About
Maiko Tsutsumi
Thingness — is a quality that evokes in me the sense of presensing, quiet yet alive. My multi-faceted practice explores and engages with this quality through the practices of making, writing, curating, and mentoring.
About me — Maiko Tsutsumi
I studied and apprenticed in woodworking and Japanese lacquer work in Kyoto in the 1990s before moving to London to study furniture design at the Royal College of Art in London. I later completed a practice based PhD The Poetics of Everyday Objects at Kingston University while working in the furniture and product design industry. In 2008, I took on the course leader role for MA Designer Maker at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, which I ran until 2020.
The underlining principle of my practice - making, research, curating, teaching and facilitating - is that of the craftsmanship that I began cultivating during my training in woodworking and Japanese lacquer work in Kyoto, Japan. Predating these trainings, frequent visits to the collection of ethnological objects at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka had a profound impact on me, introducing me to the world of tools, ornaments, instruments that, I felt, carried a powerful presence. To me, this experience firmly placed the act of tool-making - as meaning making in the sphere of humanity.
Ethnological objects, folk objects and architectural details found in all cultures that speak of human ingenuity, and skills involved in their ‘come-to-be’ together with mythologies from around the world continued to be my key creative inspiration.
My curatorial practice has been a platform for me to share my research process with the students who were developing their creative practices. The research, which is on-going, has given me an insight into the workings of creative processes specially those that center around the engagement with materials properties/processes and actions.
The key themes of my research are: material and human agencies; making and problem solving skills, and their relationship to tacit knowing; the role of language (textual and speech) and gestures in creative processes.
I continue to explore these themes in broader societal contexts, with a firm belief in the wisdom of conscious engagement with inherent material qualities and the skills that transform/configure them into meaningful forms.
Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about my work.
I am represented by Corvi-Mora in London, UK.
Contact: info@maikotsutsumi.com
Biography
Education
2003 - 2007 PhD, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, Kingston University, UK
1996 - 1998 MA, Furniture, Royal College of Art, UK
1990 - 1994 BA Craft (Japanese Lacquer Work and Woodcraft), Kyoto City University of Arts, Japan
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Timbre, Walmer Yard, London 2024 Meditations, Corvi-Mora, London 2023 Catalogue of Time, Ken Artspace, London 2022 We Are the Orchard and the Road Leading Past, Momosan Shop, London 2019 Hidden Variables, m2 Gallery, London
Group Exhibitions (Selected)
2025 Wholeness Remnants Fragments, with Bridget Harvey, Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, Surrey 2024 One Last Thing, Momosan shop, London 2024 Four Days in June, Edmund de Waal studio, London 2024 Corvi-Mora at Neither: Shawanda Corbett, Anika Roach, Maiko Tsutsumi, Neither, London 2023 Craft Circularity, Art Workers’ Guild, London 2023 Weightless, Maud & Mabel, Cromwell Place, London 2022 A Space Between, Edmund de Waal studio, London 2022 Eternally Yours: Care, Repair, Healing, Somerset House, London 2022 m2 Artists Recent Works, ASC Gallery, London 2022 The Art of Making, Art Workers’ Guild, London 2019 The Size of Thoughts, White Conduits Projects, Londo 2007 Shibboleth, Dilston Grove, London 2006 London Orbital, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston upon Thames
Curatorial projects
2025 Wholeness Remnants Fragments, Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, Surrey (co-curator/exhibitor) 2018 On the Way to Language, Camberwell Space, London 2015 The Department of Repair, Camberwell Space, London (co-curator) 2013 Thingness: The Collection, exhibition and workshops, Camberwell Space, London (co-curator) 2012 The Laundry Room, BalinHouseProjects, London (funded by the Arts Council England) (co-curator) 2011 Thingness, exhibition and symposium, Camberwell Space, London (co-curator)
