used for ritual purification) are believed to mark the boundary between the sacred and secular worlds.[v] Knotwork became especially prevalent in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868). Decorative knots, that developed from the custom of gift-giving within the Japanese tradition, express a sense of care through design, elevating and revaluing seemingly everyday materials. Hashimoto’s use of kangaroo leather to secure and suspend sandstone and coal forms is particularly poignant in underscoring her intrinsic care of these precious resources. Immediately suggestive of a joey resting safely in the pouch
of a mother kangaroo, providing the materials with support and protection. This thoughtful consideration bestows respect on both the raw materials and the sites from which they were foraged, ultimately underscoring the preciousness of the Sydney Basin bioregion
in and of itself.
The objects displayed in this exhibition were borne out of interactions between the material, the artist’s hands, tools and machines in a way that is experimental, intuitive and guided by the inherent properties of the materials. By recontextualising and revaluing bioregional materials within the typology of contemporary jewellery, Hashimoto prompts an examination of the design, making and manufacturing paradigms of our time, the ethical complexities of local versus global resources and the role that materials play
in our culture and economy.
Kyoko Hashimoto is an Adelaide-based designer who has recently moved from Sydney. She graduated from the University of New South Wales’ School of Art and Design in 2003 with a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Honours), then honed her craft in Tokyo, Japan, Eindhoven, Netherlands, and Berlin, Germany, before returning to Australia in 2010. Emerging into the forefront of the experimental design field, Hashimoto returned to UNSW to research the theory and practice of place-based making, completing a Master of Fine Arts in 2021. Hashimoto is represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Sydney.
The first iteration of Kyoko Hashimoto: Bioregional Bodies was presented at UNSW Galleries, Sydney in 2021. Kyoko Hashimoto would like to acknowledge the support of Katherine Moline and Zoë Veness at UNSW Art & Design, and the studio support of Guy Keulemans. This research was funded by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.
Bioregional Bodies is showing in Gallery Two at JamFactory Adelaide until 1 May 2022.