Residencies
2021 Four-week funded research residency, Cove Park, Scotland
Media
2024 Getting Making: Care podcast (interviewed by Bridget Harvey) 2024 The Craft School: Material World, Creative Mending, Crafts Council (interviewed by Jo Haywood) 2023 Countercurrent podcast (interviewed by Professor Roger Kneebone) 2023 Things Unseen podcast (interviewed by Lore Windemuth) 2020 Artist talk with Edmund de Waal and Maiko Tsutsumi, [https://blog.skd.museum/en/mediathek/artist-talk-with-edmund-de-waal-and-maiko-tsutsumi/], Library of Exile exhibition, Japanisches Palais, Dresden, Germany
Publications (selected)
2025 Wholeness Remnants Fragments, Farnham, UK, Crafts Study Centre 2024 Appreciating Yanagi, Sori Yanagi Appreciation Society website, [https://syas.uk/appreciating-yanagi] 2024 Meditations, artist book accompanying the solo exhibition Meditations, at Corvi-Mora, London 2023 ‘Theaster Gates: A Clay Sermon’ Exhibition review, The Journal of Modern Craft, Vol. 15, Issue 3 2022 We are the Orchard and the Road Leading Past, an essay, exhibition leaflet, Momosan Shop 2020 ‘Designer Maker Mindsets’ In Research Circle, a publication by Centre for Circular Design edited by Rebecca Earley, University of the Arts London 2018 On the Way to Language, London: Camberwell Space 2016 ‘Seeing and Knowing’, Crafts, No.259, p30, London: Crafts Council 2015 The Department of Repair (Co-editor/contributor), London: Art Lacuna 2014 ‘Social Engagement: The Laundry Room and BalinHouseProjects’, CCW Graduate School directory, London: University of the Arts London 2013 Thingness: The Collection, London: Camberwell Press 2013 The Laundry Room, London: The Everyday Press (Co-editor/contributor) 2011 Co-author, Thingness, London: Camberwell Press
Academic
2020 - 2024 Associate Lecturer, MA Fine Art Digital, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London 2019 - 2021 Associate Researcher, Centre for Circular Design, University of the Arts London 2019 - 2021 Course Leader, MA Designer Maker, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London 2008 - 2019 Pathway Leader, MA Designer Maker (MA Visual Arts), Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London 2013 - 2019 Programme Director (joint role), Postgraduate Programme, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London 2011 - 2014 Contexts tutor/dissertation supervisor, BA Three-Dimensional Design, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London
Visiting lecturing
Lund University, Sweden (MA/BA Design) / Goldsmiths College, University of London (BA Design), UK / University of the Arts Berlin, Germany (Erasmus) / Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland (BA Communication Design) / Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway (Erasmus) / Kingston University, UK (School of Architecture) / Central Saint Martins (BA Product and Industrial Design)
Conference Papers / Lectures (selected)
2021 ‘We Do Not Work Alone: unfolding the quality of experience through a hybrid practice’, Material Matters symposium, City & Guilds of London Art School, London 2018 ‘Thoughts and Utterances in Material Practice: Objects and Words / Thoughts and Actions’, Utsuwa Utsushi symposium, University of the Arts London 2017 Material Engagement symposium, University of Westminster, London 2017 Panelist, Round Table discussion ‘Considering the Status and Context of Craft in Japan and the UK’, City and Guilds of London Art School 2016 ‘Reconfiguring making and design practices: reviewing the meaning of knowledge and skills in socio-cultural contexts’, Undesign symposium, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria 2014 ‘Teaching Thingness in Making’, The Languages of Making: Learning and Craft in Dialogue symposium, Kingston University 2013 ‘What does it mean to be a “materially attuned” practitioner?’ The 2nd Design Research Society / Cumulus International Conference for Design Education Researchers, Oslo, Norway 2013 ’Through Thingness: a world perceived and presented through the “materially attuned” practitioners’, The 10th European Academy of Design Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